Kitchens: small can be beautiful!

Organise your small kitchen with replacement kitchen doors from DIY Homefit

Many of us dream of a huge family kitchen. Whether it’s a traditional farmhouse style or something more contemporary and chic, we can picture ourselves entertaining family and friends in that wonderfully open area, with plenty of room for everyone and everything.

But for most people, our kitchens are not magazine picture perfect. Many of us have home with small kitchens, but this doesn’t mean that they can’t be stylish. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that a small kitchen has to be cluttered. With the right storage solutions you can create a kitchen that rivals Doctor Who’s Tardis in terms of what you can fit into it!

Here are our Top Ten Tips for making the most of every inch of kitchen space:

• Design for space

If you are considering replacement kitchen doors then do have a look at handleless designs. These give a sleek, streamlined appearance to your kitchen and create an illusion of extra space. They will enable you to fit in as many cupboards as possible to maximise storage space but at the same time giving your kitchen an open feel. The example pictured below shows Gloss Cream Handleless J-Pull doors from our DIY Homefit Express range.

• Have everything close to hand

Also when planning space in your kitchen, be mindful of organising everything in a logical way, so that your most frequently used items are the easiest to get your hands on quickly. Being able to find all the essentials quickly saves a lot of time and will make cooking feel more spontaneous so that you will enjoy it more. So make sure that you dedicate sufficient space to the things that will make your daily routines easier.

• Use every inch of space

Every room in our home has wasted space but in a small kitchen you can’t afford to have that. So firstly identify all the places where there’s wasted space, such as between units, under the sink, in corners and at the back of cupboards. Use all of that space to store things:  you can be sure that something will fit in each of the areas we just mentioned! Also consider placing an extra cupboard or shelf just outside the kitchen door to extend the work and surface areas into the next room or hallway.

• Wall hanging

As well as spreading out, also spread upwards. Wall-mounted storage can help to keep tools neatly tucked away yet still have them easy to to find near preparation and cooking areas. A wall-hung storage unit can also help to create a cosy ambience in your kitchen.

• Open shelving

On a similar theme, open shelving on your wall can not only be used to good effect to display items such as  porcelain and china, but can also create an open and airy feel in your kitchen. Having everything visible also makes it easy for all the family – and guests – to help with food preparation and table setting, so can be a very social factor in your kitchen.

• Ceiling

When considering storage solutions at a higher level, don’t forget the good old-fashioned hanging ceiling rack, like the example shown below (image courtesy of Cooks and Kitchens via Wikimedia). This style can blend in with a variety of kitchen designs and is practical as well as stylish:

• Maximise drawer and cupboard space

In any kitchen, cupboards and drawers are the biggest storage resource but we often don’t make full use of them. To do this, you need to look for internal storage solutions that will make the most of them. We featured several DIY Homefit products in our recent article What to Take to Uni, including our ranges of drawer boxes, cutlery trays and utensil organisers that are perfect for organising all your bits and pieces.

• Portable storage

Another really good kitchen storage option is either an island or even a portable kitchen trolley. Both of these will provide an additional preparation surface and additional storage for cookery books, pots and pans. Again, the look is stylish yet practical, such as the kitchen in pictured below that also features replacement kitchen doors in Broadway Matt Dakkar and Odessa Oak:

• Breakfast bar

Another feature of the image above is the breakfast bar. These are ideal even for small kitchens because they remove the need for a kitchen table and also provide additional workspace on top and storage underneath.

• Let there be light

Last but not least, the right kitchen lighting can add an illusion of greater space in a small kitchen, particularly if you add lights over the worktops you use most. Our recent article – Light Up Your Kitchen – explores this in more detail.

If you follow at least a few of the above tips then you should find that you are able to squeeze more into your small kitchen but that it still looks chic rather than cluttered. With replacement kitchen doors from DIY Homefit adding the perfect finishing touch, you will soon come to realise the small really can be beautiful.