Ask Auntie Leila: Do you like your open pots and pans cupboard?
Last week Laura left a comment:
We’re beginning the design process in our kitchen remodel and I’ve found your posts to be a wealth of practical inspiration! Question — because I dearly love the idea, and both my husband and the cabinet builder are secretly wondering if I’m insane — do you like the open shelf by the stove where you have your pots?
The first time I saw that photo it just made my heart flutter with functional love, haha. Space RIGHT THERE for my Dutch ovens, IPs, glass pans, and crockpots!! (instead of the only place where they fit now… in another room off the kitchen).
But other voices are commenting on “the dark void” that “will get splatters and mess and little hands all in it and don’t you want a door to cover it?” And every time I think about how wonderful it will be to not move a door but just reach down and grab one of those tools that I use at every single meal without opening a door.
ANYWAYS. So. Are you still enjoying the open shelf? If you were to make the decision again, would you go for a door or leave it an open shelf? I’m all ears!
Dear Laura,
I promised I would take pictures to show you, so here we go!
Maybe I should have cleaned my lens… sorry about that!
I do enjoy this layout. I had open shelves for my pots and pans ever since our first go-round with this kitchen. (Click the link and you can see a peek of them behind the island.)
Rosie suggested it (I think she was 16 or 17 and was painting all the cabinets for me!). I have to say I was sold almost right away! I had a brief moment of fear — can one really not have doors? Remember, this was the early 2000s and we didn’t have one million inspo pics to consult.
But — I don’t love the extra dose of sensory experience of opening and shutting cabinet doors and reaching beyond them, on top of all that goes into cooking daily for what turned out to be 11 or even sometimes 12 people, depending!
My father was an operations engineer — he sort of specialized in efficiency and reduction of extraneous movement. I inherited from him a desire not to waste motion — plus, extra steps make me tired. I know I sometimes come across as having endless energy, but it’s not so. I often just need to lie down! It’s all just that much.
A couple of notes on the decision-making:
My corner is tricky. I wrote in my post about it all the decision-making that went into figuring it out, given the limitations (mostly, the door to the left of the oven on the [north] wall, going into the dining room, that limits the width of the opening next to the stove — and part of that is really wanting the 6-burner, 36″ range).
If there were even a smidge more room, for instance if I had chosen the 30″ range or moved the door further to the left, I probably would have gone for the corner Lazy Susan with the door that shuts it all out of view. But there is not room for it — it needs a certain amount of square footage to work.
I wanted that stove and I did not want to move the door. It was proposed! But this house has a lot of doors and you don’t have many sight-lines. One nice one is being able to see through the dining room to a little bit of the living room.
In this pic, taken the day after Thanksgiving, I’m in the dining room, but if I took a few steps back, I’d be in the kitchen and could see through like this.
In A Pattern Language (affiliate link),Christopher Alexander talks about the importance of these sight-lines in our feeling of knowing where we are in a house. I thought that moving the door would break up this nice glimpse through the rooms; often people go no further than the kitchen — would they go away thinking that was it? Nothing more to this house? Besides, the dining room has a floor that cannot be replicated or repaired once you fiddle with it.
Rather than lose the space, and some people do make the choice to ignore the corner, just make it “blind” and forget about it, I decided to leave it open.
I only ever saw two inspiration photos with this particular setup, and they did make my heart go pit-a-pat! (Here’s my board for corner designs. I tried to focus on kitchens that seemed to have the same limitations re: doorways.)
One inspo pic involves the gal putting a pretty curtain there, but from the context, I would guess she does not cook much, and her whole kitchen is really for the decorating. That’s fine, it’s just not me!
I cannot handle even the thought of all the grease spatters I produce, landing on fabric. So even though it’s pretty, it’s not for me. (I would go for it if the corner were not near the stove, though!) But it does show a corner without a cabinet!
The other one has the shelves quite open, like mine, and you can only get a glimpse… it’s actually out of focus! But it was enough for me!
I can easily wipe the shelves down. It’s not super easy for me to get way back into the space, so I have it set up with those little organizational shelves in the corners, for shallow pans, in an attempt to make it really useable. I was okay, too, with not using every inch, the way you would with the Lazy Susan (minus the corners left by the circular trays of it).
I guess it’s good for me to squat to reach those (admittedly not used daily) items!
My crockpot is in the pantry and I really never use it! I keep thinking I should get rid of it; the only thing that holds me back is the knowledge I will suddenly need it as soon as I give it away!
I go strictly by the 80-20% rule, so it’s only my most-used things right here in my high-value space. (I have a detailed post about the organization here.)
The IP is under the vintage sink. That cabinet is quite roomy because the sink is so wide — there’s a trash bin, cleaning things, and the IP pot under there! I usually use it over on that side of the kitchen. You can see the organization over there in this post.
The very most used are truly just at hand, with my cast iron skillet actually living on the stovetop. The somewhat less used (maybe 50%) are further back and NOT heavy or requiring two hands to haul out. If you do the math, you will see that the back of the corner is really far back, the altitude of a right triangle from its right angle to its hypotenuse being the geometric mean of the lengths of the segments and all.
If I used the crockpot and IP every day, I could see putting them in there I suppose, but the shelving wouldn’t work in the current configuration, as the IP is quite tall.
I’m used to kids crawling over and getting pots and lids — isn’t that what they are for? I can see a tot getting right in there and actually giving me a bit of peace for a time! When I think more about it, I am sure my kids would have used it as a prime hide-and-seek spot!
There are pros and cons to every choice. There is no one perfect solution! You have to know yourself and what you really care about. I love to see and easily access the things I use!
It makes me happy not to open a cabinet door of any kind in the corner, truly.
I came across information about Rex Brasher, incredible naturalist and bird lover (“He quietly painted every bird species in North America”) , and sent it to my friend Jana, whose husband Sam Schmitt curates the artistic legacy of his grandfather, Carl Schmitt, who was based in Connecticut. She in turn told me about another Connecticut legend, Eric Sloane. His farm and workshop are a museum, and his work is important especially for boys who, as Jana says, need “that necessary view of competent, purposeful practical wisdom and craftsmanship and the handed-down ways,” and his artwork helps them be good noticers of the details of things.Here is a short film about Sloane’s contribution to New England history and culture.
She also mentioned this group, TradesUp, that seeks to pass on apprenticeship in the trades. This video describes their effort. The Sloane museum hosts their events as well, “with a mind to introduce the old ways and the trades to young people who might thereafter dabble or make it their life’s work.”
I apologize for forgetting to post the Advent calendar from Lydia! Your kids can catch up!
I’m going to try this with my grandchildren who live nearby: . We love making Springerle and I have a nice collection now of molds they love, but a whole batch of that dough disappears rather quickly with this number of bakers! I think they need a different dough outlet! Making ornaments is the perfect solution, I think.
The latest climate-change insanity, targeting cows and of course, ultimately, our health: methane-reducing strategies: introducing the additive Bovaer to cattle feed. I’m too old to start with a dairy cow!
Some “conspiracy theories” that are now just simple facts: An Accidentalist’s Guide to Denying the Obvious. “The solution isn’t fighting their systems directly – it’s building parallel structures that make them irrelevant” — and that is why I encourage you to live according to the liturgical year and to make real friends in real life, using social media to connect, not to replace.
Like I’ve been saying all along: COVID Select Subcommittee Releases Findings: Vaccine Mandates ‘Not Supported by Science,’ Mask Rules Useless
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