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30 Beautiful Kitchens with Floating Shelves + Ideas and Tips!

kitchens with floating shelves

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Kitchens with Floating Shelves

Have empty wall space? Kitchens with floating shelves offer a contemporary way to utilize empty wall space in your kitchen. Open shelving easily blends aesthetic appeal with storage space. 

Incorporating floating shelves into your kitchen design can create an open and airy feel, especially if your space is small or lacks natural light. Choose materials that complement your existing cabinetry and countertops for a cohesive look.

kitchens with floating shelves

In this kitchen, floating shelves replace the upper cabinets, allowing natural light to sprawl.

Whether you prefer sleek, modern lines or a more rustic, farmhouse style, floating shelves can be customized to fit your taste.

Kitchen Open Shelves

Replacing upper cabinets with open shelves creates a more open and airy feel. 

One of the advantages of open shelves is the ease of access they provide. You can quickly grab what you need without opening and closing cabinet doors, making your kitchen more efficient during busy cooking times.

kitchens with floating shelves

See how open and airy this kitchen feels? No upper cabinets creates the appearance of high ceilings and expansive space!

Open shelving also encourages organization, everything is on display, prompting you to keep items neat and tidy.

Open Shelves with Brackets

Open shelves with brackets combine a traditional look with modern functionality.

The brackets can be a design feature in various styles and degrees of ornamentation. They provide robust support, allowing you to store heavier items like pots, pans, and large dishes securely.

Most shelves with brackets have a farmhouse, rustic, traditional, or industrial style.

kitchens with floating shelves

Rustic Wood Shelves with Brackets

Wood floating shelves with brackets offer rustic-style storage space. The choice of wood can range from smooth-finished beams to rustic barnwood and live-edge slabs.

The sturdy metal brackets offer an industrial contrast to the wood shelves, ensuring both durability and a touch of modern flair.

Floating Shelves with Range Hood

Create a striking focal point in your kitchen with floating shelves flanking the range hood.

Statement range hoods are a massive trend in kitchen design. Highlighting this statement piece with some adjacent floating shelves allows the beauty of the hood vent to shine!

kitchens with floating shelves

Floating Shelves Beside Range Hood

These airy, minimalist shelves are perfect for showcasing your favorite kitchen essentials and decorative items. Crafted from light-toned wood, they give the space a fresh and open feel.

kitchens with floating shelves

Linear White Floating Shelves

Achieve a clean and modern look in your kitchen with white floating shelves perfectly aligned with the range hood. These sleek shelves offer a seamless extension of your kitchen design.

This also creates a line of separation between the marble backsplash and painted wall.

kitchens with floating shelves

Geometric Backsplash and Floating Shelves

The crisp, clean lines of the white shelves pop against the geometric back splash. A well-placed space in the shelves allows air to travel up the hood vent. 

Stacked Open Shelving

One common design for floating shelves is stacking multiple shelves of the same length on top of one another to take up more vertical space.

Stacked shelves add depth and dimension to your kitchen and provide ample storage space.

kitchens with floating shelves

Custom Floating Shelves

This kitchen with full-height cabinets utilizes stacked floating shelves to add a bit of open space to the design. Custom floating shelves perfectly fill the space between the cabinet and the wall.

kitchens with floating shelves

3 Stacked Shelves

Three stacked floating shelves provide plenty of open storage while allowing the backsplash tile to shine through. The shelves are brought to the edge of the wall for a custom look.

kitchens with floating shelves

All On Display

These beautiful oak shelves really pop against the green tile backsplash. From books and photo frames to plants and artwork, these shelves offer endless possibilities for creating a personalized display that reflects your unique style. 

kitchens with floating shelves

Walnut Floating Shelves

This kitchen has a beautiful contrast between warm walnut and pale blue. The open shelving on the corner has three shelves and one faux shelf that draws the eye up to the ceiling. 

kitchens with floating shelves

Stacked Shelves with Integrated Lighting

The soft glow of integrated LED lighting gently illuminates your treasured items on stacked floating shelves. These discreetly placed lights create a warm and inviting atmosphere while highlighting the items on the shelves.

kitchens with floating shelves

White Shaker Cabinets and Wood Shelves

The classic lines and timeless appeal of white shaker style cabinets provide a clean backdrop for any kitchen or living space. Pairing them with richly stained wood shelves adds a touch of organic warmth and texture, creating a cozy blend of sophistication and rustic charm.

Natural Wood SHelves

Introduce the beauty of nature into your kitchen with natural wood shelves. Alder, oak, walnut, and other wood species add an organic element to kitchen design.

Often matched with wood flooring or cabinetry, the tone of the floating shelves will help create a cohesive kitchen design.

Their unique grain patterns and earthy tones bring a sense of authenticity and charm to your kitchen, complementing a variety of styles, from beachy coastal to fresh transitional.

kitchens with floating shelves

Wood Floating Shelves and Subway Tile

Wood floating shelves against a backdrop of classic subway tile is the perfect modern combo. The warm, natural tones of the wood create a beautiful contrast with the sleek white tiles, adding a touch of nature’s charm to your kitchen.

kitchens with floating shelves

Modern Transitional Kitchens with Floating Shelves

Light wood tones are all the rage right now! Adding some light wooden shelves brings the color of the flooring up to cabinet height. This creates cohesion and brings more warmth to this otherwise monochromatic kitchen.

kitchens with floating shelves

Embracing Wood Cabinetry

This is an excellent example of a modern rustic kitchen with wood cabinets. White upper cabinets and wood shelves keep the design light and fresh. We love how the shelves are spaced on either side of the range hood evenly.

kitchens with floating shelves

Display Your Eclectic Treasures

Wood shelves let you tell a story through personal memories and souvenirs. Their natural charm and warmth complement various decor styles, from bohemian to mid-century modern, adding character and personality to any room.

Integrated Open Shelving

Integrated or built-in shelves within your cabinets offer a seamless solution to small niches and spaces, adding visual interest and unique storage. Crafted to fit the dimensions of your cabinets perfectly, these shelves can be tailored to accommodate your specific needs.

kitchens with floating shelves

Perfect Cookbook Shelves

These open shelves are perfect for storing cookbooks! Whether incorporated into cabinetry or nestled between appliances, cookbook shelves provide easy access to your favorite recipes while adding a touch of charm to your kitchen.

kitchens with floating shelves

Small Integrated Shelves

Make use of every inch of your kitchen with custom cabinetry. These small shelves perfectly fill in the space between the cabinet and the wall. This way, the upper cabinets on either side of the hood vent remain symmetrical. 

kitchens with floating shelves

Contemporary Kitchens with Floating Shelves

This contemporary kitchen provides open storage by installing floating shelves on top of cabinet material. This is a unique take on a floating shelf.

kitchens with floating shelves

Built In Shelving

These white shelves blend into the wall color around them, giving the kitchen a seamless appearance and perfectly fills this unique niche.

kitchens with floating shelves

Dividing Space with Floating Shelves

You can see two defined task areas in this kitchen on either side of the tall cabinet. Floating shelves are strategically placed to help mark boundaries between the cooking zones.

Long Floating Shelves

Another option for an open shelf in kitchen design is one long vertical shelf. This versatile shelf offers a sleek and minimalist design, perfect for showcasing your favorite items in style.

Its elongated form creates an illusion of spaciousness and creates a striking horizontal line. The long floating shelf is often installed above the countertop for easy access.

kitchens with floating shelves

The Perfect Dinnerware Shelf

Whether installed above countertops, near the dining area, or alongside cabinetry, open shelving for dinnerware creates a visually stunning focal point. This long, well-crafted shelf easily supports the weight of dinnerware and keeps your most used items within reach.

kitchens with floating shelves

Floating Shelves Across the Window

Perfect for small kitchens, installing floating shelves across a window maximizes space without blocking too much natural light. This is a great spot for sparkling glasses or plants.

kitchens with floating shelves

Making the Most of Backsplash Space

Installing a large horizontal floating shelf below the upper cabinets creates more storage for bowls, cups, and other small items. This maximizes the space you have between the lower and upper cabinets.

kitchens with floating shelves

Open Dining Area

Long floating shelves create an open dining area. A great alternative if a built-in china cabinet is not for you. Add a light fixture above the shelves for that custom look!

Corner Floating Shelves

Make the most of your kitchen’s corners with beautiful wall shelves. Corner shelves are a great way to keep a room open while maximizing storage.

Corner shelves can easily replace underutilized bulky cabinets that often reside in corners. Say goodbye to reaching into deep corner cabinets and hello to corner kitchen shelves!

kitchens with floating shelves

Continuous Corner Shelves

When installing floating shelves in a corner, consider using triangular or L-shaped shelves designed to fit snugly into the corner space, like this modern kitchen.

kitchens with floating shelves

Say Bye to Bulky Cabinets

Sometimes, having too many upper cabinets can look heavy in a space. These corner open shelves remove some of the bulk and let the stunning wood cabinets shine (without having them take over the space).

kitchens with floating shelves

Tiny Square Floating Shelves

Tiny square floating shelves are a clever and stylish way to add storage and display space to small kitchen areas. These compact shelves offer a minimalist appearance that is quite cute!

kitchens with floating shelves

L-Shaped Corner Kitchen Shelving

To enhance the visual appeal of the L-shaped corner shelving, consider using materials that complement your kitchen’s aesthetic, such as wood, metal, or glass shelves. Since corners can be shadowed and dim, integrated strip or puck lights are recommended to keep things bright!

Built in Bar & Coffee Stations with Open Shelves

For the bar station, incorporate open shelves to showcase your collection of spirits, wine glasses, and cocktail tools. Consider incorporating built-in wine racks or stemware holders to maximize space and organization.

For the coffee station, utilize open shelves to store coffee mugs, beans, syrups, and other accessories. Consider adding hooks or pegs underneath the shelves to hang mugs or coffee accessories for easy access.

kitchens with floating shelves

Multipurpose Bar Area

Floating shelves can serve multiple purposes, from storing books, displaying decorative items, organizing kitchen essentials, or even showcasing artwork. Their open design allows easy access to items while adding visual interest to the space.

kitchens with floating shelves

Coffee Station with Floating Shelves

Select a dedicated area for your coffee station, such as a countertop or wall space near your coffee maker. This kitchen has a unique coffee station hidden behind bright blue cabinets.

Install floating shelves above or beside the coffee maker to create storage and display space for coffee mugs, plants, and aesthetic supplies.

kitchens with floating shelves

Bar Area with Open Shelving

Elevate your home entertainment with a chic bar area featuring open shelving. Open shelving not only provides practical storage for bottles, glassware, and bar accessories but also offers an opportunity to showcase your personality. Are you a wine or whiskey person? Let the open shelves do the talking.

Discover Your Dream Kitchen With Decor

Discover Your Dream Kitchen With Decor

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