If you have stumbled upon a great rental opportunity, you should go for it, even if it has a small kitchen. With a few simple tricks and inexpensive modifications, they can feel bigger and more spacious than they seem at the first glance. Innovative kitchen designers are constantly coming up with amazing ideas for storage and organization, ever trying to make up for the increasing price of properties.
Remove Wall
The most effective way of making the small kitchen in your rental bigger is to remove the door, make the entrance wider, or remove the wall completely. Such an open floor kitchen will lift up the feeling of clutter and tightness, and give you more space to prepare meals, as well as navigate between the shelves and cabinets without knocking things down. On the plus side, a wider and roomier kitchen means that now you can have a companion to chat with, while you’re preparing meals.
Buy Smaller Appliances
Another effective approach is to go with smaller appliances, especially if the landlord doesn’t provide any. Choosing smaller appliances, however, doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice either power or style. Top-shelf brands offer smaller appliances that have all the essential features as the large ones, but still fit into small spaces and look fantastic. If you are a landlord, consider attracting tenants with built-in kitchen elements, as they can take in all the appliances and leave you with more floor space.
Exploit Blind Spots
Corner cabinets often go under-used although they offer a lot of storage space. Ask around in your nearest home centre for different types of fold-out and sliding-shelf mechanisms that let you reach deep round-the-corner areas and items pushed in the back. Half-moon shelves that swivel and pull out are among the least expensive but very effective solutions. They can make up to 60% of corner space available and easily accessible for storage.
Diversify Storage
One cannot argue that in a small rental kitchen, the biggest space issue is the storage. Modern house improvement trends like industrial, for example, discard traditional cabinets, using bare walls and hanging racks with S-hooks to hang everything from cutlery to large pots and pans. Another, and even more effective approach is to move the kitchen storage outside. You can store your tableware in the dining area. A pair of custom-made cabinets or vintage showcases can be a perfect storage-display solution, and yet within a hand’s reach from the kitchen.
Use Single Sink
Tenants will find double sinks extremely useful, but if the kitchen desperately needs space saving, they’ll be more thankful if their landlord installs a single bowl sink. Not only will it save on counter space but also motivate the tenants to do the dishes regularly and more often. An under-mount sink can save a few more inches from the countertop. Even with such a tight arrangement, you can still have all the benefits of filtered water, since modern undersink water filters are designed especially for confined spaces and homeowners who prefer a clean, aesthetically preleasing look.
Customize the Island
Food and lifestyle TV programmes have made kitchen islands immensely popular among homeowners and tenants alike, ranging very high on everyone’s wish lists. Traditional islands, however, require a lot of space, which makes them difficult to fit into small kitchens. Much more versatile than a fixed surface, a rolling kitchen cart has all the benefits of a regular island. Since it has wheels, you can move it in and out, creating free space where you need it or make it double as a serving table at parties and feasts. Its under-space can also be used for shelves and storage for dishes and kitchenware.
Especially if you’re renting, you need all the resourcefulness and creativity to maximise space in your small kitchen. Don’t let any corner or shelf go unused, and you won’t have to sacrifice neither the convenience nor luxury of spacious kitchens.
Author Bio: Lillian Connors can’t resist the urge to embark on a myriad of green living/home improvement projects and spread the word about them. She cherishes the notion that sustainable housing and gardening will not only make us far less dependent on others regarding the dwellings we inhabit but also contribute to our planet being a better place to live on. You can check her out on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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