Some of you may disagree with me but I want to share with you my 3 Top Reasons for Open Kitchen Shelves in my very small 2.5m x 2.5m kitchen.
I am doing my kitchen revamp in stages as I do not want to live without a functioning kitchen in a very busy household. The first stage is the easy stage – opening up the walls and going for open shelving. The second stage will be to remove the extractor fan altogether and change the appliances, a couple of which have been broken for a while now. This stage will require electrics and gas work. And the final stage although it will be done at the same time as the appliances will be to change the worktop.
Stage 1
3 Top Reasons for Open Kitchen Shelves
1. They open up the space
I removed the wall cabinets that took up the wall space in my tiny kitchen and replaced them with open shelving. As I’ve said before, this kitchen measures 2.5m x 2.5 square and only has a small window as the source of light. This window is north-facing so we get very little light as it is.
The wall cabinets sucked out not just the space but the light as well. As it is, the open floor space in this kitchen is only 1.3m x 1.9m which makes it pretty annoying when there are more than 2 people in here at the same time. We literally just keep bumping into each other.
And with not much bigger area above the worktop space we are breathing into each other’s necks all the time. Not having the walls hogged by the cabinets really opened up this space.
Without any prompting, my son said to me as he walked into the newly opened kitchen: “Mum, this is a huge upgrade. I no longer feel stressed coming into the kitchen!” He is 6ft and quite muscular so he must have felt rather claustrophobic before!
I bought these recalimed shelves from Ebay – 4 bespoke lengths, depth and finish. They cost me £100 and came with fittings for the brick walls.
2. You can wallpaper the walls!
Those of you who know me and are familiar with my style on Instagram know that I love floral wallpaper. With a now open kitchen without bulky wall cabinets, I was able to wallpaper the walls all the way around. Here I used Bocage Wallpaper in Teal from my own wallpaper collection with Feathr. There are also other Bocage colourways but I thought this one looks perfect in my kitchen with country-contemprorary feel to it.
Wallpapers can be the perfect pretty or statement backdrops for your crockery and glasses. Here I displayed some of my Minerals collection plates from Portmeirion. We use them everyday so dust isn’t a problem. And I also dotted around some candle holders and lavenders for that French country touch.
I find that wallpaper is not a problem provided you have ample ventilation. Here we have currently an extractor fan above the hob and another small one on the window opposite by the sink.
3. Enjoy transformation with peace of mind
Whilst I knew before that a Carbon Monoxide alarm needs to be installed anywhere there is a fuel burning appliance, I never thought of my gas hob as one! It seems obvious but we’ve lived in our house for 11 years now with this gas hob and we have not installed a CO alarm until now! And that included the time we replaced the old kitchen we inherited with new ones in 2017. No one told me, not even the kitchen fitters! So that was my bad and fortunately nothing untoward happened.
Did you know that 1 in 3 homes do not have a carbon monoxide alarm? Carbon monoxide can travel through brick, is odourless, colourless and tasteless so the only way to know you are protected is by using a carbon monoxide alarm. I have this FireAngel CO alarm with a digital display in my living room next to the wood burning stove.
I also fitted a kitchen heat alarm in the kitchen space itself as the smoke alarm fitted by the builders is at the end of the hall which is 3m away from the kitchen. 1 in 4 homes do not have working smoke alarms! You are 4 times less likely to have a fatality if you have working smoke alarms in your home! I now have double peace of mind.
You never think it’s going to happen to you and it has happened to me when I was around 5 years old.
I don’t remember much from my early childhood except perhaps the most special events and equally the most tragic ones. When I was around 5 our neighbour’s kitchen exploded and fire razed the entire side of the street our house was on. Since then I lived my childhood moving from one house to another.
When I owned my own home as an adult, I made sure fire safety was paramount and installed safety alarms everywhere (except as mentioned above by my hob out of utter ignorance) and carbon monoxide alarms too. More recently I came across this kitchen heat alarm from FireAngel which I had never heard of before. Heat alarms are less prone to false alarms from cooking fumes or dust particles.
It makes sense to have one in the kitchen where I cook all the time. Now that I have my revamped kitchen stage 1 done, I have made sure we have a heat alarm in the right place for more safety and peace of mind….. Not just transformation but also protection. Both have to go hand-in-hand.
So there I hope my 3 Top Reasons for Open Kitchen Shelves have given you some ideas and inspiration! This post is part of an ongoing collaboration with FireAngel on Instagram as a gentle reminder that safety first in all home transformations is a must!
Don’t forget to download my free resources that will help you design your own interiors and grow your Instagram account! Let’s chat on Instagram Layered.Home and together get inspired!
