Can't you have a standing shelf? I like those with just one pair of legs that rest against the wall. It should be easy enough to make one. I have thought of having open shelves beneath our kitchen cupboards. It would be a perfect place to store porcelain and bowls that we use daily. I would put them upside down though, to not let dust collect in them.

Like this:

love the open shelving + mix of white and wood // assembly home for urban outfitters bookshelf | Home Is Where The Heart Is. | Pinterest | Open shelving, Urban…

I love the look of open shelving, especially with some vining plants on there too! However with two cats, thats not so much of an option with the dishes, since there would be too much cat hair in them. I also have cement walls so I cannot hang shelves like that. 

Are you allowed to screw in the walls at your place?? At one point I thought about buying the open shelving unit that attaches to the ceiling from Ikea to get a similar look. 

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S79251774/

We had open shelves but later on changed our minds! we now have four annoying holes in the wall.

#2 I could actually now that I moved my dining room around.  I think open shelving would lighten the kitchen up, it is very dark because we are surrounded by trees. 

#3 My cabinets I have now are original from the 70s and I don't think that Grandma would like if we took them down *sigh* so I will be dreaming until we buy the house or move. I do need to redo my breakfast nook. I had a table in there and it was tiny, there was virtually no space to sit at the table. So now that room looks really bare.

#4 That is my biggest fear is holes as well. We are lath and plaster walls so to put holes in them means for very high maintenance patching and damage control. You can hear the plaster falling from the wall when you put large nails in