You may feel inspired by cooking legends and may wish to perform your own experiments with cooking or try to be a master chef.
You may wish to merely add to your culinary repertoire. For all this, what you need apart from your own dedication and perseverance is a large kitchen with the necessary kitchen appliances.
Your kitchen should have a large kitchen island so that you can share your cooking with your entire family. But houses and kitchens are getting smaller these days.
So you need to get smart and use some small kitchen design ideas that will make your small kitchen feel big.
Here are a few small kitchen ideas to get you thinking and make a huge difference in your kitchen remodeling project.
Keep Work Triangle in Mind
This is a basic design criterion for any kitchen. Although old, this principle still holds true as it basically says that your three main work areas in the kitchen should be ‘connected.’
Nobody can complain about making sure that the sink, stove and refrigerator in your kitchen are placed efficiently so that you don’t have to make detours around anything such as kitchen islands.
Choose a White Kitchen
The benefits of a white kitchen are many. They go with interiors of any color, and white kitchens appear roomier or bigger. White is the best option if your kitchen lacks natural light or if you have a galley style kitchen or an L shaped kitchen.
White surfaces provide the perfect background to display your modern artwork. White kitchens let you ‘play’ with your kitchen’s overall ambience which you can change easily by adding different accent colors. Just change the curtains or the wall paint and your whole kitchen will get a fresh new look.
After choosing white, you get to decide the ‘different shades’ of white and how to choose texture, trim, appliances, countertops, and accessories for your kitchen.
Brighten Your Kitchen
Irrespective of the color palette you choose for your kitchen, your kitchen will feel spacious if you have sufficient lighting in the kitchen.
Natural lighting is always great during the daytime and have ample LED lights, under cabinet lights and pendant lights to give your kitchen both bright illumination and aesthetics.
Add the Illusion of More Space with Mirrored Backsplashes
Since mirrors make a room appear larger, why not use mirrors in your kitchen? Use them as your kitchen backsplashes.
And take care to clean the mirrors regularly to maintain that pristine look.
Install Glass Doors for Upper Cabinets
One more use of glass in kitchens is to use glass doors for upper cabinets.
This will give your kitchen an airy look and feel but you would need to keep your things inside those glass cabinets neat and tidy.
An untidy mess will not help your kitchen look bigger or better.
Use Baskets above Upper Cabinets
You likely have some empty space above your upper cabinets and the kitchen ceiling?
Are you utilizing that space properly?
You can put occasionally used items or seasonal kitchen appliances in cardboard boxes or baskets and store them in that space.
Use Compact Kitchen Appliances
Kitchen appliance manufacturers cater to the needs of their customers and you have options to buy compact refrigerators, under-counter refrigerators, compact coffee makers, compact microwave ovens and so on.
Of course, you can remove even the compact microwave or coffee maker from your kitchen countertop to a corner or put it on a shelf below your upper cabinets to create a more spacious kitchen.
Use Open Shelving for an Airy Look
When you replace upper cabinets in your kitchen with open shelves, your kitchen looks more spacious and you can show off some of your kitchen items.
You can experiment with a lot of options with open shelving in terms of color and materials which will accentuate your tastes and personality. You may opt for ‘rustic chic’ or just have open shelves on only a section of the wall.
You can put open shelving above the kitchen sink and you can turn open shelving into your kitchen pantry. If you are a coffee aficionado, you can use open shelving to create a coffee bar in your kitchen.
Convert Kitchen Walls into Storage Space
A blank wall in a small kitchen is valuable storage space wasted.
You can put wall-mounted racks or magnetic strips to hang pots or store knives respectively.
You free up some cabinet space as well as keep your counter clutter free.
Use a Pullout Pantry for Storage
Usually, you’ll find a gap of a few inches between your refrigerator and the wall.
You can install a pullout pantry in this space which would be perfect to store canned goods, spices and other stuff.
Use a Rolling Cart as a Kitchen Island
If your small kitchen doesn’t allow you the luxury of having a proper kitchen island, you can opt for a rolling cart.
Rolling carts come with many different materials used as a top. You can buy a rolling cart with butcher block, or granite, or marble or granite top apart from other options.
The top of the rolling cart will serve multiple purposes such as temporary storage space, prep area, and buffet table during dinner parties and so on.
So, here’s your chance to create a kitchen that Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Bourdain, or Nigella Lawson would be proud of.