Small Kitchen Design Ideas

In a small kitchen design, you want to create the illusion of more space. A built-in kitchen uses space much more efficiently than a collection of freestanding pieces. Also, if your kitchen is open or partially open to another room, avoid placing units like the refrigerator, stove, or microwave at eye level — you want to be able to see the extent of the entire space. You can also extend the flooring and/or the wall color into the adjacent space to blur the boundaries and make your small kitchen feel larger. (Again, this only works if your kitchen is open to another space.)

If you plan on updating your small kitchen, you will want to follow a few basic principles that may help you save money and time. Remember, your kitchen can be a place where you spend significant time with your family or entertaining guests.

Consider a few of these ideas to add more space to a small kitchen.

#1 Countertops & Built In-Storage

Countertops should be kept as free as possible, and to do that it makes a lot of sense to design in inbuilt spaces, especially for such items as microwaves, ovens and hobs or even the refrigerator. Food mixers, toasters and the like can be stored away in sliding shelves that are waist high so that they are out of the way but easily accessible when you need to use them. This is another clever way to make the kitchen appear less cluttered and provide more of that free countertop space.

#2 Widen the Windows. Skip the Doors

Unlike the door in a bedroom or bathoom or closet, the door to the kitchen is optional. Skip it. Widening the doorway and taking out the door, will make the kitchen feel less like a sealed-off and more like an open nook connected to the rest of the house. Larger, taller windows will give even a very small kitchen feel bigger; go easy on the window treatments to let in as much light as possible. If you can raise the ceiling, do.

#3 Light Colors and Decorating Materials

Use light-colored decorating materials to make the room feel less closed-in. Avoid large ceramic tiles on the floor or walls–they’ll only accentuate the smallness of the room. An off-white or yellow motif, accented with small mosaic tiles on the floor and/or wall, will go a long way toward visually pushing back those walls.

#4 Utilize Pantry Space

One of the best of all small kitchen remodeling ideas is making use of pantry cabinets. These cabinets can be installed to stretch right up to the ceiling and allow you to store away seldom used objects in these out of the way but still accessible spaces. Make use of the pantry space for your food items that you have out on the counter. Consider hanging items or adding additional shelving to show off the items that you have.

#5 Use Small Appliances and Furniture

Think small and retractable when designing the furniture and buying the appliances. Find a refrigerator that’s thin but tall. Instead of a free-standing oven taking up valuable floor space, have a wall oven installed, and have the stovetop set into the countertop. If possible, have your cabinets set, or partly set, into the wall. Instead of a table and chairs, design a countertop so that a few stools can slide under it.

#6 Find Easy Areas to Scale Down

Big double sinks or farmhouse sinks eat up valuable counter space. Also, think long and hard about whether you really want bigger appliances. Side-by-side fridges are great, but you want to conserve width when it comes to the appliances. Are you a single person or a couple? More economical dishwashers are available, too. If you have any out-of-kitchen area available (i.e., can you put in a pantry around the corner?), use that for items you don’t use frequently, such as canned goods or appliances.

#7 Small Kitchen Design Layout

The overall layout of your kitchen is probably the most important feature in the overall project. One good idea is in incorporating the triangular working model. This layout allows items like the stove, refrigerator and sink to be situated in such a way so that the user has to take as few steps as possible while working in their kitchen. This may include the placement of an island or even a butcher block to provide extra storage with more preparation space. Along with the layout it is worth keeping in mind the positions of any ventilation points as well as the lighting fixtures.

Popular Small Kitchen Designs

Other Small Kitchen Design Ideas:

• You often see wooden spoons hunger from underneath cabinets to give your kitchen a different look.
• Install a magnetic kitchen back splash to store kitchen utinsels and knives.
• Use Larger Floor Tiles. It seems counter-intuitive, but larger floor tile makes your small kitchen appear larger.
• Employ Lighter Colors. Since the light you get in your kitchen is as much reflected light as it is direct light, you can increase a small kitchen’s light intensity by using brighter-colored wood species for the cabinetry and neutral tones for the counters, as well as for the wall paint.
• Use vertical space.  Get tall cabinets or shelving, and hang things when possible
• Consider smaller and compact appliances!
• Consider doing away with that “junk drawer”

The most important factor is that the new plan designed for your kitchen should be to make it fully functional and convenient, and have a better overall appearance. The  challenge is to increase the capability of functioning in the kitchen, besides make it look better and comfortable. Before you plunge into this home improvement project, make sure to devise a step-by-step plan. And if you need professional help, don’t hesitate to ask, because with this, you will have the kitchen of your dreams.

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