Our Open Farmhouse Kitchen Shelving | Before and After | Home Project

The slow transformation of our kitchen continues, and this is another one we are so happy with how it turned out. What a great big difference it has made, getting rid of our cabinets, and building custom open farmhouse kitchen shelving!

In this project, we were actually undoing a change we made many years ago.
One of the many reasons we bought this house in the first place, was because it had a lot of floor cabinets in the kitchen, and none on the walls! I really didn’t want a kitchen that felt closed in by a lot of cabinets mounted on the walls, that I would have a hard time reaching anyway. However, it wasn’t long before we realized, the floor cabinets alone just didn’t provide enough storage for everything.

And so Michael bought basic ready-made cabinets at Home Depot, installed it on our one empty wall, and then added oak trim and handles to match the rest of the floor cabinetry.



I really grew to hate it.


It’s been there for at least 20 years. As much as I grew to despise the look of it, it was necessary for storage, as far as I could figure, for far too long. The floor cabinets stored plates and bowls, glasses, pots and pans, and storage containers.  And the drawers stored what drawers do, of course: utensils, herbs and spices, a junk drawer, etc. So the cabinet on the wall stored cereal boxes, crackers, rice, and that kind of thing.


I began to dream about open cabinets, with dishes and all in there. And I had come up with a good plan of how to rearrange everything in the kitchen that still needed to be stored. (Just put all that was up in the wall cabinet – cereals, crackers, etc. – down in the floor cabinets, when all of the dishes, bowls, etc. came out.)


But I wasn’t sure open cabinets was what I really wanted. Then I started thinking about open shelves. But as much as I thought about it, I couldn’t see in my head exactly what it would look like, that would look right in our kitchen. Until I did.  However, explaining it to Michael was not painting a good picture for him. I was being clear enough in my description, but he just didn’t think it was going to look good.  As I gave him the details, he kept questioning me, like….“Really?”. 


It was unusual. Because you see, with any big or small home projects we have ever done, we have always planned the whole thing together. We most always have the same vision, the same expectations, and the same excitement. But this time….
Michael didn’t see it, what he was expecting was not good, and he definitely was not excited. 


This time, I had to ask him to just trust me, and build it like I’m saying.
And he did.





Good-bye, boring ordinary cabinets . . . .
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HELLO open farmhouse kitchen shelving!


Want to see more?


For more beautiful detail photos of this project in our farmhouse kitchen, and to get all of the DIY details, visit the full post at our blog! And look around while you are there, for all of our unique and custom projects we've done ourselves!
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Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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  1 question
  • Joanie Joanie on May 31, 2018

    Why open shelving for a farmhouse look......the cupboards are laminate........could you NOT reface them with REAL wood and be done? With steam, grease and dust, I wouldn't want the extra cleaning. Just my opinion. I've seen the counters covered over top of laminate and refaced with beautiful wood.

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  • Aiokersonalicea1 Aiokersonalicea1 on May 31, 2018

    I'm not sure about the open cabinets.

    But, I do want to know how you have your pots and pans hanging I love that part. That is something that I always wanted to do in my kitchen.

  • Luci Hedley Luci Hedley on Oct 30, 2020

    i love this look. We live in rural Queensland and my kitchen though fairly modern, has no wall cabinets. this has not bothered me so much when i was able to kneel but now my body is showing a little age, your idea would look great in our kitchen and be so useful. thank you and stay safe

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