You might be able to add corner shelves then it would look

Sorry, can you clarify? Do you mean take out the corner cabinets, too and replace with shelves?

The uppers won't look so "heavy and crowded" once they are painted in what I assume will be a lighter color. I'd make all the changes to your kitchen first before you remove cabinets. If you still don't like it at that point, you can change the cabinet fronts on the two cabinets flanking the sink to glass. Small open shelving there would just look fussy and not be very useful.

Thanks for the honest takes! Maybe it is just a trend and I've got caught up in all the "farmhouse" kitchen ideas I keep seeing that show almost no upper cabinets? It just looks so much more calming to me...Maybe silly question - if I did all the other stuff including the backsplash and paint first and THEN decided to still remove those two cabinets, would that be possible? Or would that mess up the backsplash and cabinets that remain? (The idea would be to cover the whole area including around the window with tile if cabinets removed).

In my opinion and experience your kitchen seems very functional. Ugh, I hate my kitchen (and house) and would trade you any day, even as is. Sure, no cabinets at all would probably look calming. But putting shelves in there would muck it up quickly IMO. You then have to look at the stuff on your shelves and keep them tidy in order to maintain that calm. Upper cabinets are a gift from heaven to us challenged in the organization department. I used to love HGTV but I’ve grown to despise it. Everything looks the same and I’m betting that IRL things are not so handy and easy. For me, if I could, everything would be on the wall at eye level, lol. Everything.

Not opposed to removing the two cabinets flanking the window. That should open things up a bit. Another suggest is to add glass to some of your cabinet doors. Nothing opens up a flat expanse of cabinets more than adding glass especially if you add in cabinet lighting. Good luck!

We just removed a cabinet next to a window at our lake house so I could tile the wall. There is no way I'm putting it back. It looks soooo much better. I think if you have all the storage you need, take them down, evaluate and don't replace if it looks better. I don't think it is a major endeavour to take down and put back up if you don't like it.

In our kitchen we removed the cabinets flanking the window and love the more open feel of it! one side was narrow so we just left it bare but the other side faced our peninsula and dining room and we put in open shelves. The top shelf is more decorative but the bottom shelf has our plates and bowls we use every day and I'm loving not having to open a cabinet to get to them.

It would open your space to get rid of those cabinets but you would have to get the exposed cabinet sides finished. you might be able to peel of the ”skin” of the cabinets you take down and glue those onto the sides of your remaining cabinets. If you can afford to lose the storage I would do it.

To those who removed cabinets, what do you think of the corner cabinets here? Do you think it would look weird having the first cabinets on each side be those angled corner ones?

Some visual ( rough) how it would look with shelving.

I think open shelving around the sink would be fine next to corner cabinets. I suggest smaller ones that are not as deep as the cabinets, that stop a few inches away from the window frame, like below. I strongly recommend floating shelves. brackets will clutter up the look.

I do think it would look strange to have the cabinet runs end with the bumped-out corner cabs (rather than being the same depth all the way to the end of the wall). But, once painted maybe it wouldn't be so noticeable, especially if the wall and cab colors are similar. Maybe you can take the corners boxes down and repurpose some of the normal depth boxes from either side of the sink to go into the end spaces.

While you're in there, see if you can get a larger sink!

I think it would work.

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