Design Inspirations · April 21, 2024

This Is the Most Optimal Place for an Open Shelf in Your Kitchen

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limewash kitchen walls
Photography past Jared Kuzia

We take toured hundreds of kitchens, too even though no infinite is really identical, nosotros’ve picked up on a few cardinal similarities, like how the nigh mutual place for an open shelf seems to live over the sink. We’ve spotted long ones that bridge the entire length of a wall, ceiling-mounted drinking glass ones amongst multiple tiers, too fifty-fifty firm forest ones that bisect a window. This setup has been the leading trend—until straightaway. 

Lately nosotros’ve been seeing open up shelves popular up in an unexpected home: to a higher place the stovetop. The thought appears to be all nigh role. Rather than treating it equally a moment to display pretty cookbooks, swirly taper candles, in addition to handmade ceramics, it’sec a perch for the salt together with pepper shakers, cooking fossil oil, and cutting boards. Don’t go us incorrect, in that location’sec notwithstanding the annoying role where y’all take to regularly dust it off (and wipe away cooking grease), just it’sec a skillful pick for avid cooks who want to have the essentials at their fingertips. Here are three riffs on the thought nosotros’re loving.

The Spice Nook

gray modern kitchen
Photography past Federica Carlet

New York City–based designer Karen Asprea carved out a small-scale recessed niche underneath this kitchen’sec paneled vent hood and then the homeowners can keep a curated assortment of seasonings on deck. The jut-out is exactly the depth of a jar, so there is no chance for visual clutter. 

The Backsplash Lip

deep turqoise kitchen
Photography past Tim Hirschmann, Styling past Merisa Libbey

Sally Breer could take left this kitchen’s marble backsplash at 12 inches, capped it with a bullnose border, together with called it a solar day, just instead the L.A. designer created a rim out of the same natural rock so her clients would accept a topographic point to stagger their necessities. 

The Sturdy Ledge

modern gray kitchen underneath staircase
Photography past Alan Tansey

Because of the fashion the stairs protrude into this Brooklyn kitchen, architect Joshua Keay knew he wouldn’t accept a lot of wall infinite left over to become wild alongside shelving. The solution was an asymmetrical organisation, amongst the lowest shelf higher up the range made out of stainless steel. The slab of metal is bolted into the wall, bisecting the rock backsplash, as well as alone about v-sixteenths of an inch thick, but it’sec some x inches deep, and so it can concur daily essentials similar olive oil and spices.