Create More Space In Your Small Kitchen

Where do you spend most of your time in your home? If your family is like mine, it’s most likely in the kitchen. When the kitchen becomes the center of the home, no matter how large that space might be, it never feels big enough.

Several years ago, after completely redesigning the floor plan, I remodeled my kitchen. First, we knocked down a wall (which was a lot of fun) and installed a garden window over the sink, even with the countertop. Then we added both an island with an overhang, with room for three chairs or stools, and a food-prep peninsula at table height, also with an overhang with room for three or four stools.

Following are several ideas to make any kitchen feel and look larger. Remember, it’s not necessary to follow all of them, but even implementing one will make a big difference in your kitchen.

Create More StorageFor better, more efficient storage, install a base cabinet with roll-out shelves rather than one with a door that swings open on hinges. A cabinet like this makes a great place to store your most-used appliances. The nice thing about pull-out shelves is that items stored way in the back are easily reached.

Redo Your CabinetsTry adding glass fronts to your wall cabinets. Better yet, replace those solid cabinet doors with glass fronts along one wall. This is a great way to give your kitchen a more open feel.

Add Light
Choose under-the-counter lighting—it will make your kitchen appear larger. Don’t forget to select light colors for your cabinets and countertops!

Create Height with Taller Wall CabinetsTry removing those soffits. Install your cabinets to the ceiling. You can also “stair-step” the cabinets. First start with a taller cabinet. Then line the others progressively shorter. The open space that’s created above the shorter cabinets makes a great space to display your collectibles, baskets and teapots. You can store those seldom-used pieces, such as holiday dishes, on the top shelves of the taller cabinets.

Bring the Outdoors In
Wherever possible, enlarge those windows. Another great way to get more light in is to replace one with a garden window, installed at countertop height. For an even brighter kitchen, add a skylight or sky pipe.

Streamline Your KitchenOnce or twice a year we all go through our closets, getting rid of those clothes we no longer use. The same should be done in the kitchen. Be sure to regularly reorganize your kitchen, getting rid of all those items you don’t use. This simple chore will make your kitchen feel much more roomy. When your kitchen is cluttered, it will always feel smaller.

Build a Useful Island Do you have an eat-in kitchen, but there’s no room for an island? Consider replacing the kitchen table itself with an island. An island will not only give you an eating area, but you will also have added space to store seldom-used items. This is an easy project. Start with base cabinets either table height or counter height. Then simply top them with a countertop material. To make room for chairs or stools, extend the counter 12 to 16 inches beyond the sides of the cabinets.

Install Storage Trays
Specially made narrow trays are available at hardware stores and home centers, and can be easily installed on the back of false drawer fronts ant the sink and cooktop. This is a great way to reduce your clutter around the stove and sink.

Free Up Counter SpaceTired of cluttered countertops? Free up your counter by installing an under-the-counter microwave, can opener, spice rack or toaster.

Open Up Those WallsIs your dining room next to your kitchen? Consider opening the wall between them. Be sure the wall is not load-bearing before starting. If it isn’t, then this could be a simple do-it-yourself project.

Create Open Shelving
Add open shelves to your kitchen, especially if you have colorful plates, glasses, teapots or other collectibles to display. Open shelving always makes a small kitchen look larger. One option is to simply remove the doors from your cabinets and paint the inside a bright color. Another way to go is to take down the cabinets altogether and instead add colorful shelves to make the room feel more open.

More Kitchen Storage For Less Money

Ask any woman what she’d want in a redesigned kitchen. Most, about ninety-nine out of a hundred, would immediately respond, “More storage!” Totally redoing your kitchen may not be feasible for you right not, but there are several simple options available for adding storage space.

When faced with storage issues in your kitchen, a good place to start is with your cluttered cabinets. First, get rid of all that stuff you don’t use! When you’ve done that, you’ll be amazed at all the room you have left. Whether you attack your cabinets or not, here are some inventive solutions for creating more storage in the kitchen.

Look to the Ceiling
Do pots and pans take up an incredible amount of your kitchen space? Consider getting them out of the cabinet and hanging them up. Try this simple, inexpensive idea for hanging cookware:

Find an old or new window and attach “U” bolts or eyebolts to all four corners. Then find secure ceiling joists and hang the window from there, using eyebolts, “S” hooks and chains. Fasten plain or fancy towel bars to the edges of the window, and use “S” hooks to hang pots, herbs and utensils from the bars.

The window makes a marvelous display shelf for collectibles or plants. This space can be easily transformed by adding decorative touches such as hanging wire baskets, bundled herbs to dry or other colorful displays. Try tying colorful colanders together to create a bright storage space for fruits and vegetables. I actually have a friend who stores her table goods here, such as napkins, knives, forks, spoons and rolled-up hand towels (which she uses as placemats).

Take Advantage of Available Wall Space
Nail a piece of lattice or a pre-made trellis to the kitchen wall to create a unique space to hang utensils, pots and pans, dish towels or oven mitts. Think of all the options—you get the idea!

Why not add shelves to your walls? This is a simple and inexpensive storage solution for any room. Here you can display all your favorite teapots, pitchers or platters that have been hiding away in a dark cabinet somewhere. So dig through those cabinets. I’m sure you’ll find many pieces that will add interest and color to your kitchen.

Rework Your Cabinets
Do your large base cabinets seem to do nothing but collect clutter? Then this is a simple solution for you. Base cabinets, after all, are really nothing more than big boxes. Often these cabinets go back a whopping two-feet deep! It’s no wonder, then, that we constantly find ourselves on our hands and knees, searching for something way in the back. These tips are meant to help you rework those big base cabinets, but also consider them for the smallest of your cabinets.

Organizine Your Kitchen in 9 Easy Steps

Kitchen tasks can be divided into four specific categories: cooking, baking, eating and food storage. If these tasks can be divided so effortlessly, then it makes sense to divide your kitchen equipment by task as well and to store them in specific areas. Here are nine guidelines that will help you create a kitchen where all of your tools are easily accessible when and where you need them.

1. First, place all of your food preparation items as close as possible to the sink. Here you would include gadgets such as a food processor, a salad spinner and your favorite bowl.

2. Next, store your pots and pans near the stove. I find it really convenient to keep my pots and their lids together.

3. For me, baking is really a special occasion, so it’s fine if these items aren’t right next to the sink. However, if you bake every day, it makes sense to store your baking pans, mixing bowls and measuring cups closer to the sink. Either way, be sure to keep all your baking supplies together.

4. Organize your dishes, glasses, silverware, napkins and placemats in such a way so that the actual task of setting the table will be quick and enjoyable. In other words, these items should also be kept in an established area. As you know, the first three of these have traditional places in your kitchen. Keep napkins and placements in the drawer closest to the area where you’ll be dining. Plot your command stations so that they follow a logical flow of energy consumption. For instance, if your placemats are kept at the opposite end of the kitchen from where you eat, you are wasting steps. When you waste steps, you waste time. You need to direct your life force, not squander it.

5. Remember to create a home for your containers and other food-storage items. You are really wasting your energy and time if you are walking around in circles looking for tinfoil in one area of your kitchen and one of those infamous plastic storage containers in another. Try not to set up your kitchen so that you are constantly muttering under your breath, “I can’t ever find anything in this kitchen!”

6. Small tools can be stored in drawers in related bunches. You don’t want to be looking for a rolling pin and come across a knife sharpener and a tea ball in the same place. If you are lucky to have enough drawers, then place baking items in one, cooking utensils in another and other specialty gadgets, such as that pizza cutter in a third.

7. Many cooks have found that a container on the counter to house their most frequently used tools can be very helpful. Use an attractive container, if you can find the counterspace. Then keep those tools that you don’t use very often in a drawer.

8. Remember those drawer liners, to prevent slipping and sliding. Additionally, you might want to find some small containers in different sizes to store your tools. It would be a shame to organize everything only to find a chaotic mess the next time you opened your drawer.

9. In every kitchen there is the one drawer that I have dubbed “the guy drawer.” Here reside the screwdriver, a small hammer and perhaps some picture hooks or nails. You can find fabulous multi-sectioned plastic containers that will help you tidy this drawer and its numerous treasures. Try and keep your macho supplies to a minimum. It’s a good idea to store them low to the ground in one of the deep-bottom drawers. If you can find room for a small toolbox in your pantry, you might be able to free up this drawer altogether.