Idea 2: Replace One Upper Cabinet with Open Shelving
Upper cabinets are boxes that eat light and loom over you. Removing just one — ideally the one nearest the window — and replacing it with two floating wood shelves instantly opens the sightline and makes the kitchen feel deeper. Style the shelves sparsely: white dishes, a couple of glasses, one small plant. The key word is sparsely — crammed shelves look worse than cabinets. A pair of 24-inch oak shelves with brackets costs about $40 at Home Depot, and the install takes an hour with a stud finder.
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