Dust and grease.

Mostly family photos

Well ... if you want to be talked out of it, get a cat. ;-)

No cats for us! RES2 - do the photos get greasy?

Perhaps you are craving the light that comes with an open storage aesthetic (and is a fresh respite for the eye amongst the solid door cabinets). Since grease and dust have been mentioned, perhaps glass door fronts are an option?

I was planning on keeping some spices in one and maybe glasses in the other. I can keep spices in the pantry and I have a drawer for smaller ones. Right now I keep plastic glasses in a lower drawer near the refrigerator and that was the plan at new place. I'll start looking at pictures with glass cabinets and see if I like that as well.

I'm function over form for the kitchen, so my pots and pans and some heavily used spices and lids and a utensil jar are all on the walls next to my range. These are all things that get touched/washed regularly, so not a lot of concern about grease. I have shelves further off (out of the grease zone) for decorative stuff and cookbooks. You have a lot of wall space going on to the sides of the kitchen. I'd skip 'decorating' next to the range and instead go all out with some dazzling art on those walls (plan ahead to light it).

Yes everything will wind up greasy and dusty. Disgustingly so. I would never put open shelves next to a cooktop nor would I put glass cabinets next to a cooktop.

I had glass cabinets next to the cooktop in my rental and they constantly had to be wiped down. Granted my cabinets on either side of my new cooktop in my new house, needs to be wiped down, but it's easier to wipe cabinets than to try and get glass streak free.

It totally depends on how and what you cook. I have glass fronted cabinets on either side of the range in my vacation home. They are fine but most of our cooking there is in the summer and we grill outdoors mostly. In my primary residence I have windows flanking the cooktop and they are also clean since I’m a very neat cook and have a powerful range hood. But I do not have open shelving since I don’t want to dust any more than I already have to!