Thanks so much to both of you! We were actually thinking to keep the oven cabinet like you said, jackitriplett and abbycat, thank you for the pics! Your kitchen looks great and has validated what I want to do. Where did you get your shelves? Did you buy them somewhere or have them made? I'm barely in the early stages of planning so any help would be greatly appreciated!

What kind of wood are your cabinets? To me, they don’t look bad and I bet they’d look a lot different if you replaced the floor and counters. I might also look into repainting the walls, changing the lighting fixture on the ceiling and probably put the less decorative stuff on the counters into cabinets. You can repaint the cabinets if that’s what you want, but from what I can see, it doesn’t seem like they need it and some people are saying that wood cabinets are making a come back. Good luck with your project.

Hey Girl_wonder! Thanks so much! I'm not 100% sure what the wood is, but have been told that they are good quality, which is why we are going to refinish them to white. I was originally thinking to also refinish the top ones but saw pics of open shelving and thought it looked pretty cool and might make the kitchen look bigger. We are definitely getting rid of the light fixture and repainting the walls also. It's tough knowing what to do, especially if you have pretty decent cabinets.

chiquita177 The shelves were cut from cherry butcherblock from Floor & Decor. We bought two 8' lengths, and used one for countertop by the range. DH cut the other into shelves, and finished them with 4 coats of waterlox. We found the metal brackets at Eco Relics in Jacksonville.

The open shelving looks nice but just make sure to consider whether you would still have enough storage with just shelves vs the cabinets. Also, keep in mind that open shelves will collect dust, grease, pet hair, etc. Personally, I would keep the cabinets instead of replacing with shelves. Your cabinets look like they’re well made and if you have them painted professionally they will look great in white. I think they look nice as they are, as girl wonder said. Good luck!

I personally think open shelving would look great but just make sure it's practical for your family before you make the ultimate decision. Post pictures of the final product though I'm excited to see your new, beautiful kitchen!

Thanks everyone for the comments! Based on all the feedback, speaking with my husband and looking at more pictures, we've decided to just do 1 wall of open shelving (the one with the stove). I think it will look very nice and dramatic to have the subway tile all the way up to the soffit and the nice big hood in the middle with the open shelving. We are going to keep the upper cabinets with the glass doors and the cabinets around the window. I think that's a good compromise and makes me feel a little more confident about my decision since it's not so risky/bold. I will post pics once the project is done (hopefully in the next 4-6 weeks)

I had a friend who was a pro chef. He had open shelving. But basically everything was used daily, washed, and put back. I think it works in that kind of kitchen. But I would never have them.

Open shelves around a range or cooktop is an invitation for grease.

They can look very attractive, but for me, not so practical.

I think you should not paint the cabinets! They are a pretty wood which is hard to find these days. Also, sometimes painting the cabinets does not turn out so well. Chipping, bleed-throughs, gloppy bits, especially around the raised panels edges. We've seen some beautiful cabinet paint jobs on this forum, and some fails. If you are certain you can do it well, and really want white cabinets, great. But me, I would expend my efforts and money to change the lighting, counters, backsplash, wall color, new sink and faucet. Just MHO.

I like the look of open shelving if you are the conscientious type about not letting them look cluttered. I know I am not, so I would not be a good candidate for open shelves. Also, I have pets, and the pet hair will float gently through the air and into the mugs and bowls, to settle there for when your mother-in-law is over and wants some tea LOL.

my favorite place for open shelving is by the sink and dishwasher... it makes unloading the dishwasher so easy if you can just put everything away without doors. no need to style things... just being neat is all it takes. i love mine.

technically, i have doorless cabinets. which is something you might try before you commit to a redo... just take the doors off the cabinets that you are thinking of getting rid of, and see how it goes.

great idea taking the doors off the cabinets seems to be a smart first step. lets you know if you'll like the look without the demo and cost of replacing with open shelves.

If you do open shelves, near the stove is the last place they should be. Grease will collect on all of the items. Do them by the sink if you must.

I agree with Sina. I’m not a fan of open shelves ( for practical reasons ), but I think they would look best by the sink & would be more practical there.

I don't understand the comments often made here about grease collecting on things exposed in the kitchen. We don't have open shelving, but the things in and around our stove don't accumulate grease. Dust, maybe - but grease? No; it doesn't go flying around when we cook. We may from time to time get a little splatter of wayward food on the subway tile backsplash behind the stove, but that's easy to wipe down. And dust is a quick clean too.

I have open shelving in my kitchen and a dish rack. I've had this set up for three years and I love it! I wouldn't go back to having upper cabinets. The shelves that I use on a daily basis are not an issue for collecting dust, grease, etc. because the items are used very frequently. I wipe the shelves down as needed before I empty the dishwasher. My upper shelves are for items less frequently used, so they do get dusty. I wipe these down when I use the stuff or when I deep clean.

I love that my things stay organized on the shelves which wasn't always the case with cabinets. I also find that the open shelves and fewer cabinets keep me from collecting too much. I did spend time thinking about what I would display on the shelves, because these displays really become art work in your kitchen.

I took the doors off my upper cabinets in my old house to see how I liked the look and to decide if I could really live with so much on display before I made the final decision to go with open shelves.

PS - I have them by my range and no issues with grease.

I think that is a lot of time and money to invest while keeping the cabinets. The lowers could be a thousand times more useful if they had drawers. And a diy paint job is never as durable as a factory finish. I once painted kitchen cabinets in an 8 x 8 kitchen and that was a big job. You have a lot of cabinets. So I would give careful consideration to replacing the cabinets, rather than essentially locking the old ones into place with the new floors and countertop.

Alll that said, your question was about open shelving. I have had open shelving in a kitchen. I like it for regularly used items. I would not like it for display or infrequently used items. I wouldn’t want to add dusting the shelves to my kitchen cleaning obligations.

I would never have open shelving in the kitchen. Open shelving= grease spatters=dust=huge amount of cleaning

(I give up.)

Idaclaire- that’s how I feel. I’m so confused and too many decisions lol. And I’m a Libra so making big decisions is 100 times harder lol

idaclaire, here is what i've noticed... no one ever says 'i had open shelving and they got dirty so i wont do it again'. its always 'no dont do that they'll 100% certainly get dirty based on no personal experience blah blah blah.' the same happens All The Time with people telling me my downdraft ventilation cant possibly work because downdraft ventilation doesnt work because i dont think it will work and what i think is true blah blah blah.

(so which is it folks.... either my downdraft Does Work and thats why i dont have dirt and grime on my open shelves, or it doesnt but i dont get dirt and grime anyway.)

everyone's kitchen is different, perhaps... my last house was dusty, all the time. everyone gets to have their own experience. but telling folks what not to do based on 'what must be true because i think it must be true' just is sort of... not really helpful.

Chiquita177, I understand your confusion and frustration. I just finished a new kitchen, and the decision making was overwhelming. Here's my 2 cents. You will find lovers and haters of open shelving. I personally like them in the right location. In your pics, I think they'd be nice on your sink wall and you'd only be giving up 2 upper cabinets. While I really like white cabinets, I don't think that painting higher quality cabinets like your is either financially wise or aesthetically necessary as they are quite lovely and can work well in your spruced up kitchen. Changes that I'd suggest for biggest bang for the buck are solid white quartz countertops; replacing the floor; repainting; replacing the lighting; and adding a new bright but simple backsplash. It may make sense to do this step-by-step, starting with the smallest or easiest change first like adding the open shelving. Best of luck to you!

I took all the doors off my cabinets in my last house and HATED using the kitchen when we put them back on to sell. That 1930s kitchen didn't even have a hood, and no issues with dust or grease at all.

I then bought my current house from a professional chef, who set up the kitchen with almost entirely open shelving. I'm planning to revise it as the layout is unworkable for me, but no issues with grease. Just some occasional dust on my least-used mixing bowls and baking trays.

Maybe it's because I don't eat meat? We stir fry often. /shrug. Do the outside of people's cabinet doors accumulate grease?

IMHO, open shelves are wonderful.

Start slooooow. Counter tops first. Open shelving? A small dose goes a long way. The two shelves pictured by abby, next to her sink would be THE MOST I would do unless you want to lose a lot of home value. They are a present day FAD and won't stand the test of time. Just taking off the doors as in other pictures, I would avoid. It doesn't look like a finished polished job. A friend's house has been on the market for years due to her taking off all the doors. Her buyers cannot afford new cabinets. It was an EXPENSIVE step into the world of fads. Decreasing storage will almost always bite you when it comes time to sell. Tread lightly. Paint? Well white will always be a classic but I prefer wood. Be sure white is what you love, once there you can't go back. Storage is always a HUGE plus.

Exactly, jslazart! My cabinets don't collect grease either. Personally, I don't think shelves are no more difficult than the cabinet doors to keep clean. Wiping my shelves down takes much less than a minute per shelf and I typically do it about once a week. I definitely have to clean the cabinet doors more often as they tend to get things dripped down them.

I personally find the shelves easier to clean than cabinets because you don't have to contort your body to get in to clean the back of them. Cabinets also need to be wiped down occasionally.

I do eat and cook meat and cook it in my kitchen, the grease isn't an issue on my shelves. It's only a slight issue on my backslash tiles and range hood. This is also quickly cleaned up as soon as it happens because it's easier to clean when it fresh. This is why the I prefer white cabinets, shelves, etc., it is just easier to spot spills.

I also have open shelves in my laundry room, basement bar area and I plan to do them in our small kitchen which is being completed this fall in our basement. I find nothing impractical about them. And I absolutely love working in these beautiful spaces!

We've had the open sheving for a few months now, and we love it. Previously, we had to reach into upper cabinets with narrow openings for daily dishes, and it was a royal pain. The upper cabs also made the kitchen feel cavelike (see "Before" photo above). We started our kitchen project intending only to remove the cabs above the peninsula. But when dh and I looked around and saw the difference it made, we unscrewed the cabs on either side of the window as well. Sure, we may have lost some shelfspace for the ever-growing collection of coffee mugs & water bottles, but we wanted to streamline storage anyway.

We are mostly vegetarian, so no greasy meat cooking on stovetop; dh grills outside for his meat fix. We saute veggies, caramelize onions, and cook vats of spaghetti sauce - and rarely find spatters on the backsplash or surrounding cabinets. I am not too worried about dust. We have cats and their hair is everywhere - no matter what we do. We know to wipe down lesser-used dishes.

While our kitchen is no Christopher Peacock design, we find it to be a functional (drawers!) and pleasant space. Based on the quick sale of our last house (we designed the kitchen with huge windows and no uppers), I am pretty confident we haven't hurt resale. I researched for months on the Georgia MLS - most kitchens in our region are dated or builder grade, with dreary decor and little function. I saw a single kitchen with new subway tile and quartz countertops - it sold fast. In our area, a bright space with updated features and appliances is a rare find. Friends who have seen our results all seem quite envious of our industriousness and style choices.

So, chiquita177, I say make your vision a reality!

I would listen to people's experiences w/what they've had rather than "don't do it b/c this will happen" when it's not a foregone thing. I like open shelving and am considering it for either side of my window above the sink instead of cabinets.

Now, having said THAT, based on MY experiences, *I* don't want to put them above my stove b/c of how utterly grotesque my cabinets look above the stove--I'm not lying they are atrocious. But---whoever built this place back in the 50's thought it was a great idea to put the exhaust up in the ceiling-just a grate looking thing, five feet above the stove. Soooo not useful. And, I'm pretty sure that's why it looks like someone put grease in a squirt bottle and went to town. But, that's enough to make me leery of it when we redo things properly.