Rustic Shelves in a Modern Kitchen

I have been mentioning the tweaks in our kitchen for a while now, and today I am happy to show you one of the areas.  Even though our kitchen is only four years old and has the popular Cararra marble  and white cabinets, it always felt flat to me.  My friend and kitchen designer Debra Hupman suggested that I add a wall of rustic shelves to this modern kitchen to add some warmth and texture.  The wall she was talking about has always been an awkward wall, and I have hung various pieces of art there to try to make it feel right.  Well, the testy wall has finally grown up and has become what it was always meant to be.

The wood, which is at least 150 years old, came from an old stage coach inn.  Carpenter Greg said that when he cut it, it smelled like an old barn.  Thankfully, there is no smell now.  To prep the shelves, I cleaned them and gave them a good sanding.  (That was my first experience with a power tool, and I felt powerful).  Then they were sprayed with a sealer.

 

 

My cousin Lane is a professional furniture builder who only uses old wood, and I bought the wood from him.  It is tongue and groove, and there is a ridge on one side that adds some interest to it.

 

 

The brackets are from Anthropologie, and my daughter-in-law found them.

 

 

When I first saw the shelves, I thought that they were too high.  I immediately started adding accessories to them and was still questioning how high they are.  I sent a quick photo to Debra, and she said they are just fine.

 

 

Carpenter Greg explained that the bottom shelf is the same height as the lowest part of our kitchen cabinets, and the highest shelf is the same as the top of the cabinets.  Debra said they should be 18  to 20 inches from the ceiling, and they are.

 

 

I already owned everything that I placed on the shelves except this cute clock.  It adds a pop of color, and we needed a clock in the room.

 

 

 

It took me all of ten minutes to accessorize the shelves, and I love the way they turned out.  My goal was to have color and texture.  This flow blue platter is Princeton by Johnson Brothers and was a pattern that my late grandmother owned.  I received just one of her plates (she died before I was born), but I have bought a few over the years on Ebay.

 

 

At one point this oversized clock hung in the space, and Lulubelle, my cow painting was there for a while.  She was too big, though, and looks much better in her spot over the table.

 

 

I can’t get over how much warmer and cozier our kitchen feels with these new old shelves.  I can’t wait to show you the rest of our tweaks.

 

Jordan and I learned at Haven that the subscription service that we were using needed to be upgraded ASAP.  The new system is now in place, and so, all of our subscribers are seeing our real website rather than a watered down version of it.  Welcome.  For any of you who would like to receive our blog in your email every day that we publish, we invite you to sign up for a free subscription.  In the fall we plan to add a free newsletter that will be available only to our subscribers.

 

Take care.

 

Linking to Savvy Southern Style