Open corner shelves are suitable for kitchens of all sizes, but they are especially good for small rooms. Unlike closed hanging drawers, shelves do not make space heavier, brighten corners, and maintain lightness and volume of the room.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages and disadvantages of such designs will always find their supporters and opponents. For a complete picture of angular models, let us consider their pros and cons in more detail. Advantages include the following criteria.
- Decorate and hide an empty nondescript corner.
- Wear a functional and decorative orientation - useful in any case.
- The design takes up little space, unlike the upper cabinets, it does not clutter up the space.
- Doors of corner closed drawers interfere with each other when used. This does not happen with open shelves.
- Products are so easy to manufacture that they can be made with your own hands.
- The choice of models in configuration and color is quite large, which allows you to choose them for any stylized environment.
- An open review allows you not to waste time searching for items.
- The cost of such products is lower than that of closed wall cabinets.
Corner shelves are good in many ways, but they also have their drawbacks.
- Dust accumulates on them.
- Items on the shelf should always be in perfect order. Such shelves are open to the review of everyone entering the kitchen.
- You can’t put old unsightly utensils on them, as well as large objects - kitchen appliances or pans.
- If there is a stove or sink in the corner, the shelves will get greasy stains and splashes.
Types of designs
Corner shelves are divided by location (floor, wall, mounted), by material, purpose and design features. Location affects the design of the products themselves. Floor models can be much more massive than desktop options.
Hanging shelves produce different sizes.
Simple
In fact, consisting of boards and awnings, such furniture is not difficult to do independently. Simple designs can be varied by the number of shelves, the distance between them, size and material. Simple corner shelves are sometimes sold complete with a cabinet in which you can hide household supplies, and put spices, cups and other little things in the open.
Trellised
They are made of wooden battens, but more often they are metal products that are mounted above the corner sink. Such models serve for drying dishes. In the design of some modern areas where chrome metal is required, lattice shelves can be placed in any corner of the kitchen without being tied to a sink. They are concise, without unnecessary decor, visually in the room they support lightness and spaciousness.
Complicated
More sophisticated corner shelf models may have spice boxes or other small items. Complicate the design of the door, which cover the selective sections of the multi-tiered corner structure.
Backlit
Corner shelves are often equipped with backlight. If they are designed for decoration, lighting favorably highlights exhibition items. If the shelf is in the working area, the functional area receives additional lighting, which is very convenient during cooking.
They use different types of lighting devices, for example, in the dining area above a cozy sofa on the shelves, you can fix a couple of sconces to create a romantic atmosphere. Using LED strip, you should choose products with low light, so that it does not dazzle, but only draw attention to the decor. Correctly placed spotlights in the lower parts of the shelves illuminate well, but do not dazzle.
For flowers
Country interiors, shabby chic, provence use fresh juicy greens in their decoration. Corner shelves designed for flowers can be made of wood or wrought iron. Often they have sides so that pots of greenery do not move down.
Corner shelf with flower planting makes the atmosphere in the kitchen at home comfortable.
Materials of manufacture
Each material is good in its own way, and it doesn’t have to be a tree, chipboard or MDF. More moisture resistant materials are relevant for the kitchen, so in the interior of such rooms you can find shelves made of glass, plastic, metal and stone.
Glass
Elegant and airy glass shelves transmit light, they are light and beautiful. The decor on them can be seen from almost all sides, soft lighting makes the corner just “magic”. For shelves, toughened glass with a thickness of 8 mm is used.
Its strength can not be compared with wood or metal, but it is relatively durable, freely withstands several dozen thick cookbooks. The disadvantages of glass structures include their moodiness in care. They easily collect dust, but an attempt to remove it with a damp rag ends in stains. Glass shelves decorate the kitchen in fusion style, minimalism, neoclassic.
Metal
In large products, all-metal shelves are not so common. Usually chrome poles or the whole frame are installed, on which wooden panels are laid. But there are elegant small lattice structures, they are completely made of steel and coated with chrome. Beautiful forged shelves can be made entirely of metal or combined with wood. Shelves made of metal are protected with a special coating that protects against corrosion. Such products can be suitable for modern technostyle - high-tech, minimalism, loft.
Wood
Wood has always been used for furniture. It has a wide variety of colors and a unique pattern of each product. Wood is an environmentally friendly material, it radiates heat and a healthy atmosphere, the more wood in the interior, the kitchen is more comfortable and quiet. For use, the tree is treated with special impregnation from insects, covered with moisture-resistant paint and varnish compositions.
Wood is durable and strong, corner shelves can withstand kitchen appliances and a large number of dishes. It is used in classical, historical, rustic styles, as well as in environmental and ethnic directions. Even modern interiors that prefer glass, metal and stone cannot do without wood. The material is easy to process, so it is often used to make handmade shelves.
Some craftsmen decorate products with openwork carvings, and the shelves take on a fabulous appearance, as if taken from an old tower.
Particleboard and MDF
Chipboards are a great alternative to expensive wood. It is they and their products, having an affordable price, that can decorate every home. Plates are covered with veneer, imitating the species of any, even exotic wood. For corner shelves in the kitchen, it is more convenient to use chipboard lined with plastic (postforming method). This is a durable material, easy to clean, it can last a long time.
You should know that in home use, MDF boards are safer than particleboards that are impregnated with toxic adhesive mixtures. This composition is able to evaporate in conditions of increasing ambient temperature, which often happens in the kitchen.
A rock
Shelves made of natural or artificial stone surprisingly enrich an unsightly corner. They can be massive floor or compact, as if glued to the wall. Stone is used in modern techno interiors and in almost all types of country. It is good for classicism, baroque, empire and other historical styles. The disadvantage of such shelves can be the high cost and high weight of the material.
Application in different styles
Corner shelves have a large number of models made of different materials with rich colors, which makes it possible to choose a product for any stylized kitchen. Let's see how you can design interiors in different styles.
- Kitchen Provence have white color or gentle light shades of mint, blue, olive, cream. Shelves are simple and natural, painted in the color of the environment. Although they are quite functional, they are often used as decorative ones, exhibiting dishes of old designs.
- Small table corner shelf high tech made of metal and completely devoid of decor, which is typical for this direction.
- A compact, distinctive wooden shelf can suit anyone village direction.
- Classic Combined Suspension open and closed - a good example for a small kitchen.
- Decorative corner shelf fits perfectly in style Russian country.
- Exhibition open corner shelf suitable for style rustic or american country.
- Bright kitchen in scandinavian style without upper cabinets it is equipped with convenient corner and straight shelves.
- Open style corner shelves minimalism usually decorated with spotlights.
- Glass decorative shelves for small kitchens can be used in any historical direction.
They transmit light and look elegant and airy.
- Open shelves located in the second tier lighten the interior, visually make it more spacious. Such options are often used. in the loft style.
Accommodation options
Corner shelves can be installed on the floor, on the table or hung on the wall. Any of the 4 corners of the kitchen is suitable for them. Let's consider accommodation options in more detail.
Above the worktop
An ideal arrangement of shelves, since during cooking, dishes and other necessary kitchen utensils are literally at hand.
Over the sink
It’s convenient to use trellised shelves. They can be in the form of tiny products suspended on rails, they are filled with trifles. And they can be fixed on the wall or mounted on a table above the sink and used for drying dishes.
In the dining area
Beautiful shelves in the dining area harmonize well with the furniture and create an atmosphere of comfort.
Design Ideas
The presence of corner shelves in the kitchen significantly facilitates the life of the hostess. To make the corner even more functional and spectacular, you can use several proven ideas.
- It is convenient to place moving shelves for spices in the corner above the tabletop; they are able to change their position on two adjacent walls at the request of the hostess.
- The rotating shelves in the corner of the lower tier of the headset are practical. If it were not for the idea of rotation, it would be very difficult to get to things located in such a place.
- An interesting idea is to install round supports with a rotation element at the junction of adjacent shelves. This rounds the corner and makes it easier to access.
Things that should have easy and quick access (tea, coffee, spices, cereals) can comfortably sit on open shelves. If you put the little things in beautiful jars, such an angle will become decorative and functional at the same time, it will pleasantly brighten up the working environment in the kitchen.
See how to make a corner shelf with your own hands in the next video.