Creating Open Shelves in the Kitchen

A french country kitchen just doesn't seem complete without a couple open shelf display areas.

Whether it's simply shelving to hold dishes, a vintage cupboard or open areas built in.

When we started renovating our kitchen- we were up against a lot of yuck factor 

that was overshadowing the charm and character that our vintage kitchen had.

Luckily, the cupboards in the kitchen were original to the house-
which meant we had that character to work with.

These old cupboards are built right in to the walls 

not like the cupboards of today where they are a free standing piece 

that would be mounted to the wall.

I promised to share some of what we did to renovate the kitchen.
and so am starting with the open display cupboards.

The cupboards were already a beautiful white painted enamel 

so just a fresh coat of paint was all that was needed to perk them up.

But one of the doors on the end had a large crack in it 

and so we were debating milling new doors for the kitchen.

But once I removed the door, I was in love with the open shelf area.
It had such charm and even though it was unfinished pine inside

I knew that painted a creamy white- it would beautiful.

Because there were 3 cupboards on each side of the sink-
I just removed the end door on the other side as well for symmetry.

Once the doors were off- the insides needed to be finished up.

Taking a piece of beadboard, I inserted into the ceiling area and secured it
 and added simple 1x2 trim to finish off the inside area.

I caulked the back and side of each of the shelves to smooth out those gaps and cracks
 and then painted everything inside a creamy white.

I was loving it.

But the more I looked at the new areas- the more I thought they needed a little
 something at the top to finish them off.

So I decided they needed an arch.

Know that I am a very technical builder :) and so for the perfect sized arch for the cupboards...
I found a platter that had the right length, traced the arch of it onto a 1x6 pine board
 and cut it out with a jigsaw. Because our nail gun wasn't working at the time- I used caulk to secure
 them until it was unjammed and working again and it actually did a great job in
case you are ever in need of a quick fix.

 Depending on my ever changing mood and design aesthetics...

the cupboards are filled with my red transferware




 collections of silver, floral china

 or with collected pieces of white ware and pewter for a simple look

Overall creating the open cupboards was a super easy project that made
 a huge difference in the feel of the kitchen
I'll share more about the baskets in the bottom cupboards soon~
that was a bit more involved- but fairly simple and it is such a charming feature.

Happy Wednesday!!