A kitchen is often considered the central gathering-place of a home. So much happens here on a daily basis. It’s where you gather to start the day at breakfast, end the day at dinner, and you likely spend quite a bit of time here preparing food for both of those occasions in between.
It can be a challenge to make a small kitchen space functional. The kitchen is naturally a room that works well when there is extra space for people to sit, while also allowing plenty of room for meal prep. There are benefits to a small kitchen, however. It allows you–or perhaps, requires you–to use your space well. It keeps the mess condensed and can create a cozy area for gathering in the home. If you find yourself noticing that you could use your space better, check out these small kitchen renovation ideas.
Renovating your kitchen to make it more functional despite the small area you have to work with is far from impossible, however, when you consider a few changes in design. Most people won’t be able to use every single idea on this list, but even one or two of them can really open a space up remarkably.
There are many small kitchen renovation ideas to help utilize your space better. Careful considerations in construction, storage, fixtures, and color scheme with the goal of maximizing space and opening up a cramped kitchen will do wonders when renovating your small kitchen.
Types of Small Kitchen Renovation Ideas
When renovating your kitchen, you can be as extreme as you want to be. Are you looking to remove walls and open up your space into a larger kitchen? Or, maybe you just need a new layer of fresh paint to brighten up the area and make it appear larger. These 3 types of small kitchen renovation ideas will help you to utilize your space and create a cozy kitchen for everyone to enjoy.
Some renovation ideas include:
- 1. Kitchen Construction
- 2. New Paint Color and Style of Kitchen
- 3. Cabinet Renovation
All three of these small kitchen renovation ideas will help to expand your area and create a beautiful kitchen you will enjoy.
Construction Ideas
Making major changes when it comes to wall placement and having an island are not always feasible, depending on the current layout of your small kitchen. But these kitchen remodeling ideas are really worth considering if the situation allows.
One great way to make more space in your kitchen is to consider removing any walls that stand between the kitchen space and dining area. This can connect the two rooms, and bring activity and conversation in the dining area into the cooking and meal prep area. Smashing out walls is no easy or small task, but when the opportunity exists, it can create a result that makes two rooms come together fluidly.
Another idea that can provide more counter space in a small kitchen is to install an island. If you’ve never seen an island, it’s essentially a square or rectangle of counter top that stands by itself in a convenient place in the middle of a kitchen, providing work space, storage, or even a seating area.
You can either buy one, or create one yourself, which is quite simple:
- 1. Obtain a few cabinets that are either identical or similar to the cabinets you have in the rest of your kitchen.
- 2. Secure these cabinets to the floor of your kitchen.
- 3. Place a piece of countertop (marble or ceramic) atop the cabinets. You could also use wood, to create a gigantic cutting board-type surface.
Knocking down a wall that separates your kitchen from the dining area as well as installing an island will open up your kitchen space, making it feel less claustrophobic, while also enabling you to take advantage of more counter and storage space.
The Impact of Color and Style
One of the most popular small kitchen remodeling ideas is simply changing up the style. When renovating your kitchen, you’ll likely want to spruce things up when it comes to your fixtures and your color scheme. The best piece of advice to consider when selecting fixtures is to make sure the style and color matches. This is one aspect of style that you want to make sure is very uniform. This will create a clean, even, balanced look among your appliances and sink faucets, for example.
A fresh coat of paint can bring a whole new look to a room as well, and this should be top on your list of any renovation project. It can also help brighten up a room and make it look larger. Design pros recommend including at least a little bit of white in your kitchen to keep it looking open–you could go with white cabinets and a bold color for your backsplash, for example.
If you’re on a budget, definitely consider painting the room yourself and, if you’re wanting to freshen up your cabinetry, its always an option to repaint them rather than completely replace them.
Cabinet Renovation Ideas
A kitchen is a room that naturally needs quite a bit of storage space, and cabinets are obviously your go-to fixture to create that space. However, in a kitchen that is small already, cabinets can make a small space feel even more boxed-in and closed off.
There are several creative ways to remedy this, though, while making a unique design statement in your kitchen. One such idea is to completely ditch your cabinets altogether and opt for open storage. This is growing trend to gives your kitchen a more open feel because most of it won’t be closed off by cabinet doors.
Instead, you can use finished wood shelves in place of cabinets and doors, which will also allow any colorful dinnerware to play a part in your kitchen’s color scheme. This can also serve as a great incentive to keep your shelves clutter-free since they’ll be so visible.
If you’re not ready for a look as bold as open storage, then consider adding glass to the front of your cabinet doors. Creating a glass pane that allows you to see inside your cabinets will create a more open feel; it will also make it easier on you when you’re trying to hunt down a particular utensil or dish.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to renovate this year, there are numerous small kitchen renovation ideas that can make your space more functional and efficient but also an aesthetically pleasing room. Consider a construction change, like installing an island or knocking down walls that separate the kitchen and dining room.
Smaller approaches can have similar effects, such as applying fresh paint, or choosing a color scheme that is more bright and open, incorporating white and pastels. Renovating your cabinetry can also be a way to make a space less cramped, by opting for open storage or implementing see-through cabinet doors.
Regardless of your kitchen space, renovating a small area is entirely possible with a bit of creativity and careful consideration of aspects like construction, color scheme, and cabinetry.
