Excellent idea!
I am all in favor of removing wall cabinets whenever possible. In your kitchen, they severely crowd the space, epecially on the end of the room. It looks like you still will have lots of storage, and with shelving, you can create useable storage for frequently-used items, while not creating head-banging clutter.

I've drawn quite a few kitchens with minimized uppers; see my profile for examples. I believe that this is the direction for kitchen design.

Brenda, I love your kitchen!

thank you sstarr! -- me too! can't wait for it to be DONE!

Brenda,

Your kitchen looks great. I haven't moved in yet. I might use you pictures for inspiration. Where did you find your shelves?

Thanks for the compliment canddret. I used a local custom cabinet maker and he made my shelves to match my cabinetry (Timm Ritler of Sherwood Furniture and Cabinets, Cockeysville MD).

Open shelving looks great but limits the amount of storage. You must keep them neat and clean or they look disorganized and collect dust. What are you trying to gain by removing the cabinets? Maybe do open shelving in between the windows where the cabinets dominate. Keep the cabinets on the other walls. If you do remove then plan to refinish the walls.