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# Open kitchen shelves: an honest guide
- URL: https://haven.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/open-kitchen-shelves-an-honest-guide/
- Published: 2026-07-07T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-07T09:00:00.000Z
- Description: Light, cheap and easy to reach, and a dust trap for anything you do not use every day.
- Author: Ade Okafor
- Tags: Kitchens, #Import 2026-10-02 16:14

Open shelves are one of the most argued-about choices in a kitchen. Some people love them: light, open, everything in reach. Others think they are a dust trap that only works in photographs. We have lived with both, and here is our honest view.

![Everyday plates on an open shelf: they get used, so they never get dusty.](https://haven.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/shelf-dishes.jpg)

Everyday plates on an open shelf: they get used, so they never get dusty.

## What open shelves do well

**They make a small kitchen feel bigger.** Wall cupboards are heavy boxes at eye level. Replacing them with one or two shelves opens the wall and lets light reach the worktop.

**They are cheaper.** A good oak shelf and two strong brackets cost a fraction of a row of wall cupboards.

**They make things easy to find.** Guests can find a glass without opening six doors.

## What they do badly

**Dust and grease.** Anything you use less than once a week will collect a fine layer of both, especially near the hob.

**They show everything.** Mismatched mugs, half-empty packets and the plastic box you have been meaning to throw away are all on display.

**They hold less.** One shelf holds about a third of what a wall cupboard holds.

> Open shelves are not storage. They are a display of what you use every day.  
>  
> **Ade Okoro**

## How to make them work

The rule we follow is simple: only things you use every day go on open shelves. Plates, glasses, mugs, a few bowls, the oils you cook with. Those get washed so often that dust never settles. Everything else goes behind doors.

![Glass jars for things used daily: rice, oats, coffee. The rest goes in a cupboard.](https://haven.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/shelf-jars.jpg)

Glass jars for things used daily: rice, oats, coffee. The rest goes in a cupboard.

Place shelves away from the hob, or fit a good extractor fan. Grease rises, and shelves directly above a cooker will need cleaning every week.

## Materials

| Material     | Good for                     | Watch out for               |
| ------------ | ---------------------------- | --------------------------- |
| Oiled oak    | Warmth, strength             | Needs re-oiling once a year |
| Painted wood | Matching the walls           | Chips at the edges          |
| Steel        | Heavy loads, modern kitchens | Fingerprints                |
| Stone        | Very heavy items             | Needs strong fixings        |

## A middle way

Many of the kitchens we visit use both: wall cupboards on one side, a single open shelf on the other, usually by a window. It gives you the lightness without giving up the storage.

💡

Before you commit, take the doors off one wall cupboard for a month. You will know quickly whether you like living with it.

#### How deep should a kitchen shelf be?

About 25 centimetres for plates and glasses. Deeper shelves collect things at the back.

#### What brackets hold the most?

Steel brackets screwed into studs or masonry. Hidden brackets look neat but hold less.