My floating shelves in my bathroom are a cover that is attached to a bracket that is drilled into studs. I could sit on the shelves & that would hold me. They are real wood.

To answer question at face value: Do what you want, just make sure to have the correct brackets for supporting the load. As long as the solid piece of wood is thick enough and not rotten, it'll hold the dishes just fine and look cool. You could sand and stain the wood to be whatever color.

Now I must ask: Do you have a proper extractor fan that vents outside? The idea of having dishes out in the open horrifies me because of all the grease in the air (that has to come land on a surface eventually). We moved into our fixer upper house with three tiny cabinets in the kitchen and no range hood with fan. Dishes went into the cabinets. Pots and pans and stuff can just deal until we remodel.

queenvictoria. I have open shelves next to a stove and even with an extractor fan things on it that aren't washed regularly get greasy. It's not a big issue and I prefer the openness and convenience of the shelves over a cupboard. The crockery obviously gets washed a lot so grease isn't an issue and I make sure I wipe the shelves and items like the books, pepper grinder and other containers down regularly.

Jeff has good points about cleaning. I know this is not a topic to critique Jeff's kitchen, above, but it makes such a good example, I'm going to use it. Maybe it's just me, but those open shelves shout, "unfinished kitchen." If I were looking at buying Jeff's house, I would ask for a $10,000 concession to cover the cost of remodeling the kitchen.

The open restaurant shelves and the sparing use of upper cabinets in the rest of the kitchen were conscious decisions to give the kitchen a less "built in" look and as a nod to the 1920's vintage of my home. Some will like it, others will want more cupboards and feel that the shelves are a bit of a compromise. I like the practicality of the shelves as I can get to things I use during cooking very easily without having to open doors and I don't mind the weekly wipe down. I also did not put cupboards around the fridge and one regret I have is that I would have rather put a large furniture dresser next to it rather than the built-ins.

I think the OP will enjoy open shelving as long as it is firmly screwed into structure like a stud or blocking. Steel. real wood or laminated plywood, MDF, will all work fine, but be sure to avoid particle board.

Laminate, instead of veneer, will withstand the cleaning regimens needed much better. Look at Wilsonart‘a and Formica’s collection of wood look laminate. There are great reclaimed wood looks there, without worrying about the reality of insects, molds, and chemical contaminations present in real reclaimed wood.

I do not love open shelves in kitchens the stuff on them gets greasy and dusty I don’t have an issue with reclaimed wood but really closed storage with glass doors makes a lot more sense.The proper supoort will hold whatever you want and IMO reclaimed or wood veneered should make no real difference.

I use cupboards for long term storage of things like tinned food, flour etc and other things that I don't use very often. I prefer open shelves for everyday plates, bowls and cups, tea and things I always cook with like salt and pepper and a few spices. They are in immediate reach without having to open a door and I wipe things down before they get greasy of dusty. In professional kitchens shelves are used for items that are in constant use because it's a bit more efficient, it certainly requires a bit more cleaning, but it makes cooking better for me.

...wood veneer stained to the color of my choosing so its lighter and can support more plates/cups/glasses.

Perhaps, OP misunderstood. Plywood (NOT particle board/ mdf, etc.) can span a greater distance between supports than solid wood, generally speaking.

I wouldn't use wood veneer open shelving because of issues with water and scrubbing grease. Stainless steel or laminate on plywood. Not melamine on particle board.

Solid wood can warp, cup, twist, split...more likely to do as an open shelf than if it is 'nailed down'.

There are some terrific looking plastic laminates (Formica/ Wilsonart) out there. Practically bulletproof.

If I were looking at buying Jeff's house, I would ask for a $10,000 concession to cover the cost of remodeling the kitchen.

OTOH, I would be ga-ga over the pro range, the range hood, soapstone counters, window/ door casing and inset cabinetry and thinking that I could add some wall cabinets for +/- $2K IF I decided that I really needed them. IMO, lovely kitchen and appropriate for the house.

DS was house shopping earlier in the year--really deplorable kitchens are the norm. Even many of the ones touted as recently remodeled. A lot of lipstick on pigs that didn't do anything to fix what was really broke. Horrible layouts/ horribly small, etc. Jeff's kitchen is a gem. DS would love it.

dchall_ in my opinion, when people buy houses they are always looking for a way to lower the offer, so kitchen cabinets (or lack thereof) are just one way to support a lower offer. I (and many others) love the more open kitchens. I personally find rows of upper cabinets very off-putting. I had a home with exceptionally few top cabinets that still sold at the best price per square foot in the area at that time. A great floorplan, tons of windows and natural light etc. For me anyways, there is so much more to a home beyond the kitchen. The overall floor plan is critical--- adding extra cabinets is exceptionally easy, but expensive and difficult to overcome an unfortunate floor plan.

Personally, I really dislike buying a home where the kitchen has just been renovated or where the kitchen is huge. We actually do a lot of cooking, if I were guessing, way more than average but we just prefer the functional kitchen. And for reasons unknown to me, I just don't have a lot of grease flying around (thank goodness)... I put it down to not much deep frying and covering pans while cooking.

Anyways, I just think that everyone has a different style, and none are wrong :) I appreciate nice designs, even though they may not be my personal "style."

Yes, plywood is better structurally than solid wood and if you are going to paint the shelves than I'd use it or MDF, but we are just talking about some kitchen shelves here so the load won't be enormous. I think the critical thing is to plan for the number and fixing of the brackets or cleat etc

ci_lantro, thanks for the comments and great eye on the soapstone and inset cabinet doors and draws.

Kitchen shelves need to support a LOT of weight. They are a lot more than "just .... some kitchen shelves" A set of 10 plates can be 20 pounds, and much of the standard floating shelf hardware out there has a 50 lb limit. That includes the shelf too. So, you have to add that weight, and now you only have room for a couple of cups if you have a whole stack of plates on the shelf. Look at the really heavy duty shelving brackets that dog into the studs for kitchen shelves. A 75 lb limit is more what you want, but that is only if the shelves are not over 36" long. Longer will need even more robust, like a 150 lb hardware rating.

To minimize grease & steam (moist) from landing on your shelves & dishes (and forming gunk when dust, etc., lands on top of the moist/greasy surfaces), be sure your overhead range hood is sized and installed correctly as well as vents to the outside. This means:

• At least 6" wider than your cooking surface
• At least 24" deep as well
• Installed no higher than recommended (usually around 30" above the cooking surface)
• Exterior venting, not recirculating
• Overhead hood, not downdraft

FOGSS (Fumes, Odors, Grease, Smoke, Steam) expand outward as they rise -- which means if your hood is too small or too high up, the hood cannot capture the FOGSS to vent them out.

I, also, am not a fan of open shelving b/c of the maintenance upkeep, the need to keep everything perfectly neat all the time, and the need to be sure everything that's out in the open is color coordinated.

However, many people like them, so if you are one of those, do it! Just be sure your shelves can handle the load and the Kitchen is designed to handle open shelving.

I use a grease guard with my frying pan, but I'm not great at using my range hood...it's pretty powerful, but it's also noisy so I have to be making a lot of fumes before it get's turned on.

I worried about the look of my cabinets and appliances when I bought them, but I never worry about what's on my shelves or how they look. The stuff up there gets used every day and so it goes into the most convenient place and color coordination is very low down on my priorities.

dchall_san_antonio

Fishing for someone else's money much? Pay for the cabinets you want yourself. Personally, I don't understand spending your own money to do something you don't like just because a future buyer might want it/like it. You want it done, pay for it yourself.