Planning A Kitchen Wall Full Of Tile & Open Shelves

We have mentioned having a backsplash + open shelving + range hood idea a few times without much elaboration, so here is the full monty explanation: we in short want to create a counter to ceiling accent wall of backsplash tile with open shelves and a range hood going on. This Sarah Richardson kitchen is especially appealing to us when it comes to the tile choice (we enjoy white subway tile, but we are thinking we might do something a little less white since our cabinets will be going white and we do not want to fully whitewash the whole room).

Now I will read your mind in a move I like to call “David Blaine-ing” you. You are thinking the following things:

1. What type of tile are you going to use?
2. What type of range hood?
3. What color will your shelves be?
4. Will they be floating or have brackets?
5. Will not open shelves get dusty and full of grease?

Allow me to address those questions below:

1. Not sure yet
2. Not sure yet
3. Not sure yet, but most likely white like the cabinets
4. Not sure yet, but for the moment we are leaning towards floating
5. We have asked friends who have them and their short answer is no, but it is simply one of those to-each-his-own things. Allow me to elaborate:

We are not going to have open shelving everywhere and zero cabinetry with doors. We will have plenty of base cabinets and some closed uppers to stash not-so-fairly stuff out of sight. As for the one eight foot wall that we are excited to smack with a range hood, some open-shelving, and counter to ceiling tile, we did a little “research” before committing. We know two distinct couples who both have one wall of open shelves above their stove with a range hood… and they both enjoy it. When we asked them if they got greasy or covered with steam they both looked at us weirdly and said “we have a range hood.” Apparently up-to-date range hoods have better suction than over-the-stove microwaves (which we should know since we had one in the last house but never in fact stopped to think about it). So if you use them when you cook they should suck up the steam and grease and all that stuff without any issues of it somehow migrating up and to the left or right around the hood and mysteriously landing on the cabinets.

We also asked about dust. Again they had similarly no-biggie answers. One couple said they use their shelves to store items they use so frequently that they do not have time to sit around getting dusty (ex: plates are used and washed and then stashed back up there and used again in rapid succession – so they do not sit for weeks on end without getting touched thereby becoming furry). The other couple said they simply like the look more than they hate dusting, so they do not mind wiping things down with a duster every few weeks for the trade off of a light open look and straightforward-access to items that are not tucked away behind closed doors.

Then we headed over to Layla’s journal since she has open cabinets and read what she had to say about them. Here is a big post all about it, but this quote at the end fairly much summed up her take: “Think you cannot have open cabinets because it is too dusty where you live? It is dusty in Alabama too! (cough, cough) We use the dishes in our open cabinets every day though, so they typically do not have time to grow sweaters. If something does happen to collect a little dust, we simply give it a swift rinse before we use it.”

And because we are complete weirdos who do not know when to stop, we also heard from readers who have open shelving in their kitchens and this is what they had to say:

• “We installed open shelving last September and I do not regret it one bit. I only get up there and dust about once a month and I simply crank up the music and make the most of it. In fact, we are working on building a third row of shelves because I have so much fairly stuff to put out!” – Betsie
• “We have three cats and some open shelving. Has not been a problem.” – Caroline
• “I have open shelving by default, but I have come to like it. It shows off how your dishes match your kitchen, and keeps you accountable to only having what you NEED.” – Carrie
• “I only have open shelving in the kitchen and enjoy it. It does not get as dusty/greasy as you might imagine. I enjoy being able to display all the pleasant kitchen things I have. I have a separate space for the not so pleasant stuff. “- Debe
• “I have open shelving with regularly used items and closed cabinets with rarely used items and the rarely used items in the cabinets are the ones that get the most dusty and need a rinse before use. So it is not like cabinets keep things that sit around from getting dusty!”

All of a sudden this post is sounding like an infomercial, huh? Before you know it I will be trying to show you simply how much water my Especially Shammy can hold (picture my head on that dude’s body trying to sell you an remarkable liquid holding cloth).

But truly the point of sharing our “research” on the subject of open shelving is not to convert anyone (we simply babble about the choices that we make along the way, Hands-on-diary-style). So if it is not your thing, it is not your thing. I am sure there are folks out there who hate their open shelving, we simply happened to hear from a ton of people who had nothing but strong things to say. In the end, when it came down to figuring out what we hoped to do with our kitchen, we simply had to… do what we hoped! Haha. So some open shelving and some closed upper cabinets fit the bill. But we hereby solemnly vow to keep it real with you folks. If after a month of use (or a day or a year) we start to hate the choice of open shelving (or anything else for that matter) of course we will tell you! And we will share whatever we decide to do to change things. Oh and when we make any final decisions about the backsplash tile and the range hood we will certainly spill those beans.

Pssssst- This morning I am over on BabyCenter keeping you posted (as promised) when it comes to how our house is changing thanks to Clara. Let us simply say we are adding storage galore for all those toys and blocks and books and balls…