It is a fad in the same way all designs are a fad. And people with all-white kitchens hate it the most because they convinced themselves that their design was not a fad.

I don't get all the hate on open shelving in this thread. I get it's not for everyone, but if like your dishes and are fairly organized, I think it has a very cozy, chef's kitchen vibe. We have half and half because we don't have a separate pantry so we wanted some uppers with doors for pantry items. But all our dishes and glassware, as well as most of our cookware is on open shelves. I love how it looks and it's a good incentive to keep things put away and tidy. Also, our cookware is mostly Le Creuset and while I love it for being hardworking and practical, I also love how it looks up on the shelves.

I think it's a mistake to design a kitchen without thinking how you will live in it. Our kitchen is white and gray, which looks boring in photos. But in our house, with the open shelving and some exposed brick and window full of plants and our red and blue cookware, it doesn't look boring at all. It looks perfect. Kitchens are not about cabinetry and backsplashes.

Anonymous wrote:We just did this. We had those awful honey red colored raised panel cabinets with blech brown granite. As a mini self reno during Covid lockdown, we painted top cabinets BM Simply White. We removed a few uppers and Added a few open shelves to look a little more current. We changed countertops to white quartz with movement and crisp small beveled marble white tiles from Home Depot as a backspash. Now I’m not hating those lower cabinets nearly as much. New pendants, new hardware, and new fridge. We did it all for around 5k, not counting the fridge. We don’t plan on being in our house more than 3-5 years. It felt risky to try it, but it has panned our for sure. I felt good when I looked at Christopher Peacock’s website and saw some honey colored wood lowers.

Oh no, you kept the bottom cabinets that awful orangey-brown? Why didn't you just paint them??? I mean if you insist on two tone, paint them gray or black!

Where have you been the past ten years, LOL?

Anonymous wrote:We just did this. We had those awful honey red colored raised panel cabinets with blech brown granite. As a mini self reno during Covid lockdown, we painted top cabinets BM Simply White. We removed a few uppers and Added a few open shelves to look a little more current. We changed countertops to white quartz with movement and crisp small beveled marble white tiles from Home Depot as a backspash. Now I’m not hating those lower cabinets nearly as much. New pendants, new hardware, and new fridge. We did it all for around 5k, not counting the fridge. We don’t plan on being in our house more than 3-5 years. It felt risky to try it, but it has panned our for sure. I felt good when I looked at Christopher Peacock’s website and saw some honey colored wood lowers.

Nice job, PP, sounds great and $$ well-spent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They've been around since the 50s.

I was going to say, there’s something charmingly retro about a lot of two tone kitchens. I like it!

It’s a very Brady kitchen:

We just did this. We had those awful honey red colored raised panel cabinets with blech brown granite. As a mini self reno during Covid lockdown, we painted top cabinets BM Simply White. We removed a few uppers and Added a few open shelves to look a little more current. We changed countertops to white quartz with movement and crisp small beveled marble white tiles from Home Depot as a backspash. Now I’m not hating those lower cabinets nearly as much. New pendants, new hardware, and new fridge. We did it all for around 5k, not counting the fridge. We don’t plan on being in our house more than 3-5 years. It felt risky to try it, but it has panned our for sure. I felt good when I looked at Christopher Peacock’s website and saw some honey colored wood lowers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, like any interior design, this look can go well or really miss the mark. Totally depends on all the other design choices. When done well, it can be a great way to add color and visual interest to a kitchen.

This is pretty much the only interior design rule. Anything can be done well, it's just that some things are harder to do well than others.

NP. And this is one thing that is very hard to do well.

Anonymous wrote:I mean, like any interior design, this look can go well or really miss the mark. Totally depends on all the other design choices. When done well, it can be a great way to add color and visual interest to a kitchen.

This is pretty much the only interior design rule. Anything can be done well, it's just that some things are harder to do well than others.

To me, it's a very HGTV look, which is kind of "middle market" when it comes to taste and sophistication.

Happily, you can always paint one set to match the others if you grow bored of the look.

I mean, like any interior design, this look can go well or really miss the mark. Totally depends on all the other design choices. When done well, it can be a great way to add color and visual interest to a kitchen.

No thanks. My first thought walking into a two tone kitchen, is gut and redo the kitchen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could not pay me to do open shelving.

Right? It looks like they didn’t have money for cabinets. Stuff would be falling off the shelves in my house due to lack of storage space. I mean what family has 4 neatly stacked plates and bowls and nothing else?

My family of four did in our last house and I loved it. We put our every day settings and glasses there and flower vases and decorative items on the top shelf. There was no time for the items to get dirty, as they were used every day. I’m currently considering taking down one of our wall cabinets to do the same.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure I'd call this a current fad. It was being done 10 years ago when we did a kitchen update.

This. 9 years ago in our house.

Some nice examples in this piece

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/white-kitchens-are-getting-kicked-to-the-curb-11601050251