Some people prefer living in average-sized dwellings that are easy on maintenance, while others would pick the equivalent of a large medieval castle. Placing all their differences aside, one thing every modern homeowner would wholeheartedly agree upon is that having a neat and spacious kitchen is far better than a small and cramped one. Large homeowners would likely have a kitchen with enough volume to maneuver around easily, even after placing a dining table and a set of chairs right in the center. However, those that live in compact apartments or a cottage might find themselves in a rather unfavorable position when it comes to kitchen size.
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
It doesn’t matter how large your cooking space is, it would always be better to have more space for an extra pair of chairs, a few more appliances, or just to move around more freely. For anyone and everyone who owns a kitchen, there are several hacks that will allow them to optimize the space that is already available, to gain more room and perhaps even make the kitchen ‘appear’ bigger. Here are some ways you could employ the sly spaces that are hiding behind shelves, cupboards, underneath sinks and in all other sneaky places:
Replacing shelves with deep drawers.
Having shelves may be okay for large kitchens but smaller kitchens pack away several precious inches of their room together with the other items they store. Having pull out drawers allows you to optimize the full height of the cabinet by providing extra depth to each ‘shelf’. While you can’t stack items on top of each other on a shelf, you definitely could in a drawer.
Deep, close-sided drawers allow for up to 55% more storage since stored items wouldn’t fall off the sides like with regular drawers. Making the drawers as deep as possible further decreases the amount of lost space between each drawer. Having a large number of narrow drawers, in contrast to having a few wide drawers, would actually waste a considerable amount of space when you sum up the inches lost to the side panels of each drawer. It is far wiser to have a lesser number of wide, deep drawers if you’d like to have more storage space.
If you think that having drawers may be less attractive than having shelves, think again! Modern kitchen designers such as Lifestyle Kitchen Boutique offer hundreds of customization options that allow you to pick from various textures, colors and designs that may even end up fancier than the fanciest shelves!
With creativity, utilize every narrow strip and crevice between drawers, counters or walls
You would be surprised at how valuable these little gaps found all around your kitchen would prove if you utilize them for storage. Having a pull out cabinet installed in places you have some leftover space in your kitchen will provide lots of convenient space you could store canned products, bottles or even cutlery in. Getting creative with these would eliminate the need for extra drawers or pantries that all take up volume from the room that could otherwise be free.
Similarly, there is plenty of space underneath your sink that you could be using to store away scrubs, sponges, dish washing liquids, etc. By installing a u shaped pull out right underneath the sink, you would find yourself a new drawer that could hold a lot of items and products that would otherwise have to be placed on a rack.
Installing LeMans corner units in dark, deep, hard to reach corners will increase the amount of storage space that is available to you within a shelf. These gadgets are specifically designed for convenience in storing items in the furthest parts of a shelf which would otherwise remain inaccessible…
Replacing the pantries with a drawered larder
An old fashioned larder eats up space like a starving hog gobbling up everything in its path. The solution to this issue has a lot to do with innovation and new designs that bring us a new larder that offers a drawer system. This design is capable of storing far more items than the traditional larder thanks to the ability to reach even the furthest part of each ‘shelf’ by pulling it outward. Not only does this sound convenient, this would turn out to be amongst the coolest things in your kitchen!
Finding a new way to store smaller items
Having smaller inner drawers behind the larger ones would provide a new space to place those cutlery, utensils and other gadgets efficiently. As the number of gadgets in our kitchen increases, we would also have to find room to store away the older gadgets which are still perfectly functional. These mini drawers should not be underestimated in their capacity to hold lots of smaller items.
A TRANSFORMED KITCHEN
Regardless of how small or large your kitchen is, by putting some of these steps to practice, you could grant yourself some extra inches of room that would otherwise remain wasted. Like valuable diamond shavings that can be made into smaller jewelry, your kitchen has a lot of wasted space that should be taken full advantage of. While you may not find yourself in a room that is twice the size you began with, the combined effect of all these little steps will essentially transform your kitchen into an organized, functional space, with minimalistic beauty & modernity!
