Tell me the best things about your small kitchen

[BangingOn]

If you have a small kitchen and/or an awkward shaped room, what clever features does your kitchen have to make the most of the space? I’m compiling a list of things to try and incorporate into our design, like pull out drawers instead of cupboards for the base units and plinth drawers to make the most of unused space.

What from your small kitchen design would you recommend? Or anything you wouldn’t do again?

Our kitchen is quite small and leads off another room which we call 'the breakfast room' - that's where we put a table, chairs, have space for artwork, the dog's crate, a cupboard for glassware. Other houses might call the space a kitchen diner, but we have a separate dining room.The table is extremely useful for when I"m preparing a monster meal for entertaining a big group in the dining room, as I don't have a lot of sworkspace in the kitchen itself.

What I do like about our small kitchen is the efficient 'triangle' of workspace, oven, sink, dishwasher and fridge. I can be proper cheffy in that space - I hate a pointlessly large kitchen where you have to take several strides to get from oven to kitchen or workspace. The entrance from the breakfast room bit is quite narrow, and to save space the floor to ceiling cupboards are divided vertically, so you can fold the doors back when you open them.

We didn't design or install this kitchen and I think our predecessors did well in a small space. What I wouldn't do is skimp (as they did) on the extraction system - it's a recirculation extractor hob - I guess they thought, small room, can open the door to supplement it. It's OK, but not brilliant, and I miss having a proper external ducting system. We also installed better under counter lighting, with a dimmer system. The previous ones were a bit pants. I also added those shelving units that rotate to make the corner units more accessible. I'd like proper bin storage, but there isn't really space. But overall, it's a decent kitchen, which has held up well, still looks good and I can't complain!

In a few years time, we'll do a side-infill extension to incorporate the former outside lav, currently a tool shed and expand the space and light somewhat. Still won't be huge by some people's standards, and I'll want to hang onto the compact, efficient working area, but that's when we'll address the deficiencies of the current design. That will be our 'love it or list it' moment.

We kept our kitchen area deliberately small to maximise our dining area which has sofas etc. Before having the walk knocked down we had an even smaller kitchen, now we can walk past each other! But a small kitchen is so easy to cook in if it is well planned. Everything is within easy reach, and we are really keen cooks, but planning is key.

Less of a design thing - but spend some time really thinking about what you really need - in terms of glassware, crockery, cutlery... Just have what you really use. If its the gravy boat that's used once a year for christmas dinner - ditch it and use a nice glass measuring jug that is used constantly throughout the year...
Don't have 'nice' stuff that is just used for special occasions - use it daily and ditch the cheap ugly plates/mugs/bowls.
Similarly with equipment - I use my slowcooker weekly but I could free up space by ditching the electric steamer which was a nice idea but didn't make it into regular use!
What can be relocated to a different part of the house - do you have always have that weird drawer of random crap - can it be ditched or be in the hallway/garage?
We don't have those massive sorting recycling bins - just one regular one. Instead we are in the habit of several times a day just taking our plastic/paper/glass recycling straight to the outdoor bins rather than trying to find space for a bin for them in the kitchen.

This is all super helpful, thank you.

I am also a really keen cook and agree with the tight cooking area being a positive if planned well. I did have a big cull of kitchen equipment a while ago but it’s crept back up again so need to go back through the cupboards and be ruthless.

Drawers in the kickboards for oven trays

My parents have a tiny kitchen - It has washing machine, cooker, corner unit, sink (L shaped), that is literally the size of it. It doesn't help that my Mum is a semi-hoarder, and keeps everything. I am in my 40's, she still has my toddler sippy cup. There are two wall cupboards in there as well.

She does have a 'pantry' cupboard that she uses for plates, mugs etc, but food is kept in a cupboard in the main living room (they have two reception rooms but the one is used as the every day general room), the fridge is also in there.

Hopefully you won't need to go that far, but you may need to look at alternative storage solutions for some of your things and as has been already said keep only the things you actually do use. Also think about clever storage ideas to make the best use of the space you have.

If space is limited in cupboards then getting items that use minimal storage space is also a good idea, such as these type of saucepans.

www.argos.co.uk/product/9359642

Boiling water tap is brilliant. No kettle needed. Pull out cupboard for all bins and recycling. Freestanding cupboard instead of a pantry...

Ours is quite small: 10 units plus fridge. I’m trying to squeeze in a shallow larder unit and double oven by creative rearranging. Washing machine, dryer and boiler are elsewhere and we have a few shelves in the garage with spare tins,, pet food etc.

There’s no space for things not used. I had a cull of random pans, tins and gadgets when we moved here. Try and avoid plain shelf base units (except maybe a 90x90 corner), drawers or pull out baskets/inner drawers fit much more in.
If you have an instant tap make sure you don’t lose cupboard space to the tank or block an area of worktop from being used for other things.

Ours is fairly small, but we did put in three big deep shelves under the stairs (just about part of the kitchen) which serves as a larder for us. That's where we keep our tins and baking stuff and whatever other cupboard food.

We have one corner unit that has the two pull out shelves which I would deffo recommend. Our fitter warned us not to put anything too heavy in those though just fyi.

Also, our house is Edwardian so has very high ceilings, so we got the tall height versions of the mounted kitchen cupboards. Gives us more storage space and they still look fine as there's still a good gap between them and the high ceiling. So if you've got high ceilings, take advantage of them.

Not a clever practical idea in itself, but I’d really recommend writing a list of all the stuff you want to have in your kitchen and the way you’d ideally access it - eg do you want foil/clingfilm to be somewhere super-accessible? What about baking stuff? Do kids drinks need to be easy to get to to avoid them always being out on the counter? Do you need tall storage for brooms etc? My kitchen isn’t very big but has loads of cupboards, BUT lots of them aren’t very useful eg barely any drawers, 2 awkward corners, a double under-counter cupboard unit that we go into about once every six-months as it’s not practical for everyday storage, no obvious larder space so the food is all spread out...

DH put shelves in the cupboard under the stairs so most dried and tinned food it stored there.
I have friends who have a huge kitchen but it’s badly planned. It has a middle island which has a sink in it but to get to the fridge from the cooker you have to walk all the way round the island.

We also have a mid century sideboard in the dining room which houses all the stuff we don't use as much - glasswear etc which helps on the storage front

Yes. In my last house (kitchen so tiny I could touch both walls at the same time and it was only 3 units long. Cupboard, oven, fridge on one side. Washing machine, sink, cupboard on the other.) we had a large unit which had drawers and cupboards to store all crockery and cutlery. No drawers in the kitchen!

Check the depth of the cupboards you're having installed - in hindsight we'd have had deeper cupboards for more storage. We chose them thinking it would look more spacious (and it does, admittedly) but we have really missed the cupboard space.

We are another who has a large sideboard in the dining room full of kitchen stuff that isn't used as much, very rarely used stuff like for Christmas or occasions like that are kept in cupboard upstairs. We have small freezer in the kitchen for everyday use and a larger one in the garage. Our cooker is quite small, a 55cm Stoves mini range so still looks nice and fits a fair bit in. We use the under stairs cupboard as a pantry cupboard so that keeps most of the food out of the kitchen cupboards.

@BangingOn

If you have a small kitchen and/or an awkward shaped room, what clever features does your kitchen have to make the most of the space? I’m compiling a list of things to try and incorporate into our design, like pull out drawers instead of cupboards for the base units and plinth drawers to make the most of unused space.

What from your small kitchen design would you recommend? Or anything you wouldn’t do again?

My kitchen is very small. Best thing I ever did was get rid of cupboards and replace with giant drawers. Everything is easily accessible now without having kneel and search. I also do not have 'wasted' corner cupboard (which is difficult to access). Having a small kitchen means having to be creative with design. I still love my kitchen after ten years and would not change a thing (except not replacing the dishwasher as we don't use it nowadays now kids grown up and left).

@mealsonwheelz

Boiling water tap is brilliant. No kettle needed. Pull out cupboard for all bins and recycling. Freestanding cupboard instead of a pantry...

I've seen these on US tv programmes in particular and wonder how much they cost to have constantly boiling water on tap?

Definitely drawers in base units.
I love my pull-out larder unit, or 'the morgue' as it is affectionately known - it holds masses easily accessible in a narrow
space.
I only have wall cupboards on one side, but on the other side I have a plate rack above the sink which is great and holds loads safely, and a slim glass fronted unit that sits directly onto the work surface that holds glasses and mugs.

I've cooked in various tiny kitchens (Christmas dinner for 10 in a 2m kitchen), 8 + years in a 3mx3m kitchen.

One thing that can help a lot is to have one good area of worksurface that is deeper than normal. Standard worksurface is 60cm deep. if you go to 80cm instead, you have space at the back for appliances (mixer) and space to put a dish-drainer behind the sink etc.

I see a lot of posts here favouring drawers but I much prefer cupboards to maximize space. Every drawer in a kitchen means you lose 5cm space for the draw mechanism each side, which adds up to a lot of dead space. A basic cupboard can fit bigger trays & pans etc than drawers.

We have a tiny kitchen and love having a built in bin. No longer do we trip over a hideous looking bin on the floor

Ours is a long u shape. The most annoying thing is that the dishwasher is near the corner so when it’s open you can’t open the drawers. So if you’re unloading the dishwasher you can’t put stuff in the drawers

Have had two tiny kitchens, both so small you could only fit one person in unless you were in the early stages of an extremely intimate relationship.

We had a narrow fridge and otherwise it was just a case of fitting in units to the extent possible around the sink, cooker and fridge. It basically came down to not having too much stuff. Now got a bigger kitchen and my husband gets to hang on to junk we never use!

Tiny kitchen at one end of a living room. Designed with IKEA under sink, pull out, orange and black bins with shallow shelf above. Put the cleaning materials under the stairs. Bless it everyday as you don't have to sit watching tv with the bin lurking at the corner of your eye

Good thread. I'm looking again at fitting two built-in bins on the door for the cupboard beneath the sink. We already have a recycling bin there - we could maybe fit another small bin for non-food, non-recycling waste and ditch the ancient, dented, stainless steel monster that lurks behind the kitchen door. Sometimes it takes a thread like this to jolt you out of unhelpful habits and routines!