Kitchen shelves: ideas for floating, pull-out, and wall-mounted shelves

While a kitchen is made up of many parts, kitchen shelves are some of the absolutely most important.

Whether you use them to store groceries and cookware, or to display decorative times, good kitchen shelves can make all the difference in how your kitchen works and looks.

Whether your kitchen is an old-fashioned country-style kitchen, a hangout for family and friends, or a sleek, state-of-the-art cooking area, here are some great kitchen shelf ideas to help you out.

Kitchen shelves

For some of the most effective kitchen shelves, choose modular kitchen shelves. A modular kitchen shelf can slide around to accommodate the height of items on top or below, provided the cabinet is designed to accommodate it.

Image source: Tipfords

They will likely keep the same configuration or for a long period of time. However, it’s nice to know that you have the option to store larger items at some point, and this can become a necessity as your lifestyle changes.

Kitchen cabinet shelves are your go-to place when it comes to storage in the kitchen. You want to make sure you choose a depth that allows for both plenty of storage space and easy access to all of the items in your kitchen cabinets. You don’t want to blindly look for flour or bread at the back of the shelf when you’re cooking.

Accessibility needs to be balanced with storage on kitchen cabinet shelves. You may want to buy some organizers to make it easier for you to access items that you will need regularly.

Most homeware stores have a wide variety of these kitchen shelf / cabinet organizers. Very few require any kind of hardware and can be a very great amenity, especially for busy and crowded homes.

Image source: Samuel Design Group

Pull-out kitchen shelves can be the way to go if you want to keep a lot of items on your kitchen shelves. Pull-out kitchen shelves act as a kind of rack that moves much like a regular kitchen drawer and easily slides out of the closet for access to whatever items you’ve stored there. Make sure you get high quality pull-out kitchen shelves.

Similar to shopping for drawers, test the design to make sure they don’t stick and pull out easily. While you may want to lift the rack out for cleaning and repair, it shouldn’t be too easy to lift out.

Open kitchen shelves

It might be better to keep some items open for all to see. You may want to display your fine chine or have quick access to commonly used ingredients.

These wall-mounted kitchen shelves should reflect the style of your kitchen while being practical and sturdy. There are a variety of great looking options for any kitchen design.

Image source: Whitstable Island Interiors

Floating kitchen shelves are available in a variety of colors and bracket designs. Most of the time, they resemble a wooden board (smooth, painted, or stained) hanging on the wall with no noticeable bracket, but they can look more elaborate too.

There are some fairly narrow shelves that look almost like exposed wooden beams, perfect for a country kitchen or a more industrial design. With floating kitchen shelves, it is important that they are properly wall-mounted. Research how they attach to the wall, what tools you will need, and how much weight they can support.

If the design you are looking at is known to suddenly collapse over time, look for a more stable mounting mechanism. When mounting it on the wall, be sure to follow the instructions on the kitchen shelf for the best results. Carefully store delicate and fragile items on floating kitchen shelves when they are very affordable.

Image source: PowerSmith design

You can also have kitchen shelves built into the bottoms of your closets. This is a great idea when there are ingredients that you use certain ingredients frequently for. It’s wonderful to display spice jars instead of a spice rack.

The best way to install these type of kitchen shelves is to build them in with new cabinets as they are firmly wall mounted with the cabinets, are easy to install, and will go perfectly with all of your cabinets.

If you plan to display collectibles or crockery, consider installing kitchen shelves with glass doors like display cabinets. This can be a great way to showcase grandma’s antique silver or a collection of coffee mugs from around the world.

Image source: Holmes + Salter Interiors

Kitchen shelf materials

Kitchen shelves are simple, which means they can be made from many different materials. What material a kitchen shelf is made of is often the biggest factor in terms of price, assembly mechanism and weight. If you plan to install a shelf yourself, try not to buy it from a very heavy material as it can be very difficult to wrestle onto the bracket.

Metal kitchen shelves may be the way to go for any kitchen style. Metal floors are usually very light as they are seldom solid and yet very durable and easy to clean.

You can find them in rustic versions with a patina designed to look like they have been used for years, or you can find stainless steel kitchen shelves that are better suited to more modern kitchen designs.

Boss Design Center can let you know a little more about kitchen design. Check their website.

Image source: Rock paper hammer

You can also find more rack-style or basket-style metal kitchen shelves that are good for groups of small items that don’t like sitting flat. When placed in the right place and with the right design, these kitchen shelves can be used from fruit bins to drying racks.

Final thoughts on the kitchen shelves

The importance of good kitchen shelving cannot be emphasized enough. Whether you’re looking for storage space or a place to display accent items, high quality shelving is the perfect choice. Kitchen shelves maximize your use of space while looking great.