When the Wall Street Journal declared open shelves in the kitchen as one of the most impractical design trends of the decade, we know at least one homeowner in the Wayland area read that and said “See! I told you so!”
Open shelves divide people in a way few kitchen design options can. Some people love them. They derive great joy from seeing the colorful stack of plates, the neatly arranged mugs, the wine glasses that sparkle in the sunlight that comes through the perfectly clean, freshly washed windows…you get the picture.
And other people think about open shelving in the kitchen and experience great anxiety at the thought of keeping open shelves clean and organized. Having one more maintenance task to keep track of does not spark joy for everyone.
It turns out that some of the people who thought they were the first type of person had open shelves integrated into their kitchen design only to discover at this point that they’re really the second type of person. If your open shelves are stressing you out, we have good news for you: you don’t have to live with them forever.
Kitchen renovation projects don’t have to be full-sized. There’s no rule that says you have to change every single aspect of your kitchen when it’s time to freshen the space up. You can work with your Wayland kitchen designer to keep the elements you love – let’s say the flooring, the countertops, or the appliances – and fix those problem areas that are stressing you out.
For example – let’s consider those open shelves. Some homeowners know they absolutely want to replace open shelving with cabinetry. But that’s not the only solution to this issue. A great kitchen designer will work with you to get to the root of the problem and determine what your full range of options are. In some cases, the issue with open shelves is that they’re undersized for the family’s storage needs. Providing additional concealed storage space – perhaps in the form of a pantry, perhaps with built-in storage in an island – reduces the amount of objects that need to be stored on the open shelves, which can make caring for those spaces less overwhelming.
