If you had a chance to check out my blog post last week for Breathe Magazine, then you know that I have kitchens on my mind…One big kitchen trend I’ve been wanting to try out is open shelving. Although it can sometimes read a bit country and traditional for our tastes, I’ve seen designers bring it into the modern age based on what they display. Clean white dishes, stainless steel appliances, wicker baskets, stacks of cookbooks with brightly colored spines and white ceramic animals all equal perfection in my book.
Source: Young House Love
Source: decor8
Source: cupcakes for breakfast
The only problem is that I really don’t relish the idea of removing an entire cabinet from the wall, mostly because our cabinets have a crown molding detail at the top and removing a cabinet would necessitate a trip to my dad’s house to saw it down. That’s more of a headache then I care to deal with at the moment.
But Pinterest to the rescue again when, while searching “kitchen open shelving,” I noticed that people were achieving a similar look just by removing a cabinet door – I’m sold.
Source: SAS Interiors
Source: Apartment Therapy
Source: Better Homes and Gardens
So the first thing I did was choose my cabinet. I decided on one of the outliers so that, if I ever do get the gumption to remove the cabinet entirely, it would make the most sense to take one down that’s away from the others. (Oh and you can see that crown molding detail I was talking about earlier in the photo below)
This particular cabinet is used to hold our cups and mugs, but all were easily moved into the cabinet next to the fridge – It’s actually more convenient that way anyway. By taking the door down, we did inevitably lose our corkboard message center, but that’s okay. We can always redo that project on another door – No harm, no foul.
I won’t bore you with the process of removing a cabinet door as it’s pretty self-explanatory (unscrew the screws holding the hinge to the cabinet frame). We were lucky that our cabinet hinges were just screwed right into the frame without any kind of chiseled groove to nestle into – This would have meant a lot of puttying and wood filler. No need to do so for our newly-opened cabinet! Phew.
Like my inspiration images, I liked the idea of incorporating some baskets to store things in. I picked up these two from Wal Mart for around $2 each. They were perfect to store all of our coffee materials.
Next up? The pretty stuff…I went through our dishes and the bookshelf I keep in the kitchen and picked out some of the more colorful and attractive pieces to display. We ended up with a good collection of cookbooks, my recipe box, a white cow cream dispenser, and my set of vintage etched champagne glasses.
And here’s the (semi) finished product!
I say “semi” because I’d like to wallpaper the inside of the cabinet to make the open shelves look intentional. For the past few days since I opened it up, John and I are constantly walking over to close the door only to realize that it’s not there. I think some patterned paper will make the space seem more like a display then a cheap alternative to open shelving. I tried to paint the inside, but the walls are actually fake wood on which paint just beads up. I think some pretty paper will do the trick.
Oh and I have a surprise for you! We have finally started our complete kitchen overhaul. Get ready for lots of posts on sanding, priming, painting and more painting to come. Over the past two days, John and I have prepped the entire space for paint by sanding and then priming the cabinet frame and doors. I put two coats of the top color (dark espresso brown) on the island last night and we are super giddy about knocking this project OUT. We are hoping to be finished with the painting by Sunday, ready for that reveal next week. Then comes the fun finishing pieces – hardware, new kitchen window curtains and lighting, (possibly a backsplash) etc.
Hope everyone had a fun weekend and that you enjoy your Monday! At least try to make the most of it 🙂
