How to Design a Functional Tiny Kitchen

You’ve made the decision to go tiny, and you are shooting for a plus-zero house. Nowhere is your contrarianism more on display than when you design your kitchen, as you go against the latest trend to have a huge cooking area where everyone can sit around and watch as you work.

No, your kitchen will be for preparation and perhaps you will eat there as well, along with a friend or two. So many elements go into designing a kitchen, especially one where you are limited on space. It would be wise to brainstorm and visualize this room for awhile so you can truly master the space.

Relative to your minimalistic lifestyle, decide how functional you want your tiny kitchen to be. Will you be baking? Do you need a conventional oven? Do you live with someone, and will you be working in the kitchen at the same time as your roommate or family members will be?

All of these types of questions can help guide you in deciding what the best layout will be for your kitchen.

If you do care about food and its preparation, than no matter how small your kitchen, it must work for you. It also must have enough room and counter space to enable you to prepare and store a wide variety of foods, spices and all of your small appliances, then have room to put them together as you whip up another masterpiece. If you do have help in the kitchen, then you are going to need enough room for two people to work side-by-side. Thus, an aisle as wide as possible should be created for two human beings to comfortably stand and chop simultaneously.

Here’s a few of our favorite tips for brainstorming and designing a tiny kitchen that is functional for you and your family.

1. Think About Your Appliances

Every kitchen, no matter how tiny, is going to require certain appliances for food preparation and storage. That means you need to get a refrigerator, range/oven, microwave and any other appliances to help you cook for your family.

The good news, is that there are compact versions available for all of these appliances. Once you buy these scaled-down versions of your kitchen necessities, consider these tricks to maximize the space in your kitchen:

• Strategically Preserve Space:

  Have the refrigerator, oven and any other bulky appliances embedded in their own cubby area so that a central walkway is preserved from bulging appliances. If you don’t have room for a full-size refrigerator, consider a built-in or mini-fridge underneath your sink/counter area.

• Countertop Cooking:

  As for your oven, many tiny kitchens get by with just a stove-top burner built into their countertops. Others have narrow ovens, like the type that you often see in Europe. Those kitchens that feature only burners often have a microwave to supplement the ability to heat food.

2. Maximizing Your Storage Space

Now that the primary appliances are in place, let’s consider how to maximize space in other prominent areas of your kitchen.

• Inside of Cabinet Doors:

  Max out your cabinet doors (particularly under your sink) by screwing in a few hooks for potholders, gloves, rags and towels.

• Stick-On Hooks & Rolling Shelves:

  Go with stick-on hooks underneath your sink to hold a basket or two for your cleaning pads, scrub brushes and the like. If you really want to max out this space, install a few rolling shelves below the sink. Keep a good eye out for any water leaks, however. You don’t want anything in these shelves to be ruined by excessive moisture or water dripping on them. Inside other cabinet doors, you can hang measuring cups on hooks.

• Put the Fridge to Good Use:

  Don’t just put magnetic calendars from the local real estate office on your refrigerator door. Alternatively, put magnets on small racks and attach them to your fridge to store small, but commonly-used items. This allows you to instantly increase your storage space, without cluttering up your counter-tops.

Photo Source: SitkaProjects / Flickr

3. Unique Storage Space Ideas

There are many ideas for saving space when you need to store all of your kitchen necessities. No matter how many ideas we list here, there will always be ways that people figure out how to save space and increase their storage space.

Below are a few unique kitchen storage ideas that our readers have shared with us over the years. Perhaps they can be useful to you as well.

• Consider A Narrow Rolling Cart:

  These handy metal movers can be used for everything from spices to utensils to staples such as sugar, salt and flour. A rolling cart with a counter top can become a nice decorative item with dishes on one level below the top and pots, pans and casserole dishes on the bottom level.

• Vertically Store Bakeware:

  Use a metal file divider to store your baking sheets and cutting boards vertically. Instead of letting these pile up in a cabinet somewhere, storing these vertically allows you to always know where they are, grab them easily and take up less space.

• Insert Horizontal Storage Shelves:

  Since you have a small kitchen, it’s likely that you don’t have much shelving to store essential kitchen necessities. Instead of hastily stacking stuff on top of each other, you can maximize your space by inserting more shelving within your already built-in shelf spaces. Not only will this greatly increase your storage space, but you will also be more organized.

• Use a Curtain Rod for Pot Lids

  Need to put those pesky pot lids somewhere other than on top of the pots? Erect a curtain rod and slide it inside your cabinet. This allows the knob of your lid to rest on the rod, keeping it handy, safe and organized.

• Utilize Your Ceilings:

  Put that ceiling to good use. Many beautiful metal pieces are made to hang pots and pans these days. You’ve probably seen these featured in restaurants and showcase kitchens, why not use it in your tiny kitchen as well? Instead of trying to store your big pots and pans underneath your counter-tops, let them hang out in the open. This will save you space and make it easy to reach when you need it.

• Use a Pegboard:

  If it’s good enough for Julia Child, it’s good enough for you. Consider using pegboard on one wall to store your most frequently used items. This could include anything from pots and pans, to strainers, utensils and other gadgets.

4. A Few Words on Cabinets

Depending on the height of your ceiling, which in many tiny houses is not 9’, don’t forget that ledge space on top of your cabinets.

Assuming you can reach up there, try to use that extra space to store items you don’t need as often. You can also use the sides of your cabinets for extra storage as well. Screw a few hooks in the side to hang utensils, or other frequently used items.

If you lack cabinets, think about installing shelves for multilevel storage. Decide what you will put on those shelves before you drill holes so you ensure you have enough vertical space in between each of them.

5. Eating in the Kitchen

If you are planning on eating in your kitchen, then you’ll need to plan ahead and visualize what will work best for you.

Try a fold-down table to eat on or use as an extra counter as you prepare food. You can quickly set it up when you need it, and break it down when you don’t. This gives you the opportunity to move around easily while preparing your meal, yet still have a place to eat when it comes time to break bread.

With these design elements in mind, you should have a nice walkway for work to continue as two people prepare at the same time, as well as plenty of storage space and even a convertible table on which you can share your outstanding meal with your special someone.