The Sunday Mail
IS cooking and entertaining in your small kitchen difficult?
A studio-size kitchen is a challenge to work in, but a few small kitchen organisation ideas and a couple of hours of your time can turn your teeny kitchen into a modern, minimalist dream for cooking and celebrating.
We have got five inspiring, small kitchens for you that rock.
They are full of ideas on how you can declutter your kitchen in fresh, new ways.
Light, bright and industrial
small kitchen
First off, consider painting your kitchen in a light, bright white to freshen it up. Or cover the dark, outdated walls or cabinet doors with a fresh, new removable wallpaper.
Next, it is time to throw out those cans of hearts of palm you never use and decide what else stays or goes.
Once you have got a good idea of how much you are working with, it is time to find a home for everything that is left.
Store what is not attractive in your cabinets.
Small modern kitchen featuring
a modular, rolling island
In many small kitchens there is not much counter space to work with.
Basic appliances like a coffee maker or microwave can eat up the little space you have. There are solutions. Choose appliances that can be wall-mounted or under-cabinet mounted.
Or add a heavy-duty wall-mounted shelf to hold heavy appliances like a microwave.
A small kitchen island can add extra counter space as well as storage — and even a breakfast bar.
Small, round or square islands work better in smaller square spaces.
Consider a longer narrow island for a rectangular space. A sofa console on wheels would be a great idea in a longer, galley kitchen. You can roll it into a kitchen as needed and then put it back behind your sofa when done.
Butcher blocks or bar carts are other great options because they often come with wheels to roll your island out of the way.
Contemporary small kitchen
with floating wall shelves
If you do not have enough kitchen cabinets but plenty of wall space, a clean, contemporary way to free up your kitchen counters is to display and store items on cool floating shelves or ledges.
Want to give your kitchen a high-design look? Group the items by colour and add some art objects or framed photos.
Leave some areas of the ledges empty so they do not look too cluttered.
Add some mirror to a section of your wall behind the countertop to expand the space and reflect more light.
Organisation ideas
featuring bookcases
Adding or replacing kitchen cabinets can be expensive.
And if you rent, the project may not even be allowed. Why not buy some good, inexpensive bookcases and make a storage wall for all your kitchen items?
Look for taller but narrow bookcases and mix and match doors to hide some of the items. Or a selection of baskets can serve as drawers in your bookcases, ready to catch all the smaller items and linens.
Another interesting small kitchen idea is the hooks over the window for hanging pots and pans.
Pots and pans take up a lot of space and hanging them from a pot rack or hooks is a good way to free up a cabinet or counter.
A minimalist kitchen bringing small apartment organisation ideas together
This beautiful and clutter-free kitchen works because most elements are multipurpose.
A low bookcase with a mounted countertop creates an island with storage and counter surface. The cubbies can even hold small appliances.
More than a dozen knives are kept in a small knife block on the counter.
A wall-mounted stainless steel bar can hold cooking utensils and with hooks, even coffee mugs or smaller pots and pans.
The wall-mounted wine glass holder can also serve as a floating ledge. —freshome
