With the new kitchen remodel, we knew we wanted to tear out some old cabinets and install floating shelves. This visually opens a kitchens so much! And styled floating shelves always look so warm and inviting to me. We ended up getting out floating shelves from a local Kansas City shop that produces the most beautiful handmade wood pieces. Here are the details of our white oak floating shelves with J Thomas Home. I’m so obsessed, I knew it was the right choice as soon as they were installed!
*I worked with J Thomas Home for this project. They gifted the shelves and we paid for install.*
Who is J Thomas Home?
J Thomas Home is a local Kansas City wood working business. They sell floating shelves along with many other wood pieces online in their Etsy shop. Their pieces (including floating shelves) can be shipped to you! The owners, Josh and Emily, are truly the kindest people you will ever meet! They have a young family, and they work hard in this business to make customers happy! I am so happy we had to chance to meet and work together. They do amazing work! You can see behind the scenes and all the things they are making in the shop over at their Instagram page! Our shelves were custom made, fit to size, right here in Kansas City!
The Before Photos
Our kitchen before the remodel was about 10 years old. We made many cosmetic changes, including adding a large window and tearing out three cabinets. As you can see in the before photo, we took out two cabinets to the left of the sink and one to the right. The minute the cabinets were taken down, the whole kitchen felt bigger and more open. Definitely the right decision! But, we also knew this meant losing a lot of storage space!
What Type of Floating Shelves Did You Choose?
After speaking with Emily about the design and sharing some inspiration photos with her, she sent me some options. We ultimately went with a white oak finish. It’s super natural, with just a clear coat. All of the inspiration photos I saved on Pinterest had this look, so I went with my gut! Even though we have dark hardwood floors, I thought the contrast of the light shelves would soften things up.
Here is the exact link to the white oak shelves in the Etsy shop.
These shelves are HEAVY! I was shocked when I held one. The quality is insanely good!
Installing Floating Shelves
We chose to have Josh from J Thomas Home install the shelves for us. He knows what he is doing and the corner shelf can be a little trickier! You can certainly order and install these shelves yourself (especially if you’re out of town)! They make it easy by sending exact instructions and hardware with your order to make it happen. Josh was super helpful in visually deciding where we wanted the cabinets to sit and how far apart to hang them.
Ultimately, we decided on 12.5″ between the shelves and the bottom of the bottom shelf is 19″ from the countertop. We have teenagers, and we made sure everyone could reach both shelves before making the final decision! The placement of the shelves turned out perfectly! I’m so happy with them!
These heavy duty brackets help brace the shelves. They basically aren’t going anywhere!
After the shelves were up and we added some items to them, the corner shelf needed a little reinforcement. Josh added this bracket to both shelves where they meet at the corner and everything stays flush.
Styling the Floating Shelves
After the shelves were installed and the backsplash was completed, it was time for the fun part! Styling the floating shelves! Because we ultimately lost three large cabinets, we knew these floating shelves were going to have to be functional. Somehow, I needed to make these shelves both functional and beautiful to look at! Cue the pretty plates, bowls, cups, and mugs!
To the left of the sink, we keep plates and bowls. I never knew how much we would love grabbing stuff right from a shelf! Feels life changing in a way!
The shelves to the right of the sink are fairly small. This is where we used to keep all glassware and mugs. I’ve simplified this area to having a few acrylic cups and a few small juice glasses. Coffee/tea mugs on top and that’s it! Streamlining these shelves and these spaces has been so wonderful!
How to Care for Floating Shelves
These shelves do have a clear coat on top, but we are still careful about not putting anything wet on the shelves! Dust as usual, but otherwise, they are low maintenance! We are just so happy we decided to add these white oak floating shelves with J Thomas Home! A total game changer in the space!
Hope you love them as much as we do! Thanks for following along on the kitchen reno! I’ll keep adding blog posts about the kitchen as they come. Find the hardware post here. XO