I like the look of open shelving, but agree with Carla. If you are not EXTREMELY organized, open shelving is risky. A good middle ground, is to install only a few open shelves, and use them for displaying only a few items that you don't touch much such as artwork, statement pieces, or lights. If you're not tedious about organization, and you try using open shelving for kitchen utensils, glassware etc., it will quickly look cluttered.

To me, open shelving just means something else to clean. Have enough of that already.

Open shelves is definitely, for very organized people. But they are beautiful. Depends from the space and design, sometimes shelves looks better or cabinets.

If you go with open shelves, don't put them anywhere near the stove. Big pain to keep clean. Even if they're not near the stove, plan on taking everything off a couple of times a year to clean them and anything decorative that lives on them. It's shocking how much grime they accumulate.

Another thought is only use open shelves if you have lovely, color-coordinated dishes, glasses, etc. Even notice how beautiful (and perfectly organized) the dishes are in all the photos with open shelves? Your favorite "Employee of the month" cup and chipped cereal bowl from your college days are better stored behind doors.

Glass front cabinets are a good compromise. You can see your pretty things, but only have to clean the glass. MUCH easier than cleaning everything on a shelf.

The reach for a typical American woman is 77". A typical 30" tall vertical cabinet is therefore only about 80% effective in terms of easily accessible ergonomic storage suitable for everyday use.

Furthermore anything with a door wider than 12" typically will extend past the countertop when open, requiring immediate closure and wasted motion.

For my money, use a 24" tall horizontal cabinet with a lift up door. Installed at the customary 54" the top will be 78" from the floor. In terms of ergonomics it doesn't get better than this. A single door per cabinet keeps the cost down. You can choose a wood door or clear or translucent glass door depending on how tidy you want to be.

I'd rather open shelves than cabinets. I love how you can see pots and plates etc. and have easy access but most of all I would think it far more easier to clean too and SEE what I am cleaning. I am organized so no issues there for me!

I like mostly cabinets but a few open shelves would be nice for display.

Cabinets with glass doors! Open shelves allow dust to settle on dishes. I don't want to have to re-wash my clean dishes to serve food.

I prefer a combination of the two. I have cabinets in kitchen and all open shelving in my butlers pantry. Both serve their purpose great. When having a party I can pop extra trays of food etc. on the pantry shelves for easy access. I also grow herbs on them in an electric grower in he winter.

Cabinets for me all the way! Not because I'm disorganized, but I much prefer the look of them. If I want a shelf for herbs or other plants, that's a totally different concept from storing crockery to me.

Both!

Open shelves look amazing when properly staged by Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper; otherwise, no! no! no!

It's quite trendy right to have these. but they are more of a design feature than storage, keep in mind