Where have all the wall cabinets gone? Long time passing. When will they ever learn? (With apologies to Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger)

P

Packard

Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2020
Messages
4,750
I was flipping through a home magazine the other day. They featured before and after kitchen remodels.

All the remodels included new floors, paint and lighting. Also new base cabinets and appliances. But all of them had either no wall cabinets (just shelves) or just a few wall cabinets (plus shelves).

When shelves in the kitchen became a “thing” I blithely predicted that the style would be short-lived.

Why are they still doing all or mostly shelves in place of cabinets. They look nice in the magazines (mostly display items, not storage for regular use.

If you have a short-term rental property (vacation house) this can make sense. Having cups and saucers on display on a shelf makes it easy for the renters to find them.

What is keeping this trend alive? It makes no sense to me.
 
Packard said:
I was flipping through a home magazine the other day. They featured before and after kitchen remodels.

All the remodels included new floors, paint and lighting. Also new base cabinets and appliances. But all of them had either no wall cabinets (just shelves) or just a few wall cabinets (plus shelves).

When shelves in the kitchen became a “thing” I blithely predicted that the style would be short-lived.

Why are they still doing all or mostly shelves in place of cabinets. They look nice in the magazines (mostly display items, not storage for regular use.

If you have a short-term rental property (vacation house) this can make sense. Having cups and saucers on display on a shelf makes it easy for the renters to find them.

What is keeping this trend alive? It makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...
Lack of upper cabinets is concerning, more concerning is that every new kitchen I've been in for the last several years, feels like a corporate break room...

E.
 
Personally I like the LOOK of open shelves. That being said I would never have that look in my house. I consider those to ba as impractical as kitchens that have rough stacked stone as a backsplash behind a cooktop. Kitchens have dust and cooktops that get used have grease. I clean the tops of my cabinets twice a year and am surprised at the amount of dust that gets up there, I’m also not one who wants to display those types of things that would be better concealed in cabinets with doors. Others will surely have different thoughts.

Peter
 
Most of the homes we do have a combination of upper cabinets and shelves. The other thing they all have is a prep kitchen/butlers pantry where most of the wall cabinets are. This is all designer driven.

A recent one with no shelves. The opening on the right leads to the prep kitchen.

21 Parade-638.jpeg

One with shelves. Prep kitchen through the opening on the right.

WBush-165.jpeg

We don’t do “corporate break rooms”.

Tom
 
tjbnwi said:
Most of the homes we do have a combination of upper cabinets and shelves. The other thing they all have is a prep kitchen/butlers pantry where most of the wall cabinets are. This is all designer driven.

A recent one with no shelves. The opening on the right leads to the prep kitchen.

View attachment 375370

One with shelves. Prep kitchen through the opening on the right.

View attachment 375371

We don’t do “corporate break rooms”.

Tom
Click to expand...
Stunning work as always!
 
I would note that anything even slightly minimalist is a no-go for me. I love the look. But I would inevitably put more random stuff on them making it look messy.

Shelves in the kitchen look great. Especially if there are a few, carefully curated items on them. But If I were to empty my wall cabinets onto shelves they would look like a mitigated disaster.

(If I never had guests over, it could work. I could live with just one cup, one dinner plate, one bowl etc., but in the real world, it would never work.)
 
In the commercial kitchens I've designed, I typically preferred shelves - just makes it easier to access. Of course, these are typically paired with some kind of pantry or dry storage. But the open design is preferred because the items on the shelves are always working. However, for home, I would prefer cabinets for cleaner sightlines.
 
Kitchen Shelves with most home owners will probably get dirtier and less clean up attention than a Regular Restaurant Kitchen that 'hopefully' cleans often...:sneaky:
That said, my wife tends to over stuff shelves and cabinets, but at least with Cabinets you can't see it until you open the door....
Agree about the grime just getting in many places. We have a 1200CFM hood fan system, so we vent much of our stove's cooking. But most homes I've been in don't have that strong of a vent system for the kitchen, or it's an apartment with no true venting outdoors, just running the stove's air through a filter and back out again. Ours is an 8" round duct up off the stove and directly out the wall.
 
I like the look of shelving but the maintenance is abysmal if you also own pets. I started to go down that path but quickly realized that I needed to do a U-turn.

It's amazing how far dog & cat hair/fur can travel and if you actually cook in the kitchen... 😵‍💫 ...well then the pet hair gets mixed with the cooking vapor and settles on glasses & dishes that need to be run through the dishwasher because dusting doesn't remove the glop.
 
Packard said:
I would note that anything even slightly minimalist is a no-go for me. I love the look. But I would inevitably put more random stuff on them making it look messy.

Shelves in the kitchen look great. Especially if there are a few, carefully curated items on them. But If I were to empty my wall cabinets onto shelves they would look like a mitigated disaster.

(If I never had guests over, it could work. I could live with just one cup, one dinner plate, one bowl etc., but in the real world, it would never work.)
Click to expand...
My wife stayed back home for a few tears until she retired. My “bowls” were the containers cottage cheese came in, the food “storage containers” were also the cottage cheese containers, I had 2 plates, 2 or three glasses, a coffee cup and some flatware I bought. This all changed the first time the wife came out.

I did bring out 2 of my mixers and all of my cake, bundt and bread pans, my cookie sheets, scales, measuring cups and spoons. The All Clads also came with me, my wife has no clue how to use them. The apartment cabinets did not have enough room for my pans.

If I was to do shelves they’d be for displaying my bundt pans, I have about 40 different ones. I’d have more but my brother threw all of my mom’s bundt pans out when we were getting their house ready to sell.

Tom
 
Last edited:
Packard said:
I would note that anything even slightly minimalist is a no-go for me. I love the look. But I would inevitably put more random stuff on them making it look messy.

Shelves in the kitchen look great. Especially if there are a few, carefully curated items on them. But If I were to empty my wall cabinets onto shelves they would look like a mitigated disaster.

(If I never had guests over, it could work. I could live with just one cup, one dinner plate, one bowl etc., but in the real world, it would never work.)
Click to expand...
I love the look of shelves on those nicely staged kitchens on the random home improvement / remodeling shows for sure. But I am also convinced when the cameras are shut off and the crew leaves the shelves are both messy and not nearly as functional as cabinets. We have upper cabinets and I would not have it any other way. Families with young kids at home should stay far away from shelves and the minimalist look. Kids have lots of cups, bowls, small plates, etc that would turn those sleek, clean shelves into a full on disaster in about two days. At least it would have been this way around my house.
 
My first cat, a not-to-far-removed-from-feral Maine Coon Cat, could leap to the top of my refrigerator from a stationary or running start, would have had a field day with open shelves. He used the refrigerator or my tall dresser as a launch site to land on my Doberman while the dog slept. This was apparently great fun for the both of them.

Despite this athletic capability, he never jumped onto my kitchen counters.

I learned early on to keep the the tops of my refrigerator and tall dresser empty, otherwise there was a good chance the cat would knock the stuff to the ground.

Open shelves would have been a disaster.
 
Last edited:
Some people like more light that is provided by less wall cabinets.

Other than that; cheaper to offer, lack of space only becomes apparent later. And designers usually design sh*t people don't want. Same with architects; in general all people dislike "modern" architecture. Except architecture students. The longer they are in the study, the more they deviate from what everyone else wants. And then we let these people design the buildings...

Absolutely no shelves for me. Pain to clean.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top