Jane Lockhart’s Small Kitchen Tips

Just because you have a small kitchen doesn’t mean you can’t live large. The key thing to remember when you’re starting in a small kitchen, is to plan everything out.

1. Consider your lifestyle. Are you going to cook in here, are you really only gonna entertain, do you want to eat in your kitchen? Those are all things to consider.

2. In a small kitchen, counters are always at a premium. So make sure you give yourself enough counter space. If you can do an island or a larger or deeper counter, this is always valuable in a kitchen area. I want you to remember, all kitchens have appliances, in particularly countertop appliances. You want to try to minimize those as much as possible. I know, everyone has a coffee maker, so think about it in advance: where can you designate your coffee maker to go. I always like to hide it behind the cabinet that the fridge is in, that way you can’t see it.

3. Big appliances are going make the biggest difference. Consider using appliances that are paneled, or that hide within the cabinetry. That way, you don’t see them and it doesn’t take up as much space. There are a lot of appliances today that are actually designed for small spaces. They’re taller than they are wider and that really allows you to use you height, even if you don’t have width. And of course, there’s lots of appliances that you don’t necessarily want to see, but kind of have to be, well, open. Things like the microwave. Today, there are built-in microwaves made to be lower down or even drawer microwaves. There are also cook tops that are made to go within a counter and look a lot cleaner. They’re induction tops, which allows them to only be hot when you have the right kind of pot on top of it.

4. Don’t overlook any space! In this particular kitchen, we actually had an air duct that took up the center space but we didn’t let that get in the way. We put a small cabinet in front of it with teeny shelves that gave us good storage for small jars; basically a teeny pantry for things like spices.

Small spaces can be spectacular. They don’t have to be teeny-tiny. They can be really great, regardless of the square footage that you have.