Small Kitchen Design Solutions
The kitchen is traditionally the heart of any home. It’s where friends and family gather for celebrations, milestones, and holidays. In these cases, the kitchen becomes the focal point and the place where everyone flocks to catch up, chat, eat, and relax together.
Some New England homes, however, have smaller kitchens due to the age of the home or the style of the structure. While bigger is not always better, a smaller kitchen does create a challenge for storage and functionality.
Smaller means that space is at a premium and innovation and creativity must be used to design space-saving solutions. Here are a few ideas from our team if you love your small kitchen but just want to make the best use of the space available to you.
Go Vertical
What smaller kitchens lack in size, they often make up for in vertical space. Take advantage of your high ceilings by bringing the cabinets right up to the ceiling. This elongates the height of the room and allows for more storage space for all the kitchen gadgets that are not used daily.
Going vertical could also mean using a ceiling-mounted hanging pot rack to store your pots and pans neatly. This is especially fun if your pots and pans are high-end and look immaculate.
Create Visual Space
Small kitchens sometimes mean a feeling of being cramped. Thankfully there are some techniques that can help create a sense of openness in even the smallest kitchens.
To create the illusion of space some designers suggest using floating shelves that make the space appear more open. If completely open shelves are not your thing, you may want to try glass front cabinets that provide some extra visual space.
Hidden Seating
Depending upon the size of your small kitchen, your seating may need to be custom-created or shifted to the dining room to make more space for cooking.
If you have space for a small bistro table, use a glass top of streamlined components to make the most of the space available. Built-in benches or banquette seating are also good choices for making the most of the space.
For hidden seating options, try using your peninsula as your main kitchen seating. Hightop chairs can easily be stored under the overhang of the peninsula.
Creative Storage Solutions
When designing the storage solutions for your kitchen take into consideration your family’s cooking style. If you love spices, have your designer create a special drawer made specifically to hold all your spices. If you are a wine lover, build a special storage component right into your cabinets for your wine bottles. If you have little ones, make easy-to-reach drawers for their plastic cups and plates. The options are limitless and can be customized to your family’s needs.
Are you redesigning your small kitchen and need ideas or a team to take advantage of every inch of space available? Talk to our team and schedule a consultation.
