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“It made my space bright and airy” is the answer you’ll get anytime you ask someone who installed open shelving in their kitchen why they did it. Yes, the storage display comes with its annoyances (ahem, dust bunnies), but the divisive design decision does achieve just that: a sense of lightness. Now you can create the same feeling on a much larger scale thanks to Space Theory, the sister company to Henrybuilt.
While most kitchen islands these days tend to look like monolithic blocks, Space Theory’s first stand-alone piece, dubbed Daylight, is breezy. The island system, crafted in the company’s Seattle-based factory, features a gridlike frame made from welded steel with a mix of open shelves and let’s just call them “open” drawers (because of the vast amount of space above the boxes). There aren’t any cabinet fronts in sight so you can easily see, and get to, what you need.
If you’re one of those people who has always hated on open storage because you have trouble keeping things tidy, you are in luck. Daylight can be customized with drawer organizers, baking sheet dividers, and even knife blocks.
The catch? The product doesn’t come cheap. The island begins at $12,000 for a three-bay configuration without appliances, with the more extensive iterations priced between $19,000 and $21,000. That said, if you opted for every type of addition (including an oven and sink), you would basically have everything you need in one convenient spot—which beats the cost of a full gut kitchen reno.
If you aren’t sold, let this fresh design simply serve as a reminder that open storage can work wonders. It doesn’t have to be all dust bunnies or nothing.
