Upper Cabinets vs. Open Shelving vs. Glass Fronts

What goes on the wall above the countertop shapes how a kitchen looks more than almost any other choice, and it sets how much the room can store. The three options are closed cabinets, open shelves and glass-front cabinets. Each has a real cost in either storage, cleaning or tidiness, and the right mix depends on how you cook and how you live with clutter.

The three options compared

The dust and grease reality

Cooking puts fine droplets of oil and steam into the air, and they settle on every surface in the room. On a cabinet door that means wiping a flat face. On an open shelf it means lifting everything off, washing the shelf and washing whatever was sitting there. The closer the shelf is to the range, the faster the film builds, and dust sticks to it.

Two things reduce it. The first is distance: keep open shelves away from the cooking surface and never directly beside or above it. The second is a hood that is ducted outside, sized for the range and switched on while you cook. How to choose and duct one is covered in range hoods and kitchen ventilation. A recirculating hood traps some grease but returns the air and moisture to the room.

Open shelves suit households that cook lightly or use the same dishes daily. They are harder work for people who fry and roast often.

The styling burden

Photographs of open shelving show a few matching bowls and a plant. Real kitchens hold mismatched mugs, plastic containers, cereal boxes and the blender. Before you give up cabinets, sort what you own into two lists: things you would be content to look at every day, and everything else. The first list is what open shelves and clear glass doors can hold. Everything else needs a door, and the plan has to provide enough doors for it. The zone-by-zone method on the kitchen storage and pantries page is the way to check.

Mixing a little open shelving into a cabinet run

For most kitchens the answer is a mix: closed cabinets for the bulk of the storage and a small amount of open or glass display where it does the most good. Places that work:

• Either side of a window over the sink, where a cabinet would crowd the glass.
• The end of a run, where a cabinet would otherwise present a blank side panel to the room.
• A coffee or drinks area, with mugs and glasses used daily.
• Above a peninsula or facing the dining area, as the part of the kitchen that is seen from the next room.
• A single open cubby within a cabinet run, for cookbooks or a few display pieces.

Keep the shelf length short, line the shelf heights up with the bottoms and tops of neighboring cabinets, and decide what the wall behind will be. Tile carried up behind open shelves is easier to wash than paint. Tile and wall options are in kitchen backsplashes and wall finishes.

Glass-front cabinets

A glass door gives the lightness of a shelf with the protection of a cabinet. What it asks for in return:

• A finished interior. The inside of the box is on view, so it is finished to match the outside or in a contrasting wood or color. This is an added cost on each glass cabinet.
• A decision about the glass. Clear glass shows everything. Reeded, fluted, seeded or frosted glass blurs the contents and forgives a less tidy shelf. Ask whether the glass is tempered.
• Shelf edges that line up with any dividing bars in the door, so shelves do not cut across the panes.

Frame and mullion options are described in cabinet door styles compared.

Lighting inside glass cabinets

Interior light is what makes glass cabinets worth having in the evening. Small LED fixtures at the top of the cabinet are the simple version. LED strips recessed into the cabinet sides or behind the face frame light every shelf evenly and work with solid shelves. Choose a warm color temperature that matches the rest of the kitchen lighting, put the cabinet lights on their own switch or dimmer, and plan where the driver or transformer will be hidden and reached. The wiring has to be in the wall before drywall, so this is a design-stage decision. See kitchen lighting and under-cabinet and recessed lighting.

Cabinets to the ceiling and stacked uppers

Whatever mix you choose, decide how the uppers meet the ceiling. There are three approaches.

• Stop short. A gap is left above the cabinets. It costs least and creates a ledge that collects dust and grease and is awkward to clean.
• One tall cabinet to the ceiling. A single door runs the full height. It looks clean and modern. Very tall doors are heavier and more prone to bowing, and the top shelf needs a step stool.
• Stacked uppers. A standard cabinet with a shorter cabinet above it, each with its own door. The upper row is often glass-fronted and lit, with solid doors below. It suits traditional and transitional kitchens and high ceilings, and it costs more because there are more boxes and doors.

Ceilings are seldom level, so cabinets that reach the ceiling finish with crown molding or a scribed filler strip that takes up the difference. The taller the cabinets, the more a sloping ceiling shows, which is one more reason to have the room measured before the cabinets are drawn. The top shelves of ceiling-height cabinets are for things you use a few times a year; if reaching is a concern for anyone in the household, see aging-in-place and accessible kitchen design.

What to check before you decide

• Count your storage with the open sections treated as display only. Is there still enough behind doors?
• Mark the range on the plan and keep open shelves well away from it.
• Confirm the hood is ducted outside.
• Fix shelf positions and loads so blocking can be installed.
• For glass cabinets, settle the interior finish, glass type, shelf material and lighting together.
• Ask how tall the manufacturer will build a single door in your style, and how the cabinets will finish at the ceiling.

Who should choose which

• Mostly closed cabinets: families, keen cooks, small kitchens where every shelf is needed, and anyone who does not want to think about how the shelves look.
• A short run of open shelves: households with a set of everyday dishes in constant use and a window wall or room end that would benefit from being opened up.
• Open shelving throughout: light cooks with few possessions, a separate pantry and a tolerance for regular wiping.
• Glass fronts: people with dishes or glassware worth showing, kitchens open to a dining room, and high ceilings that suit a lit upper row.
• No uppers on one wall: rooms where a larger window or an open sightline is worth more than the storage, backed by a pantry or tall cabinets elsewhere.

Where to go next

This decision is easier to make when you can see it. JDI Construction prepares a 3D design layout during design, which shows the wall with cabinets, shelves or glass before anything is ordered. To start, visit our Vancouver kitchen remodeling page.