Cook Up Something Unexpected

What's a kitchen without upper cabinets? "Clean and casual," says interior designer Traci Kearns. "Because there's a bevy of surrounding windows that also contain a lot of mullions, upper cabinetry would have competed with this look." Tiers of cantilevered shelves get the job done. For stowing away cookware, a central island provides more storage and separates the kitchen from the adjacent dining room and family room.