Q: Are there any design tricks for making my tiny kitchen feel bigger?
A: Even if your kitchen is on the smaller side, it doesn’t mean you have to live with a cramped, uninviting space. Let’s go over a few simple ways to make your cozy kitchen into a bright, spacious cooking place.
1. Replace your oven and microwave with a multifunction speed oven. Your appliances are essential for food prep, but they also take up a ton of precious space. Consider switching out your space-hogging range and microwave for a compact cooktop and a separate speed oven. What’s a speed oven? Popular in restaurant kitchens, speed ovens combine a high-speed convection oven with a microwave in one quick-cooking unit. If you’re not cooking meals for a large family every night, a speed oven can be even more useful than a traditional oven. They’re available in ergonomic wall-mount styles and as under-cabinet drawer-style units for the ultimate in space saving.
2. Replace lower cabinets with drawers. When it comes to under-counter storage, drawers are simply better than cabinets. They maximize usable storage space by giving you easy access to the entire contents. And they are a great universal-design feature. No more bending over and trying to reach to the back of a cabinet. Just pull out the drawer and everything is right there in front of you, easy to see and reach.
3. Choose compact appliances. You can’t shrink appliances, but you can replace bulky ones with smaller, more streamlined alternatives. A counter-depth fridge makes your small kitchen feel bigger by not jutting out into the room. Column-style refrigerators are narrower and taller to make better use of the space. Get a smaller, energy-efficient dishwasher to save on space, electricity and water. Ultra-narrow, full-height apartment-style dishwashers have largely given way to full-width single drawer-style dishwashers that leave space below for usable storage.
4. Get a handle on your tiny kitchen. Handles can add visual clutter to your small kitchen space. If you are ordering new cabinetry, consider choosing doors and drawer-fronts with hidden or integrated pulls that do not require handles or other external hardware. Touch-latch cabinet doors, which pop open with a gentle push, are another clean-looking, hardware-free option.
5. Sink or swim. The trend toward oversize apron-front farmhouse sinks is fun — but only if you have the space. If your kitchen is smaller, a hulking, double-bowl behemoth can rob you of much-needed counter space. Consider instead a single-bowl sink that will not only save space, but will be visually proportional to your compact kitchen. Choose an undermount option that helps give your countertop a streamlined look.
6. Let the light shine. Light makes a small room seem bigger. Dark rooms tend to feel cramped, claustrophobic and unsettling. If you have enough wall space, add windows. A window over the sink is a natural choice. Long, low windows between your countertop and upper cabinets are a possibility if you are truly pressed for space. Another approach is a skylight. If your roof design can’t accommodate a traditional skylight, consider a tubular skylight, which can bring natural light to almost any room in your home. Be sure you have a good artificial lighting plan that incorporates general lighting and task lighting, such as under-cabinet lights. Adding in-cabinet lighting and frosted glass cabinet doors can make your kitchen feel bigger and lend a warm and cozy touch when the sun sets.
7. Splash some color around. Adding a fresh coat of
paint to your kitchen can work wonders. Light colors and pastels create the
illusion that your kitchen is more expansive, and it’s not nearly as expensive
as knocking down a wall. Great colors to try are sunny yellow, pastel green,
sky blue and eggshell white.
Leslie Eiler is design manager at CRD Design Build and is a member of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS). If you have a home improvement, remodeling or residential homebuilding question you’d like answered by one of the MBAKS’s nearly 2,800 members, write to homework@mbaks.com.