5 small kitchen design ideas that will make all the difference
A crisp white coastal kitchen and our five steps to small kitchen success
In collaboration with Sarah Elliott Designs
The vision for this Woollahra kitchen renovation project was for a kitchen that felt like a breath of fresh air – with style. And the results speak for themselves. It’s bright, it’s airy, it feels of spacious despite the small footprint and not least importantly, it has some beautiful details that finish it off perfectly.
While the result is exquisitely simple, a lot of thinking and planning goes into creating a small but perfectly formed kitchen.
If you’re starting out on a kitchen renovation journey, you can stop trawling the internet – we’ve whittled down everything you really need to think about into 5 key ideas that will help you create a compact kitchen you’ll adore.
Our 5 steps for small kitchen success and ideas you can use to the create the illusion of more space – while not compromising on style.
- Less is more
- Light and bright
- Keep (at least) one wall free
- The right details
- Vertical space
1. Less is more
Don’t try to squeeze everything you’ve ever wanted in a kitchen into your kitchen design. Yes, we know this is easier said than done, but the reality is that in order to end up with a kitchen that is streamlined, looks great and that you love to be in is going to mean prioritising and compromising on what’s in, and what’s out.
This applies to everything from appliances and kitchenware to your layout and cabinetry. The more you try to squeeze in, the smaller and less functional your kitchen is likely to feel.
Take some extra time to think through your absolute non-negotiables. Then cut that list in half! Well, this might be exaggerating slightly, but when a kitchen has enough space for everything to be put “just in place” we automatically get that wonderful sense of spaciousness.
How to streamline your kitchen
Streamlining must be done right at the very beginning of planning your kitchen reno. It might be as simple as eliminating any doubled up items or planning to move infrequently used things to another location. It can also mean choosing a smaller fridge or sink than you had considered. At the other end of the scale it can also mean forgoing a kitchen island or a walk in-pantry.
And while these decisions are extremely personal, we can’t understate the value of getting some professional advice to help you decide what to keep in and what to let go of.
In practice
In this Woollahra kitchen renovation, there’s a place for everything and a little room to grow.
- A tucked-away, yet very accessible small appliance cabinet for all our client’s most used things, including the all important Soda Stream, keeps the benchtops clear and ready for anything. The bifold cabinet door ensures that the benchtop space is never blocked.
- A one and ½ kitchen sink instead of a full double basin means that a little more food prep space is claimed back without compromising on any functionality in the cleaning-up zone.
- A well proportioned fridge allows for a great sized pantry cupboard. Keeping the fridge white instead of stainless steel makes it disappear into the cabinetry wall.
All these small features add up to the feeling of space, simplicity and peacefulness that this kitchen evokes.
2. Light and bright
A focus on light and bright in your small kitchen design will go a long way towards creating the illusion of more space. While the Woollahra kitchen project is all about the fresh, crisp white cabinetry and the understated white hardware, ‘light’ and ‘bright’ doesn’t have to mean white.
First and foremost, think about the natural light as this will make the most impact on the feel of your kitchen. Your style may be bold colour or deep earthy hues but prioritising getting as much natural light into your kitchen is what will prevent it from feeling boxy. The more shadows you have, the smaller the space will feel.
- Even a small beam of sunlight that bounces off your benchtop or backsplash and reflects light around will help create the illusion of more space.
- A well designed window that draws the eye outside can also trick the mind into thinking a space is bigger.
- Adding a skylight will increase the amount of light in a kitchen dramatically without any loss of wall space.
In practice
For this project, we continued to build on the ‘breath of fresh air’ brief with a very crisp white palette to get as much light bouncing around the space as physics would allow. A hint of pale grey veining in the benchtop brings in some texture and pattern and the matching stone backsplash with it’s softly reflective surface further helps to bounce the light around.
3. Keep one wall free (of upper cabinets)
Where possible, keeping a wall (or two) free of upper cabinetry will achieve the double outcome of style and spaciousness. Having an open wall with, at most, a rangehood (as pictured) or some open shelves to display your favourite items, tells our subconscious that there’s plenty of space in the room.
This is certainly a decision that will require some compromise and smart design as you will be forgoing extra storage space in those upper cabinets. However, if you can overcome the loss of those cabinets and take the plunge, you’ll reap the rewards in how much more open, modern and sophisticated your kitchen will feel. The more clear space you can create at eye level, the bigger and more streamlined your kitchen will feel.
In practice
In this project, there were two walls where upper cabinets could have potentially gone, above the stove top and next to the window. However, the decision to keep both these walls clear has had a huge impact on the size of the room at eye level as well as the atmosphere of openness and airyness.
4. Get the details right
Just because you have less space to work with, doesn’t mean you have less opportunity to incorporate your style and flair! Whether you are a minimalist, maximalist, or a midimalist (yes, midimilism is a thing now and we’re into it), the trick is to get the details right for the effect you want to create.
Unfortunately there is no hard and fast right or wrong here, because it depends on your space, your taste and how you piece these details together.
A few examples:
- A handmade or textured tile can add visual depth to the walls and be a great opportunity to bounce light around as it reflects off the undulating surfaces.
- Alternatively, continuing your benchtop stone up the backsplash can keep things simple and sleek and let you add special details and texture elsewhere.
- Other details like beautiful cabinet hardware, a luxurious pendant light or wall sconce, some hardwood open shelves or perhaps a fluted glass cabinet front will create a focal point in your small kitchen to draw the eye and add personality and style to your kitchen. But too many details could easily start to compete for attention and close the space in.
- Using lines to stretch the space in height or width can be very effective in creating the illusion of more space. Lines can be created through flooring, cabinet profiles and configuration and wall finishes such as tiles and vj panelling.
And don’t forget that taking out a detail or two can be just as effective as adding one in!
In practice
In this kitchen, the goal was spaciousness and a fresh feel with style, so every detail needed to work in concert towards creating that atmosphere.
For the kitchen cabinets, the client chose a profile with a simple pin-stripe border. It cleverly gives the effect of the slim shaker profile yet in a paired-back, simplified way. Just enough detail to give the cabinetry interest and pattern, without being too much for the space.
Similarly, the choice of the minimalist white cabinet handles captures that modern, sophisticated and “clean’ look.
Finally, the subtle detail of the wood trim around the extractor fan hood is just enough to add a touch of warmth and contrast to the white wall.
Vertical Space
Surprisingly, vertical space is still the most overlooked space in kitchens and especially in smaller kitchens. We always make sure that every last inch of space is working hard for the kitchen (which could mean leaving the space open) – and this is especially true for the spaces high up.
While cabinets to the ceiling definitely don’t work in all kitchens, from a visual perspective, taking some of the cabinets, shelves, or other storage all the way to the ceiling in a small kitchen will draw the eye up and make a smaller space appear bigger. Vertical lines create the illusion of height so using this to your advantage in a small kitchen makes sense.
While you’ll probably need a little step to help you reach whatever is right at the top of your sky high cabinets, the extra storage space you get will go a long way.
In practice
In our light, bright and airy Woollahra kitchen renovation, the look is sleek and clean, so taking the cabinetry in the food storage zone right to the ceiling makes perfect sense. With no bulkhead or moulding to interrupt those clean vertical lines and crisp cabinet fronts, this full cabinetry wall does a wonderful job of creating height in the space and lots of storage for those less frequently used items.
See more Just in Place kitchen renovation projects and lots more inspiration here >>
If you’re planning a kitchen renovation, whether you’re just getting started or you’ve already been thinking and planning for way too long, get in touch with us at Just in Place for a chat about your project and we can help you see what’s possible.
If you’d like to know more about the services we offer, read more here.
