Challenge: Proper teeny kitchen - help! Photos inc.

[kitschen]

So moved into house and am decanting all our kitchen stuff that currently has nowhere to go. We’ve moved from a house with an enormous kitchen, to this (see photos)

As usual estate agent photos make it look enormously long when in fact it is 347cms (11ft 5) long from threshold to backdoor. We’ve just about squeezed in our tall fridge freezer in the gap between the work surface and boiler housing, on the left as you face the back door. Taking into consideration the jutting out handles, this leaves a corridor of 62cms at its narrowest width. All a tight squeeze! And the microwave is sitting on top of the boiler housing so already one of the small windows is blocked.

The only blessing is that there is a cupboard where the under stairs is and I have arranged some tins and packets in there on the little ledges that the stairs create. I need to get someone in quick to tart up the under stairs area and maximise storage in there.

I’m wanting some Mumsnet expertise and genius!

Am thinking rods along the wall above the sink to hang saucepans on and mugs, and maybe open shelving with hooks underneath.

I need to put in some sort of splashback behind cooker and sink. Thinking simplest thing is to tile a third of way up wall (on one or both sides?)

This is our first house purchase and we have two tween/teenage kids so we have to make it work.

We are going to ditch the washing machine and get a single washer/dryer (I know they’re crap!) - our dishwasher will then go in the only remaining appliance space.

And before anyone asks, there is no other space to put stuff elsewhere; no garage, no loft and the dining room next to the kitchen is full (no room for a dining table!) and the living room is v. compact (we’ve bought a small table with benches that fit underneath that get pulled out to eat ;that’s the plan anyway!)

Having been lifelong renters we’ve never had to contract joiners, carpenters etc. so have no clue what this would cost. At the minimum we would need someone to quote for:

1. Designing and installing shelving for main kitchen and stick up a few shelves in under-stairs area
2. Tile along walls to act as splashback
3. sort out floorboards in understairs area to incorporate a hatch to get access to underfloor area

What sort of person should I be looking for to do that? Would a joiner do a bit of tiling? Is it more of a ‘handyperson’s’ job.

And then the million dollar question, how much?!! Would it be possible to do all of that for under £750 (excluding washer/dryer)

And one final question - there is no hood/extractor fan above the cooker - it’s a gas hob and electric oven. Is this something we should be looking at installing? It’s a terrace house so wouldn’t be able to vent it to an external wall.

And final detail, am in Glasgow. If you’ve read this far, thanks!

Get your mythical joiner to put up a shelf under thr wall cabinets for microwave.
You could also have stuff hanging underneath those wall units.
It doesn't matter if you have loads of stuff there as long as it is not actually sitting on the worktop as that will make cleaning up a pain.

Do you say ‘mythical’ because you’re not sure such a joiner creature exists that can design, tile and build?? 😄

In that cupboard under the stairs, could you put your fridge or washer/dryer?

I would actually put wall cupboards on the other side, I know it would feel a bit closed in, but I'd give that up for a more functional kitchen
I had a smaller one, put the fridge in the next room, wall cabinets were a bit narrower

Could you get your washing machine in the bathroom and have an extra cupboard in the kitchen? Does the freezer fit under the stairs?

I agree with putting cupboards on the other side. My kitchen is almost half that size - L shaped so nothing on one side as it’s too narrow. I’m also in Glasgow, it’s a typical small tenement kitchen.

Think about what you really need - do you need those 20 novelty cups that you’ve gathered over the years? 20 tins of beans? (Thinking of my DM...)

Saucepans could go in the bottom deep drawer. I find things hung up get covered in grease or dust.

Check out Ikea and Lakeland, they do inserts for cupboards so you get an extra shelf in between.

I’ve used “west end handyman” in the past when I lived in that area. He relaid Lino in the bathroom, replaced an interior windowsill, moved a unit etc. Google/Gumtree a handy man and they should be able to give you a quote.

Can you knock through into an adjoining room and create a kitchen diner?

Have you a floor plan and we could make suggestions for other rooms? I have a 3 door wardrobe in the spare bedroom that I use to store kitchen things that don’t get used as often - baking stuff etc. It’s only opposite the kitchen though as it’s a flat.

I knew this would be bigger than my kitchen . that being said, the fridge-freezer is in the adjoining dining room, as there's a suitable alcove where it doesn't look too weird.

We have double-height open shelving on the opposite wall to where the cabinets are. We use in-cupboard stacker/divider things to add additional space, and Lakeland stackable Tupperware stuff for flour, pasta etc. We also don't store excess amounts of food (not compared with MIL, anyway).

If you've just moved in it's really easy to review how much of your kitchen stuff you actually need - just leave it in boxes until you need it, and I bet in three months' time half of it is still boxed up. this can be stored elsewhere - under a bed, on top of a wardrobe.

We had this problem. Move the washer dryer to under the stairs. Cost around 200 to plumb it in. So you need a carcass and door put in the remaining space. You can easily build shelves yourselves or get some from ikea and put them up yourselves. You could put open shelves all along the wall where there are no units.

We were also ruthless about what we kept. So a major declutter. E.g. I had 5 pimms jugs, 14 vases, 3 dinner services etc. Backsplashes can be glass, which look less busy than tiles. As for an extractor. If you cook a lot, boil rice and potatoes, stuff that causes steam, you might need one. Alternatively just open a window. See how it goes. Putting a fridge under the stairs would drive you mad.

If you like higgledy piggledy boho-y style you are laughing- google
"Little Paris kitchen" and start from there...
If you are more into expanses of white it's going to be trickier.
I'd get loads of open shelves (use a track system, v easy to put up yourself), bars and hooks, and those metal grids you can hang lots of stuff from. And get rid of anything you don't actually use/love...

Why could you not install an extractor above the cooker? It would vent through a flexible hose that runs through the ceiling cavity to the rear of the house.

Day trip to ikea for inspiration and also Pinterest.

You don't need a hood, I've never had one. But you can get recirculation ones with carbon filter which don't need venting.

You can get coloured perspex type splasback sheets which can be made to measure and I think look nice.

Only tiling I had done was by a handy man.

Thanks everyone. I think I’m erring towards open shelving and rails with lots of hooks. I think if everything that’s out in the open gets used every day then there’s less likelihood of grease accumulating? I guess you just need to wipe down the shelving regularly though more than you would if it was behind a cupboard door. I can’t put any of the appliances anywhere else (our bathroom is similarly small) and the dining room will very much function as a music and computer room so being an open-plan kitchen diner is not an option even if we could afford knocking through.

Our existing fridge freezer won’t sit under the stairs but I suppose if we got a separate fridge and freezer I could stick one under the stairs and create another work surface and wall space with just a low fridge in the kitchen- will think on that.

Do you think a section of tiling and then a glass splash-back behind the cooker, and then another section of tiling would look odd? I imagined that the plastic/resin splashback that you see all along a wall would be very expensive but will have to research. Pinterest and Ikea are my friend but I like the Mumsnet input too 😄

I won’t show you a floor plan because we really dont have the money to do anything other than a bit of tiling or shelving. I am sure you could come up with some fantastic ideas but we don’t have the funds to execute them and that’s not going to change any time soon.

...off to look at Little Paris Kitchen 😊

I knew this would be bigger than my kitchen I hear ya.

Cupboards really are much more efficient than shelves for storage in a small space, and if you could get a reasonable match with a cheap off the shelf kitchen (eg B&Q or Wickes do something like IT or takeaway) kitchen then that would probably work out cheaper than getting someone in to design and fit something bespoke, even if it's "just" shelves. Granted it's not as stylish.

We stack very efficiently. 12 plates take up as much shelf area as 6 would. A big pile of nested bowls takes up a third of the space as 3 piles of different bowls that don't stack together. Similarly for mixing bowls, serving bowls, casseroles - keep what stacks nicely, and one nested set of pyrex bowls covers a lot of these functions.

Our saucepans live in 2 piles. I got rid of a couple of pans that didn't nest in with the others and I've rarely, if ever, missed them. The oven and grill can double as storage for baking trays. If you have a separate set of best china, pack it away or use a sideboard near the dining table. We find about 10 mugs ample - one shelf of a small wall cupboard, when we used to have a whole cupboard full! You can easily source extra shelves for cupboards if you want to squeeze in flat things or stuff you only need to access from the front (ie crockery rather than ingredients). The sizes are usually standard.

Glass splashbacks are not as expensive as I thought they'd be, and you can calculate the costs easily on online planners.

Try the Kungsfors and Fintorp range of products in Ikea

www.ikea.com/gb/en/collections/kungsfors/

www.ikea.com/gb/en/collections/fintorp/

The end result would be a bit like this:

www.houzz.co.uk/photo/27884440-nordenskioeldsgatan-5-rustic-kitchen-gothenburg

www.houzz.co.uk/photo/81678019-kitchen-new-look-with-the-same-cabinets-country-montreal

I, too, have a galley kitchen and need to rethink the design. I live in the West and use freecycle a lot. This week someone has offered a whole Kitchen, less appliances. Worth looking every day if you are on a tight budget. Two weeks ago I found a freezer to put in my garage.

Could you out in very narrow floor to ceiling cupboards along the left hand side? I imagine to extend the upper cabinets down to meet the floor. That gives you plenty of storage and floor space. The side with the cooker could give you counter too space and room for under counter appliances, as you won't be needing the presses. You could have a dishwasher and an under counter fridge.
You have a dining room so the kitchen can be purely functional.

MsMamaNature that Houz rustic look is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind - I very much like the white tiles with the dark grout - that wouldn’t need so much fussing over as white grout!

If the sink is on an external wall, I would put a window in above it. It will make a huge difference to the feel of the room.