My first reaction is to match tile length - the visual of lining up with tile. Then I wondered what, if any window treatment will be on that window….? And, what’s the horizontal placement plan? Maybe do a mockup with tape.

Horizontal plan is to shelves about 18 inches apart or so? I like the tape mock up idea. The window will get some simple treatment like a woven wood blind.

If it helps, the shelves will largely contain handmade ceramic items for display purposes.

There will be a thin casing around the door as well, so when I think about that, I’m leaning towards matching up with the tile as well.

Inside or outside mount for blinds? That will answer question about where to place the window edge of shelves too! Maybe the shelves are the last thing to be put up so you can see the entire picture. Great spot for those shelves in your pretty new kitchen. It may be that centering shelves between tile edge & window edge is perfect.

Inside for sure for blinds -- something like woven wood. It will be pretty neutral, non-attention seeking -- we just need some help with direct light. It's about the shelves!

I might end up waiting, but our contractor said he'll mount for free if we decide now and get them before it's done. :)

I would get a piece of wood that is similar in thickness and depth and mock it up. We did this for ours. I needed a visual. Will there be trim around the window and door? If so I would wait until that goes in.

Thanks for the help everyone. Here is the finished product. The clock will be hung in between the shelf sometime soon.

Julia - very cool pottery you have on all those nice shelves! The shelves look great! Thanks for coming back to show what your result was. Always nice to see how things turn out.

Thanks, all the pottery is actually made by me and my daughters, and the kitchen was designed to allow us to feature it.

Also, as a note to those looking in the future, the shelves are from Home Depot. They are the walnut color hardware reflections brand and we had a neighbor cut them to the right size of the shelving for the kitchen ended up costing us about a third of what it would have to have it custom-made.

Shelves look great! Would you please post a link to the brackets, your brackets look better than what I’m seeing on HD site.

Brackets from Amazon. Goovilla Heavy Duty https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRQXX8FT?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Inexpensive, sturdy, easy to mount, nearly invisible

Displaying the pottery you and your daughters have made is a great idea! Do you need the little clock? If not, I would remove it. I think the pottery shouldn’t be disrupted by the clock.

We need a clock somewhere, but I can think about somewhere else! Our entire house is filled with pottery, so we're not super attched to each display being perfect, lol.

wow it looks great

Your oven or MW doesn’t have a built- in clock?

I would consider some type of cup hooks under the top shelf to hang some of your mugs. It would make them handy to reach and fill in the blank space between the two shelves.