We have moved a lot, renovated many homes and I know what it is to live in a very small kitchen space. From full-time camper living to tiny kitchens in tinier apartments, small kitchen remodel projects and everything in between: if you need small kitchen ideas, I am your girl.
I think our smallest kitchen was at our apartment in San Jose, Costa Rica. Well, on second thought, it was probably in the camper we lived in one summer while interning at a camp on an island. I cooked full meals in that tiny kitchen. T’was quite small. It was a great experience that made my next kitchen, the one at our apartment in San Jose, CR feel massive. I suppose I am forgetting our first apartment after we were married, it was a one bedroom apartment with three cabinets and a pantry cabinet if I am remembering correctly. The kitchen and living room were the same room so it was a tight fit but that was mega budget friendly and I got well acquainted with living with just what I needed to cook for the two of us. It’s funny how God was preparing us even then for an adventure 10 years later. Ok, back to the Costa Rica apartment.
It was not massive, not by any stretch. There were no counter tops at all. The sink had a slight prep space but otherwise, any counter space was part of the Ikea-like mobile furniture. The space had permanently placed sink and lower-sink cabinet, a gas oven and range, and was otherwise comprised of an eclectic blend of aforementioned furniture. I will touch on this later, but mobile furniture can be a great way to make the best of limited space. And that is exactly what we did in that apartment and pretty much every place we’ve lived.
***A note on the photos in this blog: They are not particularly stellar. I took most of them, actually all of them, before I knew a thing about photography. However, I hope the quality of the information outweighs the less that awesome photo quality. 😉 ***
**This is the whole disclaimer thing. There might be Amazon links in here and if you click them I might get a small commission at no cost to you. ALSO there is a lot of DIY/ Remodel info in here. If you have zero experience, you should for sure get in touch with someone who knows what they are doing before smashing a wall. Live wires do not like being smashed with metal power tools and you wont either. Always contact a professional electrician. Use common sense and if an idiot would do it, you should not do that thing.**
Before we talk about renovation or making a small kitchen design work for you, let us do things in proper order.
First Things: Declutter like a Mother.
Remember when you were a kid and your mom had enough of the clutter in the house, likely sometime during the month of January or February. Everyone in the house more due to weather plus all the new Christmas stuff, plus the gray weather was pushing her to the brink of sanity. Perhaps I am describing myself this past January…anyway. When any mom grabs a trash bag, nothing is safe.
I need you to take that energy into decluttering your kitchen.
The key to living in any small space, but especially a small kitchen, is that you must not be overwhelmed by stuff. Keep only what you need and love. Before you start your kitchen renovation, go through your kitchen cabinets and drawers and donate anything that is still in good working condition, but that you do not use or need. It is easy to end up with duplicates. If it is broken or disgusting beyond salvageability = garbage. I am all about being a conscienous consumer and one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but sometimes we do actually just keep garbage around because we feel guilty throwing it away.
It actually does not matter what size kitchen we are talking about-even larger kitchens will feel cramped if there is too much stuff. No storage will seem like enough if you are overrun with clutter. Also, if you are new here you might read me say “declutter” and “get rid of yo crap” more than once. So step one, declutter.
Small Kitchen Remodel Ideas
I will try to organize this list ascending from quick makeover updates to smashing walls. To me, the difference between a makeover and a remodel is that a makeover is usually not involving much construction or heavy DIY-ing. Mainly reorganizing and redecorating. A remodel, on the other hand might involve a lot of power tools.
Start with free.
If you are keeping your shell, and making updates start with free.
Cleaning is free: After decluttering, clean everything. Inside the cabinets, cabinet doors, backsplash, stovetop, oven…everything. Vacuum out any and all nooks and crannies. Scrub everything down. If you are planning to paint your cabinets you will need to clean them with something like Krud Kutter to decrease your cabinets. As a note I would give them the initial scrub down using Dawn soap. This debt-free girl is all about the off brand but not in this case. Scrub down with Dawn and then if you are painting cabinets, prep the cabinets with Krud-Kutter.
I tried to follow my own advice and just clean the stink, quite literally, out of this kitchen. However, it was not fruitful. The cabinets were beyond repair with water damage, mold and nicotine stains on unfinished wood. We had just moved back to the United States from Costa Rica and I had gotten quite accustomed to my open shelving and bright colors. So I went a little more bold since I was only painting the lower cabinets shelves. This was new for me. To do open everything, and I really liked it. This little house was only 740 sq ft and so we had to be disciplined in what we brought into it. It is a lot easier to keep a small space clean when yo don’t have a lot of stuff in it.
Moving On to Makeovers
Here I will give some slightly more in depth ideas but we are still very much in the “makeover” territory” still not remodel.
You have decluttered, you have cleaned and now the real fun can begin. Might I suggest the best bang for your tiny space buck, PAINT!
Fresh Paint is hands down the most cost effective way to breathe new life into a worn out space. The right paint combined with good lighting can make the biggest difference especially in a small kitchen. Light is your friend! I really love the look of two-tone cabinets, basically when the upper and lower cabinets are different, but complimentary colors. For walls and trim I love Behr brand. I know its not the most glamourous brand but it is some trusty stuff! When I paint cabinets, I use Benjamin Moore Aura. It’s self leveling enamel and it finishes really nicely. I once painted an entire hodge podge of cabinets ranging from navy blue, natural maple to even red and various colors in between. I got them at a wholesale outlet. They were Kraftmaid brand, all the same shaker cabinet style but very different colors. I used BIN 123 primer and Benjamin Aura in two coats and over the course of two years they never chipped. I would have certainly seen it, since I had every color of the rainbow under the white paint. It was a bold move, but BM said the paint would cover and it did!
HOWEVER! I have used many, many, many paints. I do trust Behr and a gallon of Behr Premium Cabinet Door and Trim Enamel is quite literally half the price of a gallon of Benjamin Moore Aura. So if this is a case of the budget is really tight, or if you are “polishing a turd” so to speak with plans to tear the whole kitchen out in a few years, I dont think you can go wrong. Worst case scenario, you have to touch up.
Backsplash makeover.
One of two things, again, depending on if my husband supports my idea of painting the cabinets, replacing the counters with butcher block. If he supports this idea, I would love to do a wooden tongue and groove backsplash, not bead board, not shiplap. I am having trouble finding a picture. If he does not, and everything remains as is-I am going to use a stencil. I love the subtle look of using the same exact color of the walls, but the stencil paint is in a high gloss finish. In fact, as I think about it, I can totally do this in my downstairs bathroom. Anyway! Its a cute design idea, that is simple and very beginner friendly. Another fun idea that is in the makeover category is wallpaper. There are so many fun wallpaper prints available and often at reasonable prices.
Add a Kitchen Island
If you have the extra space, adding a small kitchen island is a great way to add storage solutions, more work space, and sometimes even extra seating. Amazon has some good options and Ikea is always a great place to go look.
Open Shelving
This might be wading into “remodel territory” but if you could put some open shelving anywhere I think it gives some interest and opens up a small space a bit. Or an interesting plate rack that serves a purpose but also is functional. A great place to do this might be over the sink (unless your sink face a window) because you are washing dishes right there anyway.
The key to this open shelving working is that we didn’t have tons of extra dishes and pots and pans are tucked back in the corner of the bottom shelf. Also, remember the white cabinet pictured above, it housed appliances, coffee and acted as a bit of a pantry. Oatmeal and boxes of cereal were tucked into those little gray baskets on top the fridge. You get the idea, less stuff plus being creative = tiny kitchen can work.
Add Interesting Lighting
I like under cabinet lighting any you can find quite a few battery options. I think it can really help illuminate the space especially if you have dark corners. Interesting pendant lighting above the sink or above the island is a nice way to add a bit of personality to a space. I realize we are now wading to remodel territory.
Wall Smashing Time!
Just kidding, not every remodel requires knocking down walls. These two photos above are from the first home we owned and we did a lot of wall smashing. The kitchen before was so dark which is mainly why we opened up the walls. There was nowhere to add extra windows so we took down the walls to the well lit dining room and family room.
Lighting
Utilize as much natural light as you can. If you have the option to go bigger with a window or add another window I would do it. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen and a well-lit kitchen is really important to me especially in more compact spaces.
If space is an issue, it might be tempting to go floor to ceiling with cabinets for maximum storage. However, I personally think this can make a kitchen look crowded and dated. I would consider adding some open shelving or an interesting plate rack. Functional storage, but with a bit more interest. Open shelving really does make you think about what you have, and what you want to have out. Some people have voiced to me that they hate open shelving because they have to be very conscientious about how to put things away or it will look cluttered. And though I understand the concern, I think if you really have downsized to JUST what you need and love in the kitchen, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem. Ways I have utilized open shelving is for coffee mugs, dinner plates and glasses. Things we are using all day, every day.
Clean lines make all the difference in a small space. I like to set things that I use daily out on open shelving.
Cabinetry
You can get great deals on cabinets at outlet stores, Ikea and sometimes Facebook marketplace. If your budget can accommodate it, my Kraftmaid cabinets were my favorite that I have had. The base were all constructed with plywood not particle board and the doors were solid maple. There are tons of kitchen cabinet options, and the assemble-your-own options make new cabinetry affordable. This area will be very budget dependent. I love beautiful wood cabinets, but I also love painted cabinets with beautiful butcher block counters. Which leads me to my next point.
Butcher Block Countertops
I LOVE butcher block counter tops. I think they are a wonderfully affordable option and are so beautiful. In the picture here, I got the butcher block from Menards, which is a big box store in Ohio, and we paid less than $300 for the entire kitchen. I stained it with Minwax Stain in the shade Early American. But the real magic was in the Waterlox Original Counter Top Satin Finish. * A note here: We did NOT chop or prepare food directly on the counter. If we had planned to do that I might have used something else but that was never my intention. In the same way you wouldn’t chop carrots on granite, I was not about to damage these beautiful counters I had just worked so hard on. The Waterlox worked wonderfully. We accidently left a bag of tomatoes on the counter while we were on vacation and it did not damage the surface. However, the wonderful thing about butcher block is if those tomatoes had damaged the surface, we would have been able to sand them and refinish them. I am hoping to replace our current counters with butcher block. I think butcher block is a great value and if finished correctly, the payoff is just wonderful.
Some final thoughts.
- Thoughtful, small changes can really make a big impact in a small space. I will say it again, but paint color will go a long way. I personally love recessed lighting but then adding interesting pendant lighting above the sink and island or peninsula if you have it. I would personally go in the lighter, coastal tones direction in a small space. But honestly, it’s your kitchen. Paint it whatever color you want.
- If you have a kitchen window, I would suggest a sheer set of curtains to let in as much light as possible.
- If you are knocking down walls and can figure out where to put a pantry, ideally walk-in, I would do it for sure.
- Kitchen Islands not always the best idea. I have been in some kitchens where an island was really not the best use of the entire space. The island might be so big that it makes it hard to have multiple people working in the kitchen at the same time. In my humble opinion, that is not a helpful island. I’m sure there are professional measurements outs there, but if you can not have the fridge doors open AND someone be able to walk behind you, the island is too big for the space. Ikea has some really great kitchen islands that will fit any size kitchen.
- On that note, I suggest utilizing Ikea to fill in some weird kitchen gaps in some tiny spaces. They have lots of different sized furniture. Even if you don’t plan on buying Ikea cabinets, though I think they are absolutely worth the look, I would highly suggest walking through their kitchen show room. They have tons of great ideas and I think Ikea does lighting for compact spaces really well, its a great place for ideas.
If you have any questions or ideas you have used in your own kitchen that would be helpful to readers, please drop them in the comments!
If you want to read about our current remodel, you can start here. I am working to upload a lot of our recent projects!
See ya later, alligators.
Lauren
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