Hey there! I think adding some shelves are a
great idea. I personally would love to see some stainless steel shelves. Two on
either side of the hood should suffice. Great luck!

They DO work in your space and you have done an absolutely stellar job! WOW!!

Lack of symmetry bothers me, too, so I would add shelves to the left side just 12 inches. You can use them for spices (but please make sure the containers are uniform so it visually fills the space)

You've done a truly amazing job... :)

Ooh, I have to show you... we did the same thing with our microwave. It’s on the working side of our island, but it’s just a countertop microwave set below the counter. I love it like that. I wasn’t willing to invest in a drawer microwave, or give up more valuable real estate for the microwave elsewhere, I consider a microwave a sort of disposable appliance and I just wanted to be able to plug a new one in at will without any hoopla. LOL!

Isn't it awesome to have fresh eyes! Thank you all. You know even after staring at that wall for months and months it never occurred to me to fill the gap to the left of the stove to create symmetry. That is an intriguing idea. pennydesign and skmom, when you say add 12 inch shelves how many are you envisioning? What are your thoughts about a 12 inch upper instead? Does it matter that the cabinet below is 36 inches and therefore won't sync up in that regard? It's a galley kitchen so you're never really looking at it head on.

Forbes and Masters, I love stainless but was wondering if I should bring wood over to the that side of the room to match the window sills?

skmom Your kitchen looks great! Kudos to your husband for the cabinets!

pennydesign this is my spice drawer! Way too many to display! ;)

Have you seen any thick weathered boards at Habitat? Thick pieces of wood with personality would make great shelves.

Personally, I feel like shelves would look like a deliberate design choice, whereas the 12 inch upper would look like a mistake in planning. Obviously, it doesn't matter what you put there, but I think that visually you need to have somewhat of a boxy look, hence my suggestion for the spices. Plus the anal retentive girl in me loves the idea... :)

Put four strips of painters tape up there and see how it feels...

Ideas....

I think I’d probably do three shelves with the top one being more decorative. I’d probably have to lay out tape and stare at it a few days to be sure though. I also thought about a 12” cabinet, but I know that I don’t like cabinets that are that skinny. I find them inconvenient and too easy to bump and scrape my bony knuckles on while reaching into them, LOL! So for that reason, I’d be more prone to just add shelving even though I don’t like the idea of TOO much shelving in kitchens because grease and dust. But that amount wouldn’t be shelving overload. I wanted to add, I really love your window sills, they look fabulous! I adore the addition of warm wood... obviously since we used a lot of it in our kitchen too, LOL!

@Skmom, what did you use for top/side of your island?? How’s the finish holding up to daily use?

I love the warm wood and want to do something similar for wine/coffee bar in our otherwise white on white kitchen. Was thinking ikea butcherblock...

You can't use weathered wood boards in that location. Why?

Because you can't clean weathered wood boards that are covered with grease and dust!!!!! Some people just don't think.

You are putting shelves near the source of all pollution in your kitchen. The aerosolized grease alone makes it a bad idea.

So--what will you store there? Oils? Spices? Nope, they should be in a cool, dark place.

You could store decorative items there and maybe special-use pots. But you'll have to wash them often even if they aren't used. And you can't put anything heavy up there because of your stove top.

I'd put up fixtures to get stuff off the counter--a magnetic rail for the knives and a rod to hang cooking utensils from. I like the open space there and I like the asymmetry--and I really like how the kitchen turned out. Let your backsplash make a statement, since you're going all the way to the ceiling with it--pure and clean (with just a few things hanging in front).

@ GG, I used Waterlox original on the wood. My kitchen gets a lot of use as we have five kids and a busy kitchen. As far as keeping the wood waterproofed it’s perfect. Water beads right up, it’s awesome. We also have two bathrooms with wood counters that have Waterlox on them, one is the bathroom our three teenaged boys use daily, the other is our powder room and only bathroom on the main floor so it also gets a TON of use. Waterlox is darn near perfect to keep the wood safe from water. Now, as far as it getting a patina... my kitchen island has some minor scratches in the finish (it is not down to the wood) and our boys’ bathroom counter has some cloudy marks on it from some products that reacted... pretty sure it was bleach... but none of this has affected the waterproofing. Our powder room hasn’t had any issues except the one time a guest left a big glop of hand soap that I missed for a few days, it ate through the finish... I’d used a new kind of soap, some natural crap with botanical stuff in it... now I only use foaming soap in that bathroom because it’s not going to drip big glops of stuff when a messy guest uses it. LOL! But the nice thing about using Waterlox is that it can be touched up without having to refinish the entire surface (like what you have to do with something like polyurethane) so it’s easy to periodically touch up the scratches, you just put it on the area and feather it out a bit. Only downside is that until the product dries it STINKS to high heaven... and you need an open area for it to cure properly... so I only do touch ups when I can open up the house overnight and use fans for air movement, it needs the air movement to cure properly. (I much prefer when I can apply it in our garage, but I can’t do that for touch ups, and I couldn’t do that for our island as it had to be installed first.) If you decide to use Waterlox and do it yourself, I found a YouTube series by “askwoodman” to be MOST helpful in learning how to use Waterlox. He gave GREAT tips that I use all the time now. (My hubby does the building and designing, and any painting that is done with his sprayer... I do all painting that is done with a brush, any staining, any Waterlox finishing, and much of the sanding, especially any sanding between coats of finishes.) I typically use about 5 coats of Waterlox, but I think I got about 7 right around the sink area and under the sink area just to give it a little extra. It takes 24 hours between coats.

You have done a great job! I love your kitchen and I also love the asymmetry of it.

I would add open shelves (not weathered, just painted like your cabinets etc) on just the one side - the larger side - and embrace the asymmetry rather than try and disguise it. Or I would put up, like tatts suggests, a magnetic rail for your knives.

As much as I like the idea of bringing the warm wood over there, I would want to keep with the same shiny blue/gray as the cabinets. Easy to wipe down...Once a week you would have to wipe down 3 or four 12" shelves. No hardship at all, tatts...probably take the op less than 60 seconds.

Let us know how it looks taped up.

You could always bring more warm wood in with something you place on the shelves!

Wow! Great job resourcing! I am looking to do the same and your project is inspiring!
I think open shelving is a great idea! If you like live edge look, the uneven sides might feel more organic and a design choice. Having said that, I think several of the suggested shelving ideas work well! Congratulations! And please give us update photos!

i'd do 2 shelves on the left and 1 shelf, mid height, on the right.

Whenever faced with an asymmetrical architectural condition, I typically say embrace it! Arent & Pyke are masters with this, as shown in the kitchen below (top). Wood shelves to match your window sills would create nice balance. If you don't want to install a junction box for a wall lamp on the opposite side, you could either do a plug-in wall lamp or you could hang a piece of art on the wall. See images below for inspiration ~

Thank you all this is just what I needed. Well actually, I was hoping everyone would say the same thing so I didn't have to think about it (ha!) but I am looking at this from a new perspective which is helpful. What's becoming clear to me is that the kitchen needs to feel simple and uncluttered so I don't want to add anything extra that I don't love or need. I taped up the corner to see how it feels but I'm not having any response to it. It doesn't help that I'm out of blue painters tape. You can barely see the masking tape. Ninigret is the 2nd pic what you had in mind? If were talking art I have this black and white pic I got in Namibia that I'd love to incorporate. It's 10 x 12 unframed. I have to run out but I'll add more of my finished vision for the other side later. Thanks everyone!

Don't leave the tape on too long. It might damage paint.

A floating frame around your print would be all it needs. It doesn't need matting that way.

yes, thats what i had in mind... the single one a bit higher ... but not exactly centered between the two, either.

I think shelves as you have them taped out will unfortunately feel like an afterthought in your kitchen, as they are. They just won't relate to anything else and are a bit of an awkward size so will stand out unfavorably in my opinion. Here are a few very quick visuals of what could work. And below that are some other ideas of how to use the space -- you may want to consider a backsplash for cooking oil spray? You can also mount hooks to hang cooking utensils.

I have a thing about aligning anything with anything else to form a straight line. Not very interesting. Draws your eye but not in a good way.

Stagger your visual lines. Don't line up shelves with the exhaust fan hood.

You need symmetry and balance but not soldiers in a row.

How about something multifunctional like this?

Open shelving to left . Maybe a backsplash with cool pattern behind stove herringbone?

Thanks gang for all the awesome ideas. I'm going to stare at the wall for a few days with your suggestions in mind and see which ones rise up to the top. I may be able to work on it in the next couple days but for sure next week.

Sheep + Stone I like your idea about embracing the asymmetry rather than fighting it. I'll keep that in mind. And thanks for the drawings with the shelves. It definitely helps to see it.

Leelee thanks for the idea about the art. I wouldn't have thought of that. Can you get glass with a frame like that? The location near the stove would destroy the art otherwise.

Tatts I like the knife rail/magnet idea thank you, but the outlet is right where it would go so not sure about that... I'm not interested in hanging utensils because I'm too lazy to hang them up one at a time. Plus that means I always have to buy utensils with holes in the handles. ;)

Cheers!

Playing around with the print. Thoughts? Without the mat it's actually 14 x 15. Can anyone do a white subway tile pattern on the wall? The old gray color is looking so dingy. It makes it hard to imagine anything looking nice.

I'm not sure about glass with a floating frame but guessing the answer is no.

Your print is great but I don't think that area is right for it. One reason is that it is too small for that large open area and the 2nd is even framed with glass it will get steamy over the stove.

If you decide no shelves this might be an interesting way to do tiles. They appear to become more sparse as they evaporate up the wall.

Ok I'm back at it. I really need to try things on before I can commit so I grabbed some pieces of wood I had lying around and set them on top of some metal rods that I screwed into the 2 x 4's. It gives a good sense of how it will feel. I didn't have 2 matching pieces to try out multiple shelves on the left but I will cut some tomorrow and post pics after. I'm loving the last photo with the long wood piece. It feels really nice in person. Wondering if it should go all the way across or stop strategically somewhere.

Also, it turns out it's easy to add sconces above either of the outlets so that is an intriguing thought. Apparently you just have to switch to an outlet/switch combo and run the wiring up to it. Now that I know that I'm going to be eyeing all my outlets for possibilities! :)

You will ruin your print by placing it near the stove. Even with it framed with glass that's not a great place to put something delicate.

The long shelf doesn't work there. Envision 3 of the shorter shelves in the same color as the cabinets.

Your kitchen is gorgeous. Don't mess it up.

Platters or handmade decorative plates are interesting to mount near the stove. They're washable.

Well, I like the shelf there...Needs to be higher, though? But I love the length and that it's natural wood. You surprised me.

Question is, is it a hazard? And is it practical?

I agree about the picture. I wouldn't put a picture so close to the stove. I do love the idea of ceramics though..

Don’t put a shelf under your hood or over cooktop. It will obstruct the flow of the vent, not to mention potential fire hazard if using wood.

How about a back splash behind stove and then a corner shelf to the left for spices