The Art Of Designing A Small Kitchen: Less Is More

When kitchen décor and design is being discussed, the majority of people seem to forget that not all of us live in these huge mansions, where kids could play hide and go seek in the kitchen and not find each other for days. Seriously, jokes aside, when you hear some “tips” and “ideas” on how to decorate your kitchen, chances are that you take a look around and ask yourself “Where am I supposed to put all of those things?”

Truth be told, while we would all, undoubtedly, love to have huge kitchens, the fact of the matter is that the majority of us is restrained to a 10 to 15 square meter kitchens – if we’re lucky – and that’s not a bad thing! Honestly, the kitchen – like any other room in our homes – has two major purposes: preparing food and eating the food you have prepared. And, to be fair, for those purposes even a 5 m² kitchen is more than enough. With that in mind, let’s see how you can make a small kitchen look like a dream.

Go for a single-wall layout

In the era of roomy kitchens with open floor plans, kitchen islands and opulent kitchen cabinets, creating a single-wall layout in your kitchen seems almost unthinkable. However, the fact is that this layout is even somewhat more functional than those created in large kitchens. When carefully thought-out and organized properly, this layout will actually prove to be quite favourable. For instance, you can make your sink area the central part of your kitchen layout and place your refrigerator on the left side of it and your range on the right side. For best results, see if you can squeeze in a kitchen cabinet between the fridge and the sink, as well as between the sink and the range. This will provide you with plenty of work surfaces for meal prep and getting around your kitchen will be more streamlined.

Create an adjustabledining area

When it comes to dining areas, provided that you don’t have a separate dining room, you should consider the position of the table that will provide you with enough room to enjoy your meals. One of the more interesting ways you can tackle this is by going with an extendable dining table you can spread out when necessary and fold back in when only your family is dining. Additionally, you can also choose to place benchesinstead of chairs on both sides of the table, as this solution will provide you with more seating space. Finally, if you opt for benches, you can go with the ones with hidden storage space, so you can use them more than one way as well.

Play with different colours

The colour scheme you decide to go with in your kitchen can truly make or break the final look. If your kitchen is small, you can play around with different shades to visually open the space up. Aside from choosing the lighter shades, you may also want to think about painting different walls in different hues. For instance, if you have a small wall with a big window, you can even go with some bolder, darker tone to add some visual interest to your kitchen. Also, consider adding some interesting prints to your kitchen – especially in the dining area. You can even search for artwork online until you find something that will perfectly match your kitchen’s vibe and decor.

Create different zones with flooring solutions

Finally, another trick you can do is create multiple zones in your kitchen by using different flooring solutions. For instance, you can cover your floors with tiles in the area where your single-wall kitchen is located and cover the rest of the floor with laminate or some other wood-based flooring solution. This will visually separate the immediate kitchen area from the rest of the space. Additionally, you can place an interesting area rug under your dining table to act as a base for this part of your kitchen, again visually creating a separate whole.

If your kitchen doesn’t really boast too much room and you fear that you won’t be able to create something both practical and functional in it, try some of these ideas out. The fact of the matter is that yes, no matter what you do, you won’t be able to really expand the space beyond its measurements, but you can create an area that looks absolutely breathtaking and inviting, no matter its size.