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Big Ideas for Small Kitchens What’s the Small Idea? Does your house date back to the day of the not-so-super-sized kitchen? Welcome to the club. Here’s how to start making more of less.  When the squeeze is on: To make the most of tight kitchen quarters look for appliances that work with a kitchen’s architecture and take advantage of every inch of space. Here, extra-tall cabinets, a built-in cooktop and microwave, a ventilation system tha Image courtesy Miele Flip open a design magazine or flip on a home-improvement show and you will encounter enough sprawling, lavishly appointed kitchen layouts to satisfy every chef in the history of the Food Network and PBS combined. Complete with six-burner, double-oven commercial ranges, full-suction hoods, multiple sinks and dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, warming drawers, cooling drawers, compactors, islands, TVs, computer tables and custom cabinetry as far as the eye can see, who wouldn’t want one of these gustatory gathering places? The kitchen is the hub of the modern home, after all, and warrants enough square footage to fulfill that purpose and, arguably, grand appliances and appointments. But the plain fact of the matter is many existing homes don’t have space for a toaster oven, much less the bells and whistles of commercial ranges and wine refrigerators. And that leaves the average kitchen remodeler in a fix. If you don’t have the option of knocking out a wall to expand, are you frozen out of today’s kitchen amenities? Of course not, say the experts, but you will need to reassess your kitchen needs and follow design strategies that maximize the space you do have. It all starts with a truthful assessment of how you plan to use the kitchen. Prioritized Design “One of the biggest mistakes people make is seeing this kitchen stuff in magazines and wanting it all. They try to cram it all in and wind up with no counter space, appliances they don’t need and no room to maneuver,” says Susan Kirkman, vice president of academics and dean of education at Harrington College of Design, Chicago. “We are about stuff and tend to buy a lot of kitchen equipment because we think we need it. But when was the last time you used your yogurt maker?” Make a wish list based on your family, how you eat and how you live, designers say. “Are you a gourmet cook or strictly a frozen foods/throw-it-in-the-microwave-and-run person?” says Judith Wilson, owner of Los Angeles-based Judith Wilson Interior Design Group. “Are you single, a couple or do you have 12 children? Is the kitchen just for show, do you bake and have family dinners every weekend, do you entertain 12 people at a time?”  Brainy built-ins: built-in cooktops provide storage below, workspace on two sides. Image courtesy Miele Prioritize based on the answers. A warming drawer may be near the top of the list for an entertainer and at the bottom for a loner bachelor, even if the concept sounds appealing to both and everyone in between. A separate refrigerator and freezer would be great, but you may find you can get by with a side-by-side and save a lot of space. Appliance makers, while they showcase the big, lavish models, build for smaller needs as well. High-end German manufacturer Miele, Inc. makes a slim-line dishwasher and built-in cooktops small enough for drawers underneath. Dacor Inc., Diamond Bar, Calif., makes a four-burner 30-inch range “that doesn’t take up a lot of room but gives a enough BTUs to cook pretty nice meals,” says Eric Phillips, vice president of DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen, Apex, N.C. An honest needs assessment is “really a reality check, because people get caught up in TV and magazines,” says Kirkman. “You can get beautiful appliances, but scale back.” That doesn’t mean remodeling a small kitchen is only about sacrifice. It’s a drop of realism coupled with wise design. And wise design has two parts: First, utilizing every cubic inch of space, including all traditionally underutilized areas, and second, providing a more open feeling through color, lighting and material selection. Design experts have myriad strategies in both areas. For Space Utilization • Check the architecture. Many older buildings have dropped ceilings or “some funky thing with the ceiling that makes the kitchen smaller,” says Kirkman. “Look at the ceiling height and whether there is a possibility of going all the way to the roof rafters. Look at the walls – some houses built in the late 1950s have double layers of 5/8-inch drywall and a layer of plaster over that. You can go back to the studs and put a thinner material on and get a few more inches here or there.” • Extend cabinets. Many kitchen cabinets stop 12-14 inches down from the ceiling, and “all that space does is collect dust,” says Wilson.  Big enough: A small, slimline dishwasher tucked next to the sink provides sufficient utility for a pint-size kitchen. Image courtesy Miele Home centers offer premade cabinetry that fits the space and can be stained to match existing cabinets. And extending cabinets actually has a dual benefit: “In addition to gaining storage, it makes the ceiling seem higher and the space seem larger,” says Libby Langdon, interior designer and commentator on HGTV’s “Small Space, Big Style.” • Use the corners. Sure, there’s the typical lazy Susan, but Kirkman suggests sinks in corners, and Wilson works with a product from Rev-A-Shelf, Jeffersontown, Ky. The company makes a corner unit featuring half-moon-shaped shelves that pull out as you open a large door, providing easy access to items buried in the recesses. • Micro-shelf. Existing cabinets have a lot of wasted space, a problem that can be solved by simply adding more shelves. Measure products stored there and rearrange with additional shelves to maximize space. For short items like spices, for example, install two shorter shelves as opposed to just one. Wilson has put drawers in the toe kick for storing placemats, extra towels and seldom-used utensils. If there’s no room for a pantry, a pull-out cabinet about 6 feet tall and 12 to 15 inches wide, usually positioned next to the refrigerator, can act as one. “Try to use every square inch,” Wilson says. “On each side of the range, below the counter, I like to put 9-inch-wide, tall, thin pullout shelves for olive oil, spices, a knife caddy or cooking things.” • Think temporary. Rather than a permanent island, get a movable one that can be stored where it won’t clog traffic. They’re readily available and can double as bars or hors d’oeuvre tables when entertaining. But maximizing space is only half the battle. “There is value in making a small kitchen look larger,” Langdon says. “If you can make the space feel bigger, you will enjoy it so much more.” There are many ways to make a kitchen feel bigger if not actually provide additional square feet. Material selection is one of them. In general, woods and granite should be fine-grained (cherry as opposed to oak, and ubatuba versus emerald pearl) and tiles should be small. “A small kitchen is not a place to be using large-scale patterns,” says Kirkman. Smaller tiles with smaller patterns equal larger feel. But avoid busyness. Keep cabinetry plain, avoiding detailed arches and moldings. “You want smooth surface fronts that are simple, either with no handles or sleek, simple handles,” says Kirkman. For floors, installing a narrow-plank, fine-grained wood on an angle “starts to push those walls out visually.” Designers fall on both sides of the argument on using light or dark colors for the walls, but all agree on a simplified color palette. Kirkman suggest both. “Use maybe two to three chocolate browns and layer the colors to visually open up space,” she says. “Start with dark at bottom and get lighter toward the top, so it lifts your eye up.” A skylight also will lift the eye up, raising the ceiling and visually expanding the space – and will provide more light, another key strategy to lend that kitchen a bigger feel. Almost any kitchen designer will advise under-cabinet lighting. Keeping it dark tends to shrink the space. “Under and above cabinet lighting adds depth and dimension and opens up the look of the space,” says Langdon. Using glass doors on some cabinets or removing the doors altogether, “gives you depth that you wouldn’t have with a solid door,” says Phillips. In the end, size is in the eye of the beholder and goes back to how a kitchen is utilized. “One man’s definition of a small kitchen may be another man’s definition of a big kitchen. ‘Small’ is a relative term,” says Phillips. “You can make a small kitchen still look like a gourmet kitchen without gourmet size.” |
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