Five Things I hate About Tiny Kitchens

 

Ahhh the small kitchen. How many I have run across since my home search.  I have seen large older homes with tiny kitchens, and small homes with large kitchens. Sometimes there seems to be no logic to the design, and it makes it hard either way, for one to access what they can live with and what is a deal breaker.

I have moved 5 times in my adult life and each home had a decent sized kitchen, well, with a few tweaks. My kitchen at home number 5 is by far the tiniest of all and I have wondered often, can I make do? If money were no object, I'd gut the whole thing and start anew. I find most kitchens are poorly designed and I often wonder who designs them. 

The issues I have discovered and how I intend on remedying the problem. 

1. Not enough storage

This probably comes as no surprise. However, one thing I am thankful for is the 42 inch cabinet. They typically have 3 to 4 shelves and room to add more. Some even had corresponding holes to allow for rearranging shelves that you have to maximize the space. I like this. If you are in the process of renovating, or looking at homes that have tiny kitchens, I recommend these larger cabinets. They cost more but they will make use of the vertical space and offer a lot more storage for your money.

2. Tiny Pantries

I have seen this quite a few times in homes, and this is the second home I have bought with this affliction. Tiny closet pantries, with no interior lighting, wire bracket shelving and extremely small. In part because of their construction. When you add up the finished wall, both inside and out, you are actually consuming valuable real estate that simply goes to structure. 5 inches of wall on two sides, 3 if you count the opening and if you do the math, that's actually a lot of unusable space. 

My solution, at some point will be to tear the built in coffin, I mean closet they call a pantry, and add in storage of my own. Cabinets can be purchased from floor to ceiling and they are a better use of the space.  Like this one: Pull Out drawer Cabinet

3. Invasive hardware

One thing I have learned is that in small spaces anything that sticks out is a bad idea. Kitchen hardware is usually something we all like to update to add a little pizazz and sparkle to a kitchen. However, not all ideas are good ones.  In the picture below the bar handled style is great in a larger kitchen but in a small confined one causes problems. If you bump up against them they will no doubt snag a pocket, a blouse, a sleeve etc and that is an aggravation you don't need. Opt for something blunt that wont snag on those lower cabinets.

4. Poor layout 

So often we see tiny kitchens with bad layouts. They do not make the best use of space and we end up paying the cost to make them work for us. In my kitchen, there's a lot of space allocated to the kitchen sink. There's more counterspace on either side of the sink than there is by the stove where I truly need it. 

I have an open concept home, which is nice, but I am having a hard time understanding why designers haven't figured out we don't need really large sinks any more. Consuming a lot of counter space is not ideal in small kitchens. Since everyone has dishwashers less people are washing and drying dishes by hand so really, why large sinks? 

Another issue is making the sink area face the living and dining areas. When you are hosting dinners and cooking, its ideal to be able to face your company and chat while you are preparing the meal. People love to stand around and watch meals being prepared and it is nice to be a part of the conversation. Many times the sink is where the stove should be and the stove is where the sink would work best. 

Also consider prep space when designing a small kitchen. Wherever the stove/oven is going to be, it needs to have adequate prep space. I have had large kitchens with precious little prep space by the stove and it makes literally no sense. This is not a deal breaker if you cook very little, but if you host family dinners etc having a small area to chop and drop is definitely a bad design. If you are building or buying, make sure you take a good look at this, if it is important to you.

5. Lacking a proper broom closet

Another annoyance of mine is a small ineffective broom closet. Often times this space can barely house a broom much less anything else. Like the pantry, my broom closet is a tiny cramped area that has to also house my trash can, which I really don't like seeing out in the open especially in a kitchen, a tiny kitchen at that.  So I will be adding hooks and possibly more shelving as I go to help store things I need to keep a tidy space. The only thing that makes a tiny kitchen feel smaller is a kitchen that is messy.