Brilliant Ideas For A Bigger And Better Kitchen

Brilliant Ideas For A Bigger And Better Kitchen

Flick through any glossy interiors magazine today and you’ll probably find at least a handful of kitchens you could fall instantly in love with.

Whether your dream kitchen is high gloss and coloured glass with solid wooden worktops or chunky verging on the shabby chic, the design is there. Unfortunately for you the space might not be.

Possibly that’s because in recent years the trend has been to transform large dining kitchens into second bedrooms – particularly in tenement flats – leaving just a tiny galley kitchen in the property. This means that at times the lack of space can leave you feeling like you’re cooking in a giant doll’s house. So the idea of cramming fancy designer units into your kitchen seems ridiculous. Or maybe not…

At My Beautiful Kitchen we’ve come up with a number of creative tried and tested ways to transform that bijou galley kitchen of yours into an illusion of largeness.

Storage

• We can design kitchen units to any depth you want, by building the wall units deeper you can store more things inside making your counters free from clutter
• How about tall some really tall wall units? Instead of wall units at 575mm high how about some at 900mm high giving you an extra 2 shelves all the way around the kitchen. Brilliant for extra storage without impacting on the rest of the kitchen.
• Is your wall space above your kitchen sink open? Although its very practical to have this space clear, how about a bridging unit above giving you more storage, a nice fitted look and at the same time allowing for plenty of working room
• Worktops can be build deeper to allow storage of eg bread bins and a toaster against the wall, still allowing you plenty of space for chopping and preparation
• Magic corner storage mechanisms for kitchens are especially good for hard-to-reach places you can read more about them by clicking on the link.
• Open up your corners with a corner base unit giving you easy access for the hard to reach areas, and for those of you who really want to make it easy how about a corner carousel meaning you will never have to break your back trying to reach the back of a cupboard again!
• Use the redundant space on walls for hanging pots and pans. Done in a decorative manner this can actually add to your kitchen as well as giving you far more space in the cupboards
• Hang dish towels and aprons on the inside of cupboard doors rather than having them lying around making the kitchen look messy and cluttered
• Store dried foods such as pasta, beans and tea in tip out storage bins – just make sure these are of shaded or clear glass for easy identification

Appliances

• Building the microwave into a tower or wall unit will mean nice clean counters and plenty of room for chopping the vegetables.
• Dishwashers – although you might be doing away with a cupboard a dishwasher means you will never have dirty dishes lying around the kitchen again, perfect for clearing the cutter as you can just pop them in the dishwasher. Even if your kitchen is small, remember you can get slim line dishwashers as well.
• A drop-down table does wonders for space-saving as it can be folded up when not in use
• Install a narrower than normal integrated fridge/freezer so it’s not taking up too much floor space
• Brackets underneath cabinets can house bulky items such as microwaves.
• Make sure the sink is large enough to contain all dishes and pots and pans rather than have them lying around after a dinner party
• Cupboards can be made narrower than standard
• Keep appliances small in size

Lighting

• Clever lighting placed under counters or cabinets can add to the illusion of space
• Keep some of the cabinets glass and the others in light wood or painted in a bright high gloss (which reflects light)
• Glass splash backs reflect light too, making the room seem brighter

Other tricks include running wooden flooring in a galley kitchen length-wise (patterned linoleum will make it seem smaller) and if your kitchen has an outside wall think about putting in patio doors to bring in more light.

To give the appearance of width, only install cupboards on one side of a galley kitchen. If you still need the storage space, shelves could go on the opposite wall instead.

The above are only some of a multitude of solutions. To discover more, or to discuss some of your own ideas, give our team at My Beautiful Kitchen a call tel 0141 771 3640