The kitchen is the room where you likely spend the most time and it is the heart of the home, which makes it the ideal place to invest in your home.
While we would all love a big and spacious kitchen as we see in the magazines, for many of us living in cities or on carefully planned budgets, that just isn’t a possibility. Kitchens in confined spaces, whether as part of open-plan living space or not, don’t actually have to feel small, and there are a few things that you can do to make your cooking and dining space feel much bigger than it is.
Start with functionality
The best place to start when designing a small kitchen is to sit down and have a really good think about what you need out of the space. For example, if cooking is important to you, focusing on the appliances you need and building the space around fitting those in will be key.
Seek out storage
You’d be surprised how much dead space can be sitting in a kitchen. Think of extra panels and awkward pantry corners. Talk to your kitchen designer and ask them to find you every spare nook and cranny and turn it into extra storage.
Lose overhead cabinetry
This tip kind of flies in the face of the previous one but if you want your kitchen to look and feel larger, ditching head-height cabinets will help do that.
Allowing the splash back to run all the way up to the ceiling, uninterrupted, will immediately make the space feel larger and taller. You could consider adding a floating shelf to hold a few items, which is a better option than heavy, protruding cabinets.
Choose clever appliances
In a small kitchen, look for smaller appliances and choose the minimum number you can live with. Can you combine an oven/microwave? For example, a combination of microwave grill and convection oven in one – is ideal for a small kitchen space or as a secondary oven for a larger family.
Drawers vs cupboards
This is a common dilemma, but it shouldn’t be. The ideal solution is quite simple really: below waist height, drawers reign supreme. The only exception to this is under the sink and a floor-to-ceiling food pantry with shallow shelves, but in reality, most kitchens will likely have a combination of drawers and cupboards. Your budget may also impact your choice, as drawers are generally more expensive.
Integrate wherever possible
To give the illusion of a bigger kitchen, integrate your appliances where you can. For example, chose an integrated dishwasher to fit seamlessly with the cabinetry of the island bench and even tucked a euro-style laundry behind kitchen doors.