I'm calling it — if you want a kitchen that feels spacious, you should be looking at glass kitchen cabinet ideas. Where wall-hung cabinets can sometimes look a little bulky, choosing glass fronts softens the whole effect, helping the room look bigger without losing out on that all-important storage.
The secret to making it work? Choosing the right kitchen cabinet ideas. Which type of glass? Where in the kitchen? What to store inside? These are the questions you need to ask, and the questions kitchen experts know the answer to.
Here, I've curated 10 of the best kitchens with glass-fronted cabinets to inspire this design element, with advice from the interior designers behind them on how they achieved the look, and how you can, too.
1. Choose the Right Glass to Fit Your Needs
Plain glass is better suited to cabinets with aesthetic contents.
The big decision you'll need to make? The type of glass you choose for your glass kitchen cabinets. The different choices will lend themselves best to different kitchen storage ideas and styles, and while there's no 'wrong' answer as such, knowing where each is best used is your best bet.
Plain glass: Choosing plain glass will mean whatever you store in your cabinetry is on show, so it's best reserved for your most decorative storage. Think a hutch for your best plates, neatly stacked, or glassware — it's for use for cabinets you're committed to keeping well organized.
Reeded glass: You can still see through this style of fluted glass, but it's a little more obscured, meaning you don't have to be quite so tidy. "Reeded glass allows you to see some shape behind and creates a barrier for dust but offers a softness and texture for interest," says Romaine Alwill, director of Atelier Alwill. You'll still need to be selective with what you put behind reeded glass — bright colors or odd shapes, for example, will stand out, but it doesn't require the same level of display as plain glass.
Frosted glass: This opaque glass doesn't offer quite the same depth as a more transparent style, but it's good if you want a glass kitchen cabinet that meets in the middle between making your space look bigger, and hiding what's in your cupboards. A while back, I might have said frosted glass is outdated, but in recent times, we've seen this style make a comeback.
Romaine is the founder of the Australian design studio Atelier Alwill, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. Previous to this, Romaine spent five years as the interiors editor for Belle magazine.
2. Install Lighting in Glass Cabinets
Lighting in a glass cabinet isn't only practical, it adds to the overall ambiance of your kitchen.
If you're going to do glass kitchen cabinets, can I ask one thing? You consider your kitchen lighting ideas at the same time. When used hand in hand, glass-fronted cabinets don't just offer a way to break up a run of solid cabinetry but also contribute accent lighting to your scheme.
Magnus Nilsson, lead designer at kitchen studio Blakes London, agrees. "The aesthetic can be further enhanced through the introduction of soft mood lighting, normally in the form of an LED strip inserted inside of the cabinet which adds warmth and further interest to a space," Magnus says.
"In practicality, this works best when planned in advance and placed on the same lighting loop as the rest of the mood lighting within the room," Magnus says, but if you've inherited glass kitchen cabinets (or you didn't think about it at the time), you can add in light strips (like Philips Hue, available from Amazon) or rechargeable puck lights, to introduce lighting behind glass doors.
3. Pair With a Fun Cabinet Color
This pale pink cabinetry feels a little more understated used with glass doors.
Don't you love a good mix-and-match kitchen cabinet scheme? The brilliant thing about using glass-fronted cabinets in this kind of design is that you can go bold with material or color, without it overwhelming the space. After all, once you've got a glass insert, the door itself takes up less real estate.
This kitchen by London design studio Roundhouse is the perfect example. The use of pale pink cabinetry could be saccharine used for the entire door, but when paired with the sophisticated wood finish inside, the color takes on a new, grown-up personality.
4. Add a Pop of Color Inside
A bright, bold blue inside these glass kitchen cabinets enlivens an otherwise neutral scheme.
On the other hand, if you want to go a little bolder with your kitchen color ideas, why not use glass kitchen cabinets as a way to do something more exciting?
The was the idea behind this clever kitchen designed by Warsaw-based Marta Chrapka, who, in an otherwise white kitchen, used a bright blue for the interior of the glass-front cabinets.
"Since the room is small and the clients wanted it to be kept in light tones, this was one of the few areas where color could appear," Marta tells me, "and since the cabinets are used to store white tableware, the choice fell on this blue which is a good background for the white porcelain."
Want to recreate the look? "The color inside the cabinets is Stone Blue from Farrow & Ball," Marta tells us.
Price: £5.95 per sample
In Marta's scheme, this blue is the bright color pop that brings energy to the design.
5. Try This Built-in Glass Kitchen Cabinet Idea
Large glass kitchen cabinets create more of a larder door look.
I've had this glass kitchen cabinet idea saved to my Pinterest for a while, and I needed to know a little more about it. It sees a glass, larder-style door built into a recess in a tiled wall — an unusual set-up, but there's something about it that just feels undeniably chic.
"Believe it or not, the location of that cabinet is where the stove was initially located in this kitchen," Maureen Ursino, founder of Ursino Interiors and the designer of this space, tells me. "By the time we re-worked the layout, we had very little depth on that wall, but still needed to make the space functional from a storage perspective."
It's a genius way to use this space, but while it's a glass kitchen cabinet idea that very much works in this specific layout, I love the idea of using the same material on the back of the cabinets that's on the walls, whether you go for a kitchen tile idea like this, or another finish. "We also wanted to bring in as much dimension as possible to keep that wall visually interesting, which was the impetus behind tiling the wall," Maureen explains.
New Jersey-based interior designer Maureen Ursino launched Ursino Interiors in 2016, after working for commercial architecture firm, and studying for a Master of Arts in Interior Design from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at The George Washington University. While the firm started life in her spare room, Ursino Interiors is now an internationally recognized design studio.
6. Use a Sliding Door for Easy Access
Sliding doors are a no-brainer for cabinets that sit on top of countertops.
"We utilized a reeded glass front on these sliding cabinets to provide visual relief amidst the other upper kitchen cabinets, while also offering a substantial amount of storage," Mallory Robins and Elizabeth Bennett, co-founders of design studio KOBEL + CO tell me. "The transition to glass offers both an airiness and a textural difference to frame the range wall in this kitchen."
Sliding doors, whether glass kitchen cabinets or not, serve an extra useful purpose when used on countertop cabinets. Opting for standard doors means that if you want to use the countertop in front, you'd need to clear the space every time you need to open the door. With an alternative idea such as a sliding door, you get easy access, while getting to keep the beautiful glass doors as in this design. It's particularly useful in a small kitchen, too, where every inch of both countertop space and storage counts.
6. Or a Sliding 'Barn' Glass Door
This innovative glass door idea gives an industrial edge to your kitchen design.
If you liked that sliding door glass cabinet idea, how about trying it on a larger scale? This barn door idea from design studio Blakes London is a clever way to obscure open storage, and could even be used to keep mess out of sight and out of mind temporarily (think post-dinner party, pre-clean up).
"The glazed barn door adds depth and character to this long wall, effectively defining a new zone within the expansive kitchen," lead designer Magnus Nilsson says. "Its sliding glass design introduces a playful, dynamic touch, offering a practical solution to discreetly hide any clutter at the coffee station while creating an intriguing visual element that invites further exploration."
It also gives this design an industrial kitchen edge that I'm taken with — it's a memorable detail that'll make your space stand apart.
7. Opt for a Freestanding Glass Cabinet
A stand-alone cabinet is an easy way to add the beauty of glass into an existing kitchen.
If you've already got a kitchen, you might not be in a position to totally change out cabinets for doors with glass fronts, but that isn't the only way to bring this idea into your space. A freestanding cabinet is an easy way to bring glass fronts into your space, and it even offers an opportunity to bring something a little more exciting and useful into the design.
"Open-plan living remains a really popular choice, and joinery can be a great way to segment the rooms," Lizzie Spinks, head of design at kitchen design studio Makers says. "The transition between kitchen/dining room is a great opportunity to add a cabinet with a slight difference to the kitchen, this can be in style or materials, to bridge that gap — and a really great way to do this is with a glazed cabinet to show off all your special occasion glass and chinaware. This unit doesn’t need to be tied to the kitchen, so having it freestanding is a great way to allow you to redecorate in the future."
In the example above, the studio took inspiration from Art Deco interior design, in the use of curves and soft edges. "The glass is embedded into solid utile, which has a lovely Mahogony-esque grain," Lizzie says. It also surfaces another great glass kitchen cabinet idea — using mirrored glass for the backdrop. It's another trick that'll make your kitchen feel so much bigger.
Price: £1,899
This display cabinet from Heal's would make for ideal storage for your most beautiful stacks of plates.
8. Create a Focal Point With a Glass Cabinet
Glass kitchen cabinets don't just need to be about utility, they can be a design feature, too.
The same glass kitchen cabinet ideas you can explore with a freestanding unit, you can also explore with a built-in design — if you're brave enough. Take, for example, this next kitchen from Polish design studio Colombe, which uses an arched kitchen centered on the countertop as the focal point for this maximalist scheme.
"This apartment is a pied-a-terre for its owners and they cared more about aesthetics than functionality," designer Marta Chrapka explains of this bold design. "The cabinet is illuminated and displays the tableware, and since the living room is exactly in the axis of the passage to the kitchen and the arch above the cabinet opposite, it seemed to us that this symmetry would work better as a frame. We didn't have to deal with a lot of space on the worktops here, so the location of the cabinet in the center did not interfere with the functioning of the kitchen," Marta adds.
In a kitchen with a lot to look at, from the wall mural to the intriguing mix of colors and materials, the glass cabinet's placement at the center of it all makes it a stand out of the space.
9. Use a Bold Material to Frame Glass Doors
Elevated materials will make glass cabinets sing.
Okay, so technically this isn't a kitchen, but this home bar idea from Atelier Alwill is too good not to include in this roundup. Using upper glass-fronted cabinets with a brass surround gives this run of storage an exquisitely elevated look.
"We wanted a bar unit to feel lightweight over the feature stone behind it, and also to connect with the brass legs on the dining table situated in front," designer Romaine Alwill tells me. "The materials needed to pop but still feel connected to other elements in the room."
By making the doors faceted, the brass picks up the light in four different directions, giving this material a greater sense of depth and interest.
10. Try This Glass Drawer Idea for a Different Take on the Trend
Using glass fronts on something like an island can also help soften an expanse of storage.
So far, we've talked a lot about glass cabinet ideas as they relate to cabinet doors, but you'll also often see glass used for smaller doors and drawers, too.
One of the best implementations of this idea is as a kitchen island idea, especially when you're looking at a supersized design in a large kitchen. Kitchen islands can start to feel too solid and dominate a room when they get past a certain size, but by introducing glass shelf fronts, as in this design by Ursino Interiors, you can break up the expansiveness of these designs, and make them feel less overwhelming.
FAQs
Where Should Glass Cabinets Be Placed in the Kitchen?
Glazed cabinetry can be surprisingly versatile, so there's all kinds of positions in a kitchen it might suit. Here's just a few ideas:
- For a countertop larder: Glazed cabinets make for great countertop units, and they look lighter than solid doors and are ideal for making a focal point of your best dishes.
- For upper cabinets: Using glass fronts in your eye line will most effectively make your kitchen look bigger.
- For lower units: You don't see them as much, but they can be just as effective at breaking up a space, especially on something like a kitchen island.
- Either side of a sink: Great glassware and mugs could be stored here, so they're easy to put away after washing the dishes.
- By a coffee station: Glass kitchen cabinets could be used to create a breakfast station or coffee bar idea.
Do Glass Cabinets Make a Kitchen Look Bigger?
When using a huge bank of solid door cabinetry, you lose the sense of depth of the space, which can make a kitchen feel smaller. A glass kitchen cabinet idea, or a portion of open shelving, can be used to highlight the depth of the space, and it works especially well for upper cabinets, which are directly in sight lines.
Glass-fronted cabinets are, in general, more useful than open shelving, too. "Glazed cabinets can be a great way to lighten a space, vs a solid unit, without losing storage," says Lizzie Spinks, head of design at Makers Kitchens. "Using light materials or mirror on the back further adds to this effect."
Glass kitchen cabinet ideas might not be right for everyone, but they fit such a varied style of space that if ensuring there's plenty of storage in your kitchen without it feeling cramped is important, they're definitely something you should consider.
Traditional or modern kitchen idea, there's a design you can choose to make use of the characteristics of glazed cabinetry.
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