Big makeover ideas for your small kitchen
The kitchen is often said to be the heart of the home, and why wouldn’t it be – the family tend to meet up in there even more often than in the living room, coming together for meals and chatting away. And everyone knows the best room to be in at a house party is the kitchen, right? Right.
So it’s a lot more than just “the room where you make the food”. Everyone wants a giant kitchen in which they can find all the utensils and gadgets they’ve dreamed of, but unfortunately this is simply not possible for all of us. So for the rest of us, we’ll just have to make do!
If your kitchen is in dire need of an upgrade, here are some tips on how best to work with what’s available to you.
Embrace That Small Space!
We’re going to have to learn to love the cramped kitchen. There’s no way you can start knocking through walls or getting an extension – that stuff is too expensive!
However, there is often extra space just hidden away, even in the very smallest of kitchens. Make sure you use your space wisely. Although you may think that cabinets and cupboards are the best types of storage, in a small kitchen they can quickly create a claustrophobic atmosphere.
Instead of investing in upper cabinets – which can make a room seem overly top-heavy – why not try some open shelving? You can run them the whole way around the room without encroaching on the space, and they make everything feel more open.
There is, however, one caveat – you really must make sure you keep them tidy and organised. Any clutter is going to look awful.
Eyes Up!
Okay, so you’ve got cupboards or shelves all around the walls, and you use the counter tops for storage too, as well as floor cabinets. There’s still one more place you can use for storing items, but it’s often overlooked (though not literally) – the ceiling.
Yes, you have to go vertical! Get some sort of hanging solution (hooks and the like work well) and you can hang your pots, pans, and utensils from the ceiling, freeing up some more space.
Also, you can create the illusion of a large kitchen by painting the ceiling a bright colour (or white) – this draws the eyes up and makes it seem larger, meaning you’ve finally got space for that award-winning Humanscale chair you’ve been lusting after!
Dark Is OK!
Although conventional wisdom says that light colours are the best way of making a room feel more spacious, we feel that it’s best to mix it up a bit and add in some dark colours too.
Keep the ceiling white, and have the trims and any woodwork in light shades too, but paint the walls and the door a darker colour. It may not seem like much, but the colour contrast really does give a greater sense of space.
If you’d rather not get out the Dulux, a large mirror at the rear of the room does a similar job!