What Goes on Open Shelves and What Stays Behind Cabinet Doors?

A kitchen with open shelves and cabinets works when each item is sorted by how it’s used and how much upkeep you’ll do. Everyday dishes can suit open shelves. So can a few pieces you like to see. Cooking items, food and the clutter-prone odds and ends can stay behind doors. Sort the list first, before the cabinet plan is final.

That order matters. If the sort doesn’t happen until the plan is set, you can end up with too little closed storage. Or with open shelves that turn into a daily chore. Fixing either one can mean reworking the plan late, after the layout is already drawn.

How Do You Sort a Kitchen With Open Shelves and Cabinets?

Sort every item by two questions: how often you reach for it, and how much upkeep you’ll do. Open shelves can suit the things you use daily and the pieces you like to see. Doors can suit everything else. Work through the list item by item, while the plan is still on paper.

Upkeep is the easy part to skip at the plan stage. On keeping a kitchen free of pests, a Clemson University extension fact sheet says to vacuum or dust kitchen drawers and shelves, especially the ones not used often. It also says to store food in tightly covered containers.

That sheet isn’t written about open shelving, and it doesn’t compare shelves with doors. Hold those lines next to your own list anyway. They tell you what an open shelf asks of you after the remodel is over.

A simple way to run the sort is four piles on the table, or four lists on a notepad. Everyday dishes. Pieces you like to see. Cooking items and food. Then the clutter-prone things, the ones you’d rather not have on display. Some items will argue with you. A bowl you use weekly and like the look of can go either way.

Put it where you’d defend it, not where you wish it belonged. Seasonal things can sit in their own corner of the list. You pull them out once in a while, and you’d rather not dust them in between.

Which Kitchen Items Suit Open Shelves?

Everyday plates, bowls, glasses and mugs can earn a spot in the open. They’re used and washed on a loop, so they may not sit still long enough to gather much dust. A few pieces worth seeing can join them. Think of a bowl you like, or a stack you don’t mind looking at every morning.

Where the shelf sits can change the answer. A shelf near the range may pick up cooking grease along with the dust, and doors would keep some of that off. So that spot can be worth keeping for items that wash easily. Items that go straight into the dishwasher can take that in stride. Or the open shelving can go on another wall. Ask the designer which spots make sense once your layout is on the table.

Anything on an open shelf is on view. That’s the appeal, and it’s the catch. The shelf reads as tidy only if you’re willing to keep it tidy, and that’s your call, not a design rule. A shelf can also be small. Picture a wall with one shelf, holding the mugs you reach for each morning. That shelf is doing a job. Start with what you’ll keep up.

The designer can place it so it looks deliberate instead of leftover.

What Should Stay Behind Cabinet Doors?

Food that isn’t in a covered container can stay behind doors. So can small appliances, the mismatched pieces, and anything you’d rather not look at over morning coffee. Closed storage does quiet work. It takes in the things that make a room feel busy, and it keeps the counters from becoming the overflow shelf.

That fact sheet says to vacuum or dust kitchen drawers and shelves, especially the ones not used often. Hold that next to an open shelf and the sorting gets easier. The items you reach for rarely can become the dusty ones, and in the open they’re dusty in plain sight. Behind a door is one place for them.

The sheet also says to store food in tightly covered containers. That’s a storage habit, not a verdict on shelving, but a box or bag that isn’t covered may be happier behind a door too.

The storage work comes before the look. Guthrie’s post on planning kitchen storage before style puts it plainly: storage and workflow decide the cabinet layout, and the layout decides which finishes physically fit. So the shelf-or-door question isn’t a finish you pick at the end. Work out what you have to store, then choose the look that fits it.

Corners raise their own version of this question. If your plan has one, Guthrie’s post on choosing between a lazy susan and a blind corner cabinet covers those corner cabinet options.

Settle the List Before the Cabinet Plan Is Final

Bring the sorted list to a design consultation. With the list in hand, the designer can place closed storage and open shelves as one plan, instead of leaving the shelves to hold whatever didn’t fit behind doors. It also changes the conversation. You stop asking how much open shelving you want and start asking which items deserve it.

The list tells the designer how much closed storage you need, which is hard to guess from the shape of a room.

Give each open shelf a quick test. Would you be glad to see this every morning? And will you dust it? If both answers are yes, the shelf earns its place. If either one is no, the item can go behind a door and the shelf can shrink or go away. The test works on a whole wall, one item at a time. Run it while the plan is still being drawn. It’s a short conversation at that stage.

Frequently Asked Questions About Open Shelves and Cabinets

Can a kitchen have open shelves and cabinets together?

Yes. A kitchen can carry both, and the sort decides which is which. Walk through your items first, then let the plan follow. Open shelves can take the things you use daily and the pieces you like seeing. Doors can take the rest. A plan can also stay closed except for one open spot. A designer can work out where each one belongs once the layout is on the table.

What shouldn’t go on open kitchen shelves?

Food that isn’t in a covered container is one answer. That Clemson fact sheet says to store food in tightly covered containers, which is worth a thought before a shelf becomes the pantry. The rest of the list is personal. Items you won’t want to dust can stay behind doors, and so can the clutter-prone things you’d rather not have on display.

Do open shelves need more dusting than cabinets?

Closed doors can keep items out of sight, and they may keep some dust off them. That fact sheet says to vacuum or dust kitchen drawers and shelves, especially the ones not used often, and it doesn’t take a side on open shelving. So there’s no measured difference to quote here. The honest answer is that an open shelf is yours to keep clean, and the items you rarely use can be the dusty ones.

How many open shelves should a kitchen have?

There’s no number that fits every kitchen. It comes down to how many items you’re willing to keep tidy and dust. Start with the spots you know you’ll keep up, and let the rest stay behind doors. A single shelf you keep clean is still a real shelf. Small is a fine place to start. Then ask the designer what your layout can carry.

Will Guthrie help me plan open shelves and cabinets?

The Pleasant View showroom is where you can see materials first-hand, cabinetry and plumbing fixtures included. On the kitchen side, Guthrie’s team can design and install a project, or provide design and product selection services if you already have your own installer. Bring your sorted list to a consultation and talk it through with the design team.

Bring Your List of Items to the Showroom

At Guthrie’s Pleasant View showroom, you can see materials in person, from cabinetry and countertops to plumbing fixtures.

A list sorted by use and upkeep makes a kitchen with open shelves and cabinets easier to plan. It turns a question about style into a question about storage, and storage questions have answers.

Guthrie’s kitchen remodeling showroom shows cabinetry, countertops, tiles, flooring, plumbing fixtures and more, so you can see and feel the materials before the plan is final.

When your list is sorted, talk with Guthrie’s design team about your open shelves and cabinet plan.