Do you know how to make the best of  small kitchens? Many of my friends have tiny kitchens and need a lot of advice when it comes to design, tone, storage and space. When you have a small kitchen you’re sometimes caught in a catch 22 situation. You store things on the dresser because you have no where else to put them. However, lots of stuff on kitchen surfaces – especially in small kitchens, make them look even smaller.

In this article we’ll explore how to make the best of small kitchens in three categories. We’ll look at colour and tone because this is the first hurdle to cross when it comes to how your kitchen looks. No matter what you do next, the colour and tone you choose will affect the finished look. Next we’ll look at design and how getting that right will make even the smallest kitchen look spacious. Lastly, I’ll show you how clever storage can make a huge difference in the way your small kitchen functions.

Make the best of small kitchens with colour and tone

Paint the cupboards the same colour as the walls. This gives the illusion of space and minimises the look of clutter clashing (or even complementary) colours can bring about. If you have wooden cupboards you don’t wish to paint, make sure they’re light so that they can stay in the background. You can see here how to paint wood.

Use a glass or metallic splash back. This reflects light and adds space to the kitchen because of the reflective properties.

Use light greens and creams if you think white is too overpowering, but stay away from most other colours in small kitchens. And whatever you do, don’t mix two or more colours together.

You have to also be careful when choosing worktops. Dark or over designed (too busy) worktops will shrink your kitchen even more.

If you’re re-designing and can afford it, a skylight makes a tremendous difference in a small kitchen. I did this in my old house when we converted an old utility room (complete with dodgy toilet) into a beautiful, light kitchen. The skylight made all the difference and opened out the size almost by half.

Make the best of small kitchens with your design

If you can afford to change your kitchen, design your cupboards to start from the ceiling. It’s best to have storage space up high (you can always store things you only need once in a while on the top shelf) rather than leave empty, wasted, un-used space at the top of your kitchen cupboards to collect dust.

Place a shelf over your large refrigerator. This space usually goes unused. A shelf (or two) over the fridge means you can use that space to store cookbooks, storage baskets, or bulky items.

You know that small space under the fitted kitchen cupboards? It’s always left empty, isn’t it? The fitters normally just put a panel over the space and leave it there. Years later, all that’s collected there is dust. Why not get your fitter to put drawers in this space instead? You can use those drawers to store little kitchen gadgets you seldom use, or canned food etc.

Swing shelves are the bees knees when it comes to clever designs for small kitchens. Instead of piling everything at the back of the cupboard (where you forget them), use swing shelves to have  ready access to the things which would normally be dumped on top of each other in a tiny cupboard.

Buy a pan lid rack. You can get these from Ikea and other similar stores. The lid rack allows you to store you pots/pans lids vertically on the side of a cupboard, a wall, or even inside of a cupboard door. I’ve always had one and you can’t imagine the amount of space this tiny, simple gadget saves.

A small kitchen needs all the extra space it can get. Bins are known for their clumsiness and space-stealing ways. If you have a small kitchen, consider designing it so that the bins are kept in a bin drawer. This way you can keep your recycling bins and general bins all in the same place – minimizing the space each of them takes up in the kitchen. If your kitchen isn’t designed this way, consider just purchasing the mechanisms and the bins kit (usually square – so they’re storage-wise) and adapting one of your existing cupboards. Remember that any extra space can be used up to store cleaning agents etc.

Make the best of small kitchens with storage

I wrote extensively in this article: Pantry Storage Ideas about clever storage you can use in your kitchen pantry to maximise the space. The article is here on this blog, so please go read it. You won’t be disappointed. Visit www.betterkitchens.co.uk  to view their range of kitchens for both large and small homes.

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