Replacing a kitchen cabinet with floating shelves is a fun way to freshen up a kitchen and provides a space to display glassware, pictures, and anything else you want to highlight. For our shelf install we wanted to have tile behind the shelves, but you can also install shelves right on the drywall. Note: There may be some repairs needed after removing the cabinet.

Removing the old cabinet—luckily no issues behind there! We ordered our wall brackets online and then built our shelves to fit our space and aesthetic. However, you do not have to go this route. You can find pre-built shelves that come with the wall brackets online.

Esty has hundreds of wood, color, and style options and many suppliers will build the shelf to the dimension you need. We used a bracket from Silicate Studios.

We chose a standard 4×12 matte finish subway tile behind the shelves with a dark gray grout. We contemplated removing the soffit but we were not sure what might be lurking up in there and it continued around the rest of the kitchen, so it remained. We are thrilled with how they turned out. You can’t put a ton of heavy stuff on them, or they will sag a little in the front, but they look fabulous and really give the space a nice sense of openness and a new modern feel.