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I would worry about more dust filtering into my dishes without a door to keep it out. I'd hate to have to re-wash my dishes before use.

I just note how edited and really bare all of these nice looking open cabinets are. Do you really have THAT little? Or conversely, do you have that much closed storage so you can hide everything else?

I've always thought open storage will only work for the stuff you really use every day all the time. If your juice glasses are in constant rotation, they won't get dusty/ grimy so it makes sense to stick them on an open shelf. But those special occasion wine glasses? Not such a good candidate for open storage.

If you only use the top ones and you use them every day not enough dust can get on them for you to need the rewash. Also believe it or not dust settles (albeit a whole lot less) on dishes hidden away in cupboards.

I took the doors out of a couple of cabinets in my kitchen and absolutely love it. Dust is definitely an issue if the dishes are not in constant rotation but I can live with that. I've noticed how fast I put my dishes away now...no doors to deal with.

If you are an avid cook, your dishes will be covered in a sticky film of cooking grease and dust within a month. It will be heaviest near the stove, and get lighter as you move away from fry-grease central.

I cook maybe 4-5 nights a week at home, and when I had open shelving (no chioce, rental), everything was constantly covered in this thin, sticky grease and dust film. It was disgusting.

Food storage works in open shelving when you get rid of the multicolored and varied height of store packaging. Put stuff in mason jars or similar, uniform storage and it looks much calmer than all those competing package colors and logos.

I have open shelving below the counter-- for pots and pans. I cook a lot. Not necessarily big fry-ups, but definitely steam and cookery smells. Yet--no sticky dirty nastiness of which some of you speak on my below counter cookware.

I do store a few giant pots on top of the cabinets right under the ceiling. And yes, those do get a film after months of non-use. I guess steam rises so the higher up something is, the more likely to get tacky?

yes, gretchen - this only happens to stuff above the stove, the lower cabinets aren't affected. I should have been clearer.

I guess I pan fry a lot! And I do love my stovetop grill!

Right. The oils bound up in the water vapor from cooking rises and settles as it cools. A high efficiency hood can reduce the impact. But, when I see Janine's no hood, open shelving kitchen, I know she rarely cooks, or she spends a lot of time cleaning. You will note that her burners are covered. I'm just saying...

Jeanine has an island cooktop, uncovered.

I have open shelves in my kitchen and it drives me crazy how the dust and airbourne grease coats the glassware and shelves. I have glass cannisters on the tops of the cabinets and I have to scrub them down at least every 3 months.

Open shelves are great for kitchens with excellent vent-filtration systems - Otherwise, it's too much trouble.

More stuff to clean = bad...

You will get the film of dust-and-cooking-oil, and that's not very sanitary. Also, I think that it looks distracting with the doors off; much sleeker when everything is put away.

You know I'm all for open shelving in kitchens:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/small-cool-2007-entries/smallest-coolest-kitchen-2007-entry-9-franks-colorful-collection-021510

But a healthy combination of open and closed is good, too -- probably how we'll do out Connecticut kitchen. Stay tuned!

Ditto on the dust and grease.

I love my open shelving in the kitchen. I even like the foodstuffs. Somehow my built-in pantry/hutch had acquired ugly plastic shutters (which I call "shudders") and one day I said, I'm taking the fricken things off and hide them in the closet until I move out. I don't keep a lot of stuff but I don't mind seeing labels organized in their way. Things of different heights work just like books, you know. I know people have systems with their books, and I put things in categories and make them look pretty. My open shelving with the dishes side is sort of in transition. I got some vintage cookbooks from my mother, took some stuff out that I used to think was fun but got tired of looking at it, and for some reason, have ended up with more glasses than any single person needs. In such a small apartment, if I had the right amount of stuff, I don't lack for somewhere to put it all, that's for sure, and there's only one thing better than having stuff that's fine on the eyes, and it's being able to see it all the time.

I have a few cabinets in my tiny rented apartment kitchen and I have a big intermetro shelving unit to offer more storage. I keep my dishes in the cabinets and my food and pots/pans on the shelving. it always frustrates me how neat the cabinets look and how messy the shelves look. I think I am going to take your food in closed dishes in open advice and see how it looks.

hey its Jeanine, I swear (where's that bible) the open shelves weren't edited for the photos. We cook all the time, but our cooktop is on the island, which is pretty far away, so no grease from cooking gets on the shelves. (Quiltmaster, what you are talking about I think is our cutting board which is over the stove but there aren't burners under it).

I really like open shelves, it makes a kitchen so much more breathable. Like Danze said, its also easy to empty the dishwasher or grab a plate without any drawers to open. And all of the everyday dishes, bowls, radio, cups are right there. We actually have ALL of our bowls, plates and cups up there and we use everything. The stuff in the lower drawers are pots, pans, cat food, AA batteries, um, tequila and power tools.

I've always liked a cooktop on the island. Mostly because its nice to face and talk to people when you're cooking, but its also nice to not have the grease get caught in any cabinets overhead. We also have a pretty powerful downdraft fan that raises up like the starship enterprise when you push a button. It comes in handy, especially for bacon.

Truly, every morning I go into the kitchen I still love these shelves. I like looking at stacks of white plates and bowls. And it makes it look less kitchen-y.

Jeanine,

That stove looks like it has a good hood - I bet that helps a lot! I've never had a fancy hood, so open shelving doesn't work as well for me. Your kitchen is beautiful.

(and I think quiltmaster was looking that picture below yours in the post, where there is a stovetop covered by a cutting board, with open shelving directly above the stove - exactly the situation we've mentioned leads to terrible sticky items. Her point is good, though she mixed up whose kitchen was whose....)

oh! I just saw this is a stove only, with no cooktop. I can see why quiltmaster thought it was a regular range, though. since I made the same mistake!

Hi Brenjay,

I know.. its the same size as a stove would be so its confusing!

On our cooktop/island we don't have a hood but we have this industrial fan thing that rises up about 11", it looks like half a wall, or a monolith. It sucks everything downward, through the floor, down the basement and outside. Its hilarious, actually. But it really works!

I think glass front doors give a very similar effect without the dust issues.

I love open shelving...yes, the dust does build up at times on my glassware that is less frequently used but it's nothing a quick rinse does not take care of. I am amazed by how much more open the space feels as a result of losing some of the cabinet doors! I think the approach of having a few cabinets with doors and open shelving would look really great.

I live in a rental with v. little useable covered shelving. I keep my dishes in an open shelving hutch across from the stove. Pots, pans, silverware and most food in the pantry (small room, also open shelving). Glasses, tea, and potatoes/stuff that needs to be in the dark in the cupboards (that's all that will fit!). I haven't noticed anymore dust or oil splatters than I did when everything lived in a cupboard. Everything collects dust, if left unused.