A small kitchen can still be a good kitchen

Our kitchen isn’t tiny, it’s petite.   And it’s still a bit of a work in progress. (Please don’t look at the flooring!  Barg!)

I’ve stopped buying home decorating magazines.  Just looking at those spacious and light-filled kitchens is too painful.  Instead, I’ve been following Apartment Therapy’s “Small Cool” spaces contest and consoling myself with their kitchen tours of chefs and food critics who cook in the most miniscule of kitchens. (Have you seen David Lebovitz’s kitchen?  Teeny!) Some of their kitchens aren’t even pretty.  Some have – horror! – woodgrained country-style cupboards.  It’s the food they produce that really matters.

Some of my top foodie-small space kitchen tours include:

• David Lebovitz, blogger & cookbook author
• Jon, a 4 star restaurant chef
• Stan, personal chef
• Rachel Cole (this one is my kitchen inspiration – same era, solid wood original cabinets – love it!)
• Eric Gower, chef, cookbook author and Ikea user!

When we moved to our house a year ago, the kitchen was pretty dismal.  Somewhere in all of that clutter is a kitchen.

{This was the realtor's image. It's a wonder we scheduled a viewing. }

A faux-marble countertop and backsplash, beige/brown  stove, dungeon fridge (no matter how little food you stored in it…  it was always messy) and beige cupboards with *ugh* flower knobs.  Good grief.  Suffice to say, everything but the original wood cupboards was banished and removed.

{The messy details: painted hardware and ugly knobs!}

And here is the kitchen a year later.  With new knobs that match the age of the cupboards and the original hardware stripped and reinstated.  We tiled the backsplash with simple white subway tiles and installed xenon puck lights.

{Our kitchen: April 2010}

The area above the stove was problematic.  We decided against building shelves since we didn’t want to drop anything on the ceramic cooktop.  Instead, I chose a nice print from Etsy (Mr. PS) and had it framed.  We bought a simple Ikea Bekvam cart to hold our most-used appliances.  (Other appliances such as the breadmaker and blender live on the “appliance table” at the bottom of the basement stairs.  Easy to get access, but not cluttering up the kitchen.)

{We even splurged on some art.}

{Before: Note: not our food! Basement stairway. Future pantry! }

While the cupboards are tall and can store a surprising amount of goods, neither of us was keen to keep a step stool in this tiny space to reach the upper shelves.  Instead, the top two shelves are for extra pantry items or dishes we rarely use.  To add more usable space, we created a storage and pantry area in the basement stairway.  We painted out the faux wood and the husband built all of the shelving.  So much better!  (I use simple old Mason jars for my bulk goods – they’re so cheap! Can’t beat them!)

{The updated pantry.}

This year, we plan on putting down some new flooring and starting our search for the perfect new light fixture.  Of course, we like to find something that suits the era of the house (1930s-40s).  Yeah.  I expect it to take some time to find the perfect new light.

While I would LOVE to have an island in the kitchen, we’ve come to terms with our petite work area.  It means that we tidy up as we cook (most of the time) so that dishes don’t pile up in the sink.   Everything is close at hand, it’s only a couple of steps to the fridge, stove and pantry.  It only takes a few minutes to sweep or wash the floor.  And best of all, there’s just enough space for two busy cooks to work.