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Planning A Kitchen Wall Full Of Tile And Open Shelves

We’ve mentioned having a backsplash + open shelving + range hood idea a few times without much elaboration, so here’s the full monty explanation: we basically 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 love white subway tile, but we’re thinking we might do something a little less white since our cabinets will be going white and we don’t want to completely whitewash the whole room).

Open Shelves Tile Ceiling3

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. Won’t 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’re leaning towards floating
  5. We’ve asked friends who have them and their short answer is no, but it’s just one of those to-each-his-own things. Allow me to elaborate:

We’re not going to have open shelving everywhere and zero cabinetry with doors. We’ll have plenty of base cabinets and some closed uppers to stash not-so-pretty stuff out of sight. As for the one eight foot wall that we’re 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 different couples who both have one wall of open shelves above their stove with a range hood… and they both love 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 actually 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 don’t 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 don’t sit for weeks on end without getting touched thereby becoming furry). The other couple said they just like the look more than they hate dusting, so they don’t mind wiping things down with a duster every few weeks for the trade off of a light open look and easy-access to items that aren’t tucked away behind closed doors.

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

Layla Open Shelving

And because we’re complete weirdos who don’t 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 don’t regret it one bit. I only get up there and dust about once a month and I just crank up the music and make the most of it. In fact, we’re working on building a third row of shelves because I have so much pretty stuff to put out!” – Betsie
  • “We have three cats and some open shelving. Hasn’t been a problem.” – Caroline
  • “I have open shelving by default, but I’ve 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 love it. It doesn’t get as dusty/greasy as you might imagine. I love being able to display all the nice kitchen things I have. I have a separate space for the not so nice 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’s 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’ll be trying to show you just how much water my Super Shammy can hold (picture my head on that dude’s body trying to sell you an amazing liquid holding cloth).

But really the point of sharing our “research” on the subject of open shelving isn’t to convert anyone (we just babble about the choices that we make along the way, DIY-diary-style). So if it’s not your thing, it’s not your thing. I’m sure there are folks out there who hate their open shelving, we just happened to hear from a ton of people who had nothing but great things to say. In the end, when it came down to figuring out what we wanted to do with our kitchen, we just had to… do what we wanted! Haha. So some open shelving and some closed upper cabinets fit the bill. But we hereby solemnly vow to keep it real with you guys. 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’ll tell you! And we’ll 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’ll definitely spill those beans.

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

Comments

  1. sara says

    Love the open shelving. I can’t wait until I own a house and can display all my pretties everyday! But I have to say, Sherry, if you really want a successful career in an info-mercial you MAY want to look into waxing those arms of yours ;)

    Reply

  3. [email protected] says

    I still am a little skeptical about the open shelving (though I know you guys will make it look awesome- I am just a total clutter-phobe), but you managed to sell me on the hood over the range as opposed to the over-the-range microwave! I have to say though, we rented a house at the beach this summer with open shelving and it was SO convenient having all of the everyday dishes RIGHT there.

    Reply

  4. Micha says

    Open shelving in the kitchen rocks :o) I built some shelves just a few weeks ago and they make me happy every time I walk into the kitchen! I cook home-cooked meals every day and haven’t noticed a grease problem so far …

    Reply

  6. Firesparx says

    OK, I know this post is about open shelving but I’d thought I’d throw in my 2 cents about your range hood. (Qualifier: I’m a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Engineer and we just built a new house last year). Yes, any range hood you buy will be infinitely better than the over-the-range-microwave. Even a hamster running in a wheel over your stove would be better (though not as hygienic).

    I recommend you buy the QUIETEST fan your budget will allow. No sense having a good air-moving range hood if you never use it because it’s noisy (I can speak from experience at our old house here!) When you buy range hoods the fans can either be located inside (most common) or outside (puts the noise outside too). Our new house is open concept so we put our fan outside. There will be some extra electrical work if you go to an outside fan (need wiring from the fan to the controls above your stove). If at all possible, I also recommend adding a silencer to the ductwork. It’s like the muffler on your car. We didn’t and I wish we did. Our fan is pretty silent because we mostly use it on low speed, but when the bacon gets away from me and I need high speed it’s louder than I would want. I’m kicking myself over not getting a silencer.

    Sorry to get all Ventilation Nerdy on you there!

    Reply

  7. Sarah says

    Ha – you stopped me before I could even open my mouth about dusty shelves. I stand corrected. *sweeps off hat and bows* Couldn’t happen in this house thanks to severe dust allergies (we have to dust everything early, often, and thoroughly so ease is the name of the game) but I’m sure it’ll look great in your house! So fun to make plans for a new room!

    Reply

  8. Gabrielle Miller says

    I love the open shelves. The hubby doesn’t. bummer. We have a dusty house(we leave the doors and windows open most days) and we need a lot of storage for our small house. So I’ll give up the look I love for something more practical.

    Reply

  9. Robin @ our semi organic life says

    I LOVE THIS! I do wonder if it was my own kitchen that is if this will hugely date it. Ya know like big poofy sleeves on a wedding dress automatically dates that marriage. Not a huge issue but I wonder if open shelving with white tile is the “it” thing and will change in 5 years.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think if you only did open shelving it might be an issue, but out of a U-shaped room, as long as you have two walls of upper cabs I think one wall of floating shelves shouldn’t be too specific or dated looking. I have tear sheets from Elle Decor and House Beautiful from ten years ago with open shelving! So I guess they’re a fairly classic choice if you go with classic colors/materials.

      xo,
      s

  10. Jane says

    Open Shelving definitely depends on the kind and amount of cooking that is done. For us Indians we cook every single day and it a lot of spices /oil like mustard seeds popping. So there’s no way in hell we could do open shelving. Even with closed cabinets the outsides gets greasy once in a while have to keep wiping them down. This kind of shelving will only work with kitchen that don’t do too much “Cooking”. Just my two cents :)

    Reply

  11. Debbie says

    we have open shelving on one wall in the kitchen of our ND home. i use it to showcase our mod style spice jars, balsamic vinegars, olive oils we brought back from italy, hardback cookbooks, some kitchen related knick-knacks, our hand painted wine glasses & a couple baskets from pottery barn that hold our cloth napkins. i run a swiffer over it every couple weeks & i never see any dust accumulation.

    Reply

  12. Paula K says

    I have two rows of open shelves and love them. It’s where I get to put the pretty glasses and bowls I’m so excited to buy and then hate to hide the in the cupboards. And dust isn’t a problem…especially since I’m only 5’2″ and can’t see it on a daily basis anyway;) My range hood vents outside-which I think does help a lot too.

    Reply

  13. Jennifer says

    The third kitchen is a huge inspiration of mine too. I even emailed her about not having the granite backsplash. Everyone I know has an open sink area (not a wall behind it) and I wanted to know what they did for protection against water! My kitchen won’t be so beautiful and big but it was a starting point!
    Now that the tops are in (seriously, they just left!!) we’ll be right behind you on the wall tile (not all the way up and we have NO idea what to do, thinking subway) and some open shelving?
    Best of luck!

    Reply

  14. Lilly says

    Just make sure the accent wall of tile has enough to support all that tile. I don’t fully know the story because I was 2, but my mom ran into issues when my parents had the bathroom re-tiled. My dad insisted on floor-to-ceiling tile (which was not normal then I guess because the guy doing it thought my parents were nuts?). But my dad was convinced that a mouse had gotten in along the pipes in that bathroom so the floor-to-ceiling tile (including the closet) was really him building a fortress.

    I just know the guy had to do it in two stages because as you built up on the wall the tile got heavy and would push down too much on the lower tile. If nothing else enjoy a laugh at the idea of a mouse-proof fortress made of tile (which didn’t work by the way.)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks for the tip Lilly! We did tile to the ceiling in our shower a few years back so we remember doing it slowly in stages from bottom to top so everything stayed in place!

      xo,
      s

  15. Josh says

    Here’s a thought on open shelving. I love the way everything looks when nicely arranged on my open shelves – I have mostly nice-looking serving dishes and such on display. But I use those things when I host a dinner party, and when people arrive and all those nice pieces are in use, the open shelves look barren and strange. Since everyone hangs out in the kitchen, it seems to me that they must notice this, or at least miss out on how nice the shelves look with everything on them. Just keep this thought in mind when deciding what to put on your shelves!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, very interesting point! Maybe in those times I’ll toss up some leaning pictures or baskets or potted plants or something temporary to keep it from looking bare! I’ll have to keep ya posted as we live with it to see how it all shakes out.

      xo,
      s

  18. Hannah says

    I like the idea of open shelving too, because we end up spending so much time opening up the same cabinet door to take out and put away the same dishes. Why not completely remove that unnecessary step? It wears down the cabinets unevenly if you have one or two doors that you’re opening a dozen times a day.

    I love when you post “thought process” posts like this, because we get to enjoy your kitchen makeover in real time, instead of waiting for a “before and after” post when it’s finished.

    Reply

  19. Teresa says

    I am excited to see what you guys do with this. I love open shelving, and I am curious what you choose to tie this in with the rest of your house.

    And my first thought about the grease – you guys tend to be pretty healthy eaters from what I have seen(?? I may be wrong lol) and grease is probably not part of your every day cooking. So even if a little grease gets up there, long open shelves should be a snap to wipe down. Just my thoughts on it, no experience here though.

    Reply

  21. Jodi says

    Am I the only one who noticed the first few pictures all had the same green water/tonic bottles on either the shelves or counter. So, the question is…will you sport the bottles as well? The bottle does go with Sue :)

    Reply

  22. Jordan G @ The Happy Homebodies says

    When we were sprucing up our old kitchen, I took the faces off two cabinets so we could have a little bit of open shelving. I LOVE it! I agree with the person who said they use their dishes so much that they don’t get dusty– that’s what happens with ours, too. I purposely registered for white dishware at our wedding so I could display it in my open shelves, and it’s working out great. You’re going to love it!

    http://www.thehappyhomebodies.com/2011/02/kitchen-cost-summary.html

    Reply

  23. sarah says

    we put open shelving in our kitchen last year- and we have an over the range microwave hood! (open shelves are right next to it too) We haven’t had any problems with grease, and I wipe the shelves down anytime I wipe my counters off, it never feels like a big deal, just part of the cleaning game. we only keep items on there that we use frequently and have never had a problem with dust! Good luck!

    Reply

  24. Rachel @ We Heart Minnesota says

    Love the inspiration pictures. You are much braver than me. The pressure to have beautiful dishes that are always organized would probably get the best of me. I would like to think I could pull it off, but I delight in my ability to hide everything behind those cabinet doors. I’m excited to see what you decide on.

    Reply

  25. apronless says

    We are in the middle of a kitchen redo that is almost exactly what yall want to do. (Some old photos here: http://www.apronless.com/2011/01/27/and-by-character-i-mean-problems/) We contemplated subway tile all the up the wall, but wanted to have the option of changing paint color if we wanted to or for resale incentive. We know this isn’t our forever home, so we’re OK with making concessions like that.

    I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of dishes that I wanted out so the floating shelves needed to be able to take a lot of weight and dishes get heavy fast. Since our house is 100+ years old, the studs in the wall are weird and it got hairy with finding studs to support the shelves. We ended up having floating shelves made that had a framework of reinforcement on the inside to help with the weight distribution for the wall that was less than studly.

    LONG STORY LONG, brackets are helpful if you run into stud problems or have especially heavy dishes. I thought I would pass that along since it was something that we didn’t spend a ton of time thinking about apart from visual impact that actually mattered more than that.

    Reply

  26. From Scratch says

    Love open shelving! I didn’t realize that the range hoods were so good these days. One question- does it make a difference whether your shelves start below the hood or above? I’m not worried about dust, but grease building up on my dishes.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I would imagine it would definitely help if your shelves started at range height or higher (just so stuff doesn’t hit them before it gets sucked into the hood).

      xo,
      s

  28. Alicia says

    I’m trying to picture what your plan is in my head and am having trouble. Are you planning to do open shelving on the wall where you’ve now moved the fridge, so people aren’t smacked with the “wall of cabinets” when they enter through the front door, or doing open shelving on the wall where you’ve moved the floor to ceiling pantry and are planning to put the oven/stove? I think it’s the latter, which seems like a fairly small bit of open shelving, (like just enough for the daily dishes and a few pretty pieces) given the size of your kitchen, and will put shelving in a place where you haven’t had it before (well, you had that desk/cabinet that you removed), thus giving you more kitchen storage!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Open shelving will go above where the stove will go (where the current cooktop and too-low microwave are – not the same wall as the pantry). That way from the peninsula and the cozy corner when you look back into the kitchen part of the room you’ll have a nice focal point. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  30. Kristina says

    Anyone on the West Coast have open shelving in their kitchen? I like the look of it, but would be so scared to lose everything in an earthquake. At least with cabinet doors, you can put latches on them so stuff doesn’t fly out during an earthquake. Especially all my china (which was handed down to us from my husband’s grandfather)…I would love to display that, but it’d be the last thing I’d want to break!

    Reply

    • Amanda says

      As a disaster coordinator I’m happy to weigh in on this one… If you are in an earthquake prone area I would recommend not getting open shelving… unless you want to replace all your dishes following an earthquake. If you just want to display china but don’t use it regularly I think you could do open shelving and secure the china to the shelves with museum putty so that it would stay put during an earthquake (I did this with some antique tea cups when I lived in CA). However, in general open shelving is a bad idea if you live in a place that gets earthquakes regularly. I recommend cabinet doors WITH latches if you live in those areas.

    • Meg says

      Absolutely what Amanda said. I can’t even imagine the mess after the March earthquake here in Japan if the china and glassware hadn’t been behind latched cabinet doors. I love the look of open shelves (so common in the Ikea catalogs), but, sadly, will have to forgo them. :(

  31. Carolyn H. says

    We have open shelving in our kitchen (kind of like your picture #3). I love it, and it hasn’t been a problem. Amazingly, it took us some time to learn how we wanted to use it. When we moved into our house, we (for some reason) put ugly-but-useful things on the shelves. Then, we learned that we could store our everyday dishes there. Perfect. I love my dishes. I have a rule: ugly stuff in the cabinets and pretty dishes out on the shelves. It looks great.

    Reply

  35. Kate says

    I can’t wait to see what you guys do! Your ideas sound really neat, so I’m excited to see the progress once it startes going. I love what you’ve done so far!

    There’s a part of my that really wants to tile our kitchen backsplash this winter (our house currently has no backsplass, it’s just painted) but then I hestiate because I’m not sure on color. Maybe this winter I’ll at least get some samples to consider over the winter!

    Reply

  36. Carissa says

    You guys are so fun.

    For the record, we have impromtu open shelving in our kitchen (one day I just moved an old bookcase in there after it outgrew its original home in the family room, and it kind of stayed). It is SO fun. I just throw stuff on there that looks pretty and needs a home — cookbooks, baskets with spices, jars of grains, dishes…I even have a bowl of dry pantry goods like potatoes and onions sitting there.

    Maybe this is TMI about my housekeeping skills, but we use the stuff on there so much it doesn’t get dirty, OR I picked stuff that has a lid (like my dutch oven and the jars of pasta). So, I only really dust the thing maybe once a month? Is that gross? :-)

    It was such a fun, cheap solution to give the eating area of our kitchen more flair for free, AND makes cooking so easy. I’m in love. I know you will be, too!

    Reply

  37. Ashley says

    We have two open shelves in the same space as our stove. We don’t have a range hood, or a microwave with a vent, so they DO get greasy and dusty – I think because they are just so close to the stove. But I don’t care! I love the look of open shelves.

    When we renovate our kitchen down the road, we are definitely including open shelves – and a range hood!

    Reply

  38. Kim at Yellow Brick Home says

    Ooh, love the open shelving. Totally pinned the crap out of your inspiration photos. I can see why it wouldn’t work for some people, but if you know yourself and plan what you put on your shelves (like every day pretty plates and mugs), then why not go for it?

    And I love the open-ness it provides!

    Reply

  39. sarah says

    I have two open shelves in my kitchen (not in a pretty way like your inspiration pictures, but in a random rental apartment way, anyway…) we keep our wine glasses on the shelves. I think we have about ten and since it is just me and my boyfriend we really only use two on a regular basis. So yep, we have 8 dusty wineglasses and 2 that are always dust free… classy. That is the word you are looking for :)

    Reply

  40. Amanda K says

    Love the inspiration kitchens. Makes me want to gut mine and start over. Anyway, I just ordered a stencil from Royal Design Studio last night to use in our breezeway (so excited!!!). Do you remember how long it took for yours to arrive in the mail?

    Reply

  41. SusanH says

    Wowee! I never thought about open shelving in my own kitchen until I looked at your post! Started thinking about my dishes and I realized they’re all similarly colored and not as mismatched as I thought.

    Also, I have a wall with no cabinets and a tricky window situation. I’ve been staring at it for three years wondering how I could increase my storage and thinking I didn’t have enough cash for all new cabinets.

    Thanks for solving my problem while solvinng your own! I’m totally doing this!

    Reply

  42. Erica says

    I love the first picture of the open white shelves against the dark cabinets! I do have a question where do you find floating shelves in different sizes or would these need to be made? I think I’m trying this next in my kitchen!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      You can either cut down basic floating shelves (like the ones from Ikea) or make them with framing lumber (like we made our office desktop) or build them using a plan like Ana White’s (from ana-white.com).

      xo,
      s

  44. laura says

    I love this concept….I’m thinking how easy it would be to put dishes away every day without having so many doors open that you bonk your head on (I know from experience…gets really old). Also, I’m on a mission to get rid of mismatch stuff, pare down, keep things neater, and this would be a great motivator. Can’t wait to see the results!

    Reply

  45. Erin says

    Love all your ideas, but think that perhaps open shelving for glasswares may cause them to become dusty/greasy. Maybe have a few open shelves for more decorative art pieces and plants?? Just a thought…… I have a hard enough time keeping clean the DOORS of my kitchen cabinets….I couldn’t imagine trying to clean open shelves. It would be beautiful tho and so open! Have fun with whatever you go with. :)

    Reply

  46. Emily Griffin says

    We JUST redid our kitchen with white subway tile and open shelving. So far we LOVE it. We have not had them long enough to know about the dust/grease issue. But we did make sure to put them higher right around the stove to prevent the steam/grease from getting to the bottoms of them.
    Also, we have a galley kitchen, so this helped open up our kitchen big time. Can’t wait to see what you guys do!

    Reply

  47. ann b says

    my main comment (other than i like the open shelves) is that the Gloria V bodysuit ad for american apparel is really gross and not what i want to see when i read your post and have my morning coffee. just sayin’.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      So sorry! We don’t see that on our end (Google Ads puts in random ads that differ by location) but they’re supposed to be home-improvement related so we’re not sure how that popped up on your end. Off to try to block it for ya!

      xo,
      s

  48. Carol says

    I have a drawers on all bottom cabinets and glass doors on all top cabinets and they still get dusty inside. Dust is dust and will go where it pleases. So enjoy your open shelving. If I were to do it over I’d have a section of open shelving. Love the look you’re going for.

    Reply

  49. Jen @ The Decor Scene says

    I love all your inspiration pictures. Gorgeous! It makes me want to redo my kitchen already and it’s only 4 years old. lol. You do change your mind over time with house decor, but kitchens are too expensive to change every 5 years…so I will just live through your kitchen remodel and have fun with that. ;) As always thanks for sharing all the details.

    Reply

  50. jbhat says

    I have friends who have open shelving and they love it. You will love it too. Also, they did not do tile for their backsplash. They did backpainted glass in a pretty aqua. It looks amazing. I should email you a picture.

    jbhat

    Reply

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