How to enlarge a small kitchen?
The small kitchen in our apartments is an unpleasant legacy of the Soviet Union. At that time of total economy, it was important to fit as many rooms as possible on the minimum area, the kitchen was considered not the most important part of the apartment and its area, as a rule, did not exceed 9 square meters. But time has shown the fallacy of this approach. The kitchen is the most comfortable and conducive to conversation and joint pastime place in the apartment. The family often gathers here for dinner, meetings with close friends take place, and here many people work more comfortably with a laptop and a cup of hot coffee.
It is great if your apartment boasts a large, spacious kitchen, where you can easily place not only a standard kitchen set of furniture, but also equip a relaxation area with a sofa. But what to do if the apartment has exactly that, compact and small Soviet kitchen? You should not fall into despair or urgently try to change the apartment for a large one, because this problem can be solved in less radical ways, namely:
- Visually increase the kitchen area using design techniques
- Optimally organize the kitchen space, based on the rules of ergonomics.
So, let's take a closer look at how you can find the fourth dimension in a small kitchen.
We remove borders
A good effect is the combination of the kitchen with adjacent rooms, it can be a loggia, a balcony, a living room or an entrance hall. Here, both a radical and serious approach is possible, with the removal of walls, cutting out additional openings, and a light option, when it will be enough just to remove the door to the kitchen or loggia and combine the spaces in this way. The united premises are seen as one whole, a large and spacious space.
We paint the kitchen in the right colors
It is known that in light colors the room seems larger, and in dark colors it is smaller. Therefore, choose light, pastel colors for walls, furniture, textiles. Ideal for a small kitchen would be white, beige, light gray, colors and their shades. A combination of colors is also possible, but don't use more than two colors, this will backfire and make the kitchen look smaller than it really is. For the same reason, give up large, bright ornaments or patterns in favor of plain colors for walls and furniture.
We use space-expanding materials
Glossy, light-colored surfaces reflect light and make the kitchen appear larger, so glossy tiles or light-colored laminate are a good option for kitchen flooring. And if you lay the coating diagonally, you can thus stretch the space of the kitchen. The combination of materials will visually divide the kitchen, so use one type of flooring or wall decoration, and if the apartment is small in itself, then it is better to use the same type of materials throughout the apartment, using the same “border-blurring” technique.
Furniture is the first violin of the kitchen interior
It is better to order furniture for a small kitchen according to an individual project to order. Thanks to this, it will be possible to take into account all the shortcomings of the premises and rationally use every centimeter of the area, which in our case is literally worth its weight in gold. Glossy, glass facades, white, beige or any light, solid color - this is what you need in a limited space. When planning a compact kitchen, one should adhere to the principle of "using a minimum of space with a maximum of functionality." An excellent solution in this case would be a linear kitchen located along one wall and making maximum use of the "second floor". Use tall top cabinets that can be hung in two or even three rows up to the ceiling and tall cabinets instead of chests of drawers. Such a build-up will not only create enough storage space, but also stretch the kitchen visually. It is better to forget about island, peninsular cuisines. In addition to eating up an unreasonably large amount of usable space, islands and peninsulas divide the kitchen into two parts, clutter up the already limited space of the kitchen and thereby significantly reduce it. Leaving the center of the kitchen free and placing furniture along the walls is perhaps the best option for planning and organizing the space of a small kitchen.
Think carefully about storage systems, now kitchen furniture manufacturers offer a lot of interesting solutions. These are various kinds of horizontal, vertical and corner drawers, shelves, grids, containers, carousels, hanging baskets on rails, etc. Storage systems can be equipped even under the kitchenette or in a small narrow space between the wall and the refrigerator. Making a small kitchen comfortable, functional and spacious is a feasible task. You can deal with this both independently and with the help of designers. Company «Smart Space» will be happy to help you with this task. Here you can draw up a design project of your future kitchen and order high-quality furniture on an individual project, with fast delivery and installation.
