Kitchen interior design without upper cupboards

Not everyone wants to design a kitchen room using a standard set with floor and wall cabinets. Many believe that floor hardware is enough to accommodate all the necessary utensils and equipment. However, such a design of the kitchen requires taking into account a number of nuances, for example, considering alternatives to wall cabinets, taking into account the features of the layout, the concept of interior and decoration materials. All these and other details will be discussed in detail in this article.

The design of the kitchen without upper cabinets has both positive and negative sides. The advantages of this design include the following characteristics.

• A room with such a design looks more spacious, it has more light. Sometimes the cabinets located above overload the space of the room, especially if it is already small-sized. Their absence frees up space and brings more air into the room.
• The concept of many areas of the interior is mainly observed in the kitchen without hanging cabinets.
• Due to the lack of conglomeration on the wall, additional space for decoration is freed up. There is an opportunity to place on the surface of the walls not only attributes of a particular style, but also interesting paintings that can revive the entire interior.
• On high cabinets, dust often accumulates, since many do not always have the opportunity and time to clean it. The absence of such furniture will save you from excess dust.
• Furniture sometimes prevents light from reaching all areas of the lower tier kitchen fittings with equal intensity. Without hinged cabinets this problem will be solved. The working area due to the lack of cabinets is well lit even without the use of artificial light sources.
• The price of a headset without a top tier is significantly lower than for classic models with a full set.
• The risk of harm to health is minimized. During operation, you can inadvertently bump into an open door or corner of an upper cabinet. In addition, if the mount is unreliable, then the unit may collapse, ruining the countertop. If there are no such constructions, then the probability of such incidents is reduced to zero.

However, this furniture set has a number of disadvantages that must be taken into account.

• The key one is the lack of the necessary space for storing utensils, dishes and other household attributes. This is of particular relevance for apartments where a large family lives, and the number of dishes cannot be small. Also, in a small-sized kitchen, it is not always possible to place a large number of floor cabinets, so the upper structures are simply necessary.
• If you store all the cooking accessories and utensils in floor structures, then you will have to constantly lean over them.
• The absence of shelves at the top leaves all communications open. Moreover, far from all styles, such a nuance is permissible.
• Also, the surface of the wall itself remains on the review. If any irregularities and imperfections in the coating could be hidden with the help of hanging furniture, then in the absence of it, difficulties may arise in masking the imperfections.

The first after acquaintance with such a variant of kitchen furniture is the question of alternative places for storing kitchen utensils, which are usually located in hinged cabinets. The following options for such a replacement.

• If your kitchen area is at least 20 square meters. m, you can supply it drawer cabinet. It is usually used precisely to store utensils there, placing it in horizontal compartments.

• For certain styles, furniture such as buffet. It is a rectangular cabinet, consisting of several departments. Its lower boxes are usually opaque, and the upper ones have glass inserts.

• Ordinary open shelves arranged in rows in the kitchen wall, alternating with empty areas of space. They are quite light and elegant structures, but their minus is that they accumulate dust. Also, the disadvantages included the fact that it is impossible to place appliances on them due to the high weight of some household units. In some kitchens, instead of several, one long shelf structure is placed.

• Narrow pencil case suitable for kitchens of all sizes, including the Khrushchev’s kitchen. Such furniture will perfectly replace hanging shelves, especially if it has a sufficient number of sections. In each of them you can put utensils, dishes for cooking, as well as groceries and other products.

• The apron area can also be filled with railing., ergonomically placing ladles, knives, cutting boards, spoons, cans on it. This adaptation assumes that all utensils remain open to the eye, but for some styles this is a good fit to the concept.

• Sometimes the space under the sink is equipped with retractable carousel designs. This is especially appropriate for small rooms.

Not all planning options allow you to create a kitchen project with a kitchen set without hanging shelves. Their absence is appropriate in the following cases.

• If the kitchen is straight and quite long. In such cases, you can put both linear and parallel designs of floor cabinets. In the second case, the storage areas of the most used utensils are located near the sink and cupboard, where food is usually prepared, and cabinets with the rest of the dishes are located in a line opposite.

• In the interior U-shaped the kitchen is no place even for decorative shelves. With an empty upper tier, such a furniture design looks very concise and even professional. In addition, it clearly delimits the cooking area from the eating area, and may also include an element such as a bar counter. With these types of headsets, a kitchen-living room or kitchen-dining room is often zoned.

• but corner constructions, which look very light and not overloaded without hanging cabinets, still require shelves to be placed on the upper tier. In the corner of such a headset there is usually a sink, the box space under which it is difficult to fill as much as possible. Therefore, part of the utensil is placed on the shelves of the open structure at the top.

• Kitchen with island per se does not imply the mandatory inclusion of wall cabinets in furniture. For such a layout, a monolithic type block is appropriate, which, in fact, is not divided into upper and lower compartments.

• To save space in a small kitchen the lower tier should be equipped to the maximum. The cabinets are usually located in one row.

• One of the most favorable options for the location of the kitchen set without the top row is the space along the windows. If the windows occupy an impressive part of the wall in your apartment or house, they will serve not only as the main source of illumination of the working space of the kitchen, but also as a space for decor that replaces the upper hanging drawers. So that the kitchen does not look empty with such an arrangement, interesting curtains or blinds are often hung on the windows that let light through, but at the same time prevent the room from looking unfinished.

Usually, the color of the shelves of the upper tier correspond to the designs of the lower tier or countertops. It is worth noting that shades of natural wood will become relevant for most styles, among which there are light, for example, milk oak or ivory, and noble dark, such as walnut.

If the shelves are made of plastic, then white is appropriate for them. To focus on the shelves, they are placed on the background of a bright apron. But against the background of a light wall covering, white shelves, on the contrary, do not allow distracting attention. Gray tones are appropriate for the Scandinavian concept or for other minimalistic cuisine, since gray goes well with many colors of the headset, for example, yellow, pink, blue or green.

If the open shelves are square in shape, then their back wall or the wall itself can be painted in a color different from the tone of the rest of the case. For example, light wood products may have a light green or gray color in the space playing the role of the back wall.

Guided by the choice of color, it is worth giving preference to those shades that correspond to the size of the room. In a small kitchen, both the shelves and the walls on which they hang should be painted in light or pastel colors. Due to this technique, an already small space will not be hidden even more, and the shelves will not visually shorten the wall.

Each style requires the presence of certain accessories to replace wall cabinets, as well as the corresponding design of alternative furniture.A classic kitchen will not look properly without hinged cabinets, so it is better to leave them when it is designed, but a room in modern and some other styles will look very organic without hanging products.

• Railing structures will fit perfectly into the concept country and scandinavian style. Also, the buffets will look more rustic than the wardrobes-columns.

• Constructivist style instead of railing, it prefers the use of column cabinets.

• In concepts industrial or loft on the upper tier shelves of not very large width and extremely simple shapes are installed. They can hang on top of each other in 2 or 3 rows.

• Provence style replacing suspended structures will be antique shelves, as well as numerous small shelves. The lower part of the headset, decorated in light wood, and a hood selected to match the tone, will make the atmosphere in the kitchen cozy and romantic.

• Minimalism style Slightly higher than the apron can be long straight shelves, matching the color of the headset. Often they contrast with the apron itself. The most relevant materials in this case will be plastic, as well as wood and even glass.

• Everything you need for the top tier of style high tech - this is filling the space with a triangular or other, having a non-standard shape, hoods, as well as one or two open or closed shelves.

In addition to placing shelves, it is also worth thinking about the surface finish of the wall, which is usually covered with hanging cabinets. May consider Several options for wall decoration in accordance with certain areas of design.

• In the Provence style, the wall remains monophonic, and the accessories on the shelves take on the role of accent.

• Favorite loft print is a brickwork which is imitated both by means of wall-paper, and with use of a tile.

• The minimalistic finish involves the use of such raw materials as chipboard panels, chromed metal, glass, porcelain stoneware, plastic and artificial stone. It is acceptable both to highlight the apron with the help of color and texture, and to leave the wall plain.

• Visually fill the free space at the top with wallpaper or other cover with a vertical ornament. Such bands, especially against a dark background, compensate for the absence of hinged headset products.

• An important element of the Scandinavian direction are black and white or other minimalistic paintings, sometimes located in several pieces. They help diversify the gray or white tone of the walls.

If you can not decide how to place shelves instead of hanging cabinets in the kitchen, then pay attention to the following interesting ideas for decorating the kitchen with the help of such accessories.

• In large kitchens in private houses, you can arrange the lower tier in a long row near one wall with windows, and instead of using the upper tier, use window sills as a space for accessories.

• To prevent the wall from appearing empty, place a long shelf above the apron and place a picture above it that fits the interior.

• Shelves for storing rarely used utensils can be placed almost under the ceiling, while the space below can be filled with railing.

• The appearance of the kitchen will become much more interesting if you place wall lamps with an unusual silhouette on the sides of the open shelves.

• Equipping the space with the help of lighting is a good move to give the room a modern style a special cozy atmosphere.

• The room with the dark lower drawers and the gray color of the refrigerator can be freshened up with the help of a white shelf, on which, in addition to kitchen utensils, fresh flowers will also be placed.

• Even if all the utensils fit in the lower cabinets of the headset, you can still make a shelf at the top to place accessories that add comfort, such as vases, glass figurines, flowers and even a clock.

For the pros and cons of a kitchen without hanging cabinets, see the video below.