I'm planning to redo my kitchen and was thinking about open shelving for both the upper and lower cabinets. Right now, the kitchen has old MDF cabinets from when the trailer was built in the 70s, and they are sagging badly. Some drawers are gone, but the upper cabinets are still okay. I'm curious about how tough this open shelving project might be. From a cost perspective, would building my own shelves be less expensive than buying them ready-made? I don't have a ton of time to spare, and my skills are pretty basic—I've just got a tape measure, hammers, a skill saw, and a drill. I wonder if the money saved by building them myself would get eaten up by the time spent on the project. I'd love to hear opinions on whether this is worth pursuing!
2 Answers
I think open upper shelves can look nice, particularly if you go for floating options! But I wouldn’t use them for lower shelves. If you keep the bottom shelves closed, you'll save yourself from constant dusting and pet hair. You could still build floating shelves for the upper part with the tools you have—really not that hard! Here's an idea: use 8/4 planks for a really solid look, it can give your kitchen a nice touch!
Absolutely! Floating shelves look so sleek and are relatively easy to install.
Honestly, going for open shelves on the bottom isn’t the best idea. I have one shelf like that, and it collects dust like you wouldn’t believe! Plus, my cats think it’s their personal playground, so I end up with fur on everything. If I were you, I'd at least put some doors on the bottom shelves to keep things cleaner. But building a simple frame with shelves isn’t too hard, especially if you stick to using hand tools and good quality materials.
I get that the open design is supposed to save on costs, and I'm all for trying new things! But with two cats, you might want to think twice about how much they’ll enjoy that setup.
Totally agree! Open uppers can look great, especially if you do floating shelves. Just make sure to anchor those well!
Thanks for that suggestion! I hadn’t thought about floating shelves for the upper part, that sounds like a great compromise.