Various Types of Open Shelves – Standard Guidelines for Shelf Sizing, Installation and Finishing
While cabinets are a kitchen backbone, providing invaluable closed storage space, open shelving is a useful and visually appealing alternative worth incorporating into any kitchen design. Open shelves are perfect for showing off kitchen treasures and dishware, and they can make retrieving and putting things away fast and simple. On the downside, open shelves allow contents to get dirty or dusty faster, and neatness, or the lack of it, is always on display.
While collections of pottery, cookbooks, and neat stacks of dishes and mugs look charming on open shelves, not everything permits a look-see, especially when kitchens are open to living areas. Enter the pantry, where kitchen essentials are on display for easy access but safely behind a door when not in use. Pantries don't have to be separate rooms as in days of the past; they can be designed in all sizes, from walk-in to lean-in, and pull-out to roll-out, for any kitchen, big or small.
Shelves
Whether you are designing a kitchen from scratch or just want to spruce things up, shelves offer a lot of bang for the buck in terms of aesthetics and function. An open shelf or two can easily be wedged between wall studs, above a door, or along a stairway.
It's important to match the function of the shelf with the design of the shelf, considering size, method of support, material, and finish. Display decorative items on shelves that look good too, such as glass shelves, or painted or stained wood shelves with a wide edge band and curved brackets. Heavy objects-canned goods, stacks of plates, and cast-iron pans require closely spaced supports and strong shelves, such as plywood. Veneer or paint can make the beefiest shelves look great. Adjustable shelves offer flexibility while fixed shelves offer a more traditional appearance.
These Cubby-Size Shelves look wavy, but that's an illusion made by curvy trim applied to the shelf sides. Petal-faced drawers provide contained storage for napkin rings or other loose items, while open shelves create pretty but useful display space and storage for colorful mugs and linens.
Standard Guidelines for Sizing-up Open Shelves
Shelves can be as narrow as 2 in. or as wide as 2 ft., but here are some standard guidelines. Allow 8 in. minimum for cookbooks, 8 in. to 15 in. for dishware, and 12 in. to 18 in. or more for large items such as roasting pans, slow cookers, and stuff like that. If you space shelves far apart, you will be tempted to stack dishes and glasses too high. Better to space more shelves closer together, which makes it safer and easier to access dishes.
Narrow, open shelves from the countertop to just above head height provide easy-to-reach storage. Over a much-used workspace, keep a 12-inch. deep shelf about 30 in. above the countertop, the standard at sinks, and cooktops (this is a great spot for under-shelf task lighting). Any shelves at your head height and lower should, of course, be shallow, as they can obstruct the use of the workspace below.
Shelf Materials – Wood Shelves
The most common shelf materials are wood and wood-like materials, such as plywood, medium-density fiberboard, and particleboard. All of these materials are widely available in various thicknesses and all are easy to transform with stain or paint. Before storing heavy objects like cookbooks or a stack of plates, you will want to consider the strength of the shelving material and the support system it requires. If you are confused about selecting wood for your projects, consult our blog “Tips and tricks for buying the right quality wood”. After making sure the shelves will stay up, consider what finishes you would like to give them.
Solid Wood vs Plywood
Wood and panel products can all be supported by the same methods, but the spacing of supports will depend on the type of material, the thickness of the shelving, and the edge treatment. Solid wood is stiffer than the same thickness MDF and particleboard, but not as stiff as plywood. Plywood is dimensionally more stable than wood, too, so it is less likely to warp with humidity changes.
Shelves Support – Installing Cleat and Brackets
All of these materials will be considerably stiffer with an edge band of wood or plywood attached to the front (the edge band acts like a supporting beam). The traditional way to support shelves, whether solid wood or panel-product shelves, is with a cleat, a solid-wood strip attached to the wall, and running the length of the shelf to help prevent a width-wise drop. When sturdy shelving is required, brackets can be added at one or more points across the mid-space of the shelf; in fact, if brackets are spaced closely enough, there's no need for a cleat.
Proper Finishing of Shelves
Panel products can be veneered with wood, and both wood and panel products can be finished with paint, stain, or a clear or tinted varnish or polyurethane. After shelves are freshly painted (gloss or semi-gloss works best), it's best to wait a while before loading. Wait at least as long as the paint-can label suggests, then lay sheets of waxed paper loosely on the shelves before stocking them. After a week or two, slide out the waxed paper. For details on finishing, consult our blog “Wood Finishing – Why is it Important?”
Adjustable or Fixed Shelves
Making shelves in cabinetry fixed or adjustable affects how they look and how well they work. Adjustable shelves can be handy for growing families or changing buying habits, especially in a pantry. European-style frameless cabinet cases have adjustable shelves, which can be adjusted by 32-mm increments by moving support pins up or down; the same system can be used for face-frame cabinetry. Adjustable shelves can get quite a workout during the setup phase, and the move from storing baby-food jars to storing packages of Ramen noodles may come sooner than you think.
For showcasing decorative objects, fixed shelves seem more purposeful, even architecturally noteworthy themselves (and there won't be 32-mm on-center holes up the sides). A period kitchen requires fixed open shelving for authenticity.
Everyday dishes and art ceramics provide a visual focus in this nicely proportioned fixed shelving, which separates a large dining/living space from the kitchen.
Glass Shelves
Glass shelves make bright and elegant open shelving, especially to show off glassware and fine dishware. A boon in perpetually overcast climates or in rooms without a lot of windows, glass allows light to bounce around. Glass type and thickness should be taken into account before specific shelving is chosen; here are a few hints.
The edges of a glass shelf figure prominently in its overall look, so edge treatment and glass type should be carefully considered. The standard clear glass actually has a greenish tinge, which is especially apparent at the edge, so if you prefer clearer glass, look for low-iron Starfire glass.
Glass shelves can be strong, but they have limits. A shelf with a light load and short span can be ⅜ in. thick, but longer spans and heavier loads require a thickness of ½ in. or more, plus intermediate supports. A glass fabricator or cabinetmaker can recommend the appropriate thickness for your particular needs.
