A recent survey reveals 80 percent of active home shoppers list the kitchen as one of their top three living spaces in a home.
Kitchens have become more than just the place where we cook the meals. They’re now gathering places and showcases for a home.
Small kitchen owners, do not despair. You have options. These small kitchen remodel ideas can maximize your space, making you want to spend more time there and increasing the value of your home at the same time.
Small Kitchen Remodel Ideas
Keep three things in mind as you consider your kitchen remodel: functionality, color, and light.
Unless you do not cook, you must maximize every part of your small kitchen for meal preparation. You do not have the luxury of making your kitchen into a multi-function room where kids leave homework and you drop your briefcase. So have a place for everything.
Then use color and light to your advantage. These ten tips show you how to maximize color and light in your small kitchen.
1. Color It Light
Smaller spaces can feel dark and oppressive. Maximize space by using fresh, light colors. Remember: white reflects light.
You do not have to turn your kitchen into a blindingly white, sterile, and dull room, though, to make it feel larger.
If you enjoy the natural, warm look, then consider using natural woods with lighter colors like maple or pine.
As you consider all colors in your kitchen, lean toward lighter, warmer colors.
2. Knock It Out
If your kitchen feels closed in and light, can you expand your area? Do not be afraid to knock out a wall or a half wall to expand your space and create a more open plan.
For example, if your small dining room is next to your small kitchen, separated by only a wall, knock out the wall and combine the two rooms.
You may even maximize your functionality by giving yourself added workspace with a dining room table.
3. Light It Up
Use both natural light and artificial light to create a warm, airy space.
Eliminate kitchen curtains to bring in more natural light. Consider if you can install a skylight for more natural light as well.
Many kitchens have fluorescent lighting, which ultimately casts a blue light on your food and area. Counteract this light with hanging pendant lights. This soft light will make your foot look more natural and appealing.
Incandescent lighting has a more yellowish tint to it. Put it underneath cabinets or as a spotlight directed at your cabinetry.
Some small kitchen concepts have contractors installing lighting in the flooring. The light glows like starlight coming up from the floor.
Regardless of where the light comes from, make sure it is a warm, soft light as opposed to the hospital fluorescent light of the past’s kitchens.
4. Floor Your Kitchen
Your flooring can create the illusion of a larger space. For example, long planks can elongate a room as opposed to old, patterned tiles that shrink it. Busy patterns with bright, contrasting colors will make a room feel smaller than it is, but lengthy, consistently colored flooring will lengthen it.
Also, keep the flooring light. Dark flooring will tighten the feel of a room as well, but lighter flooring expands it.
If you’re married to a particular color on the floor, remember, you can always use small floor rugs for splashes of color.
5. Light Cabinets and Bright Backsplashes
If your cabinets hang low with space above them, consider moving them to the ceiling and then replacing the solid doors with windowed doors.Glass reflects more light and creates more open space.
Cabinets take up the majority of your real estate in the kitchen, so their color matters most. Keep them light. Many people like the new contemporary look of sleek, black cabinets, but dark cabinets will shrink an already small area.
If you really like those dark cabinets, consider duel colors where your top cabinets are light and your bottom cabinets are dark.
Then, connect your cabinets with an interesting backsplash of either stone or glass. This can make the space interesting and provide an artistic break between countertops and cabinets.
To make your small kitchen even more interesting, think about an accent cabinet where you paint one set of cabinets a bold color. This visual distraction will draw the eye up and create a visually larger space.
6. Lengthen with Islands
Islands take up valuable space, but they can also make a kitchen feel bigger. A rectangular kitchen will feel longer with a well-placed, lengthy island.
Plus, the island will increase the functionality of the kitchen with storage and workspace.
7. Indulge in New Appliances
Purchasing matching new appliances in the right color can maximize and update your space as well. Sleek is trending right now, and you can create a sleek look with a stainless steel theme that matches just about any modern kitchen look.
You’ll increase the value of your home as well with new appliances, and you will most likely find yourself cooking in even more rather than eating out.
If you think your kitchen is too small for the newest appliances, take heart. Manufacturers are seeing a demand for smaller appliances to suit the small-kitchen trend is going on.
8. Swap Out Windows for Windowed Doors
Look at the windows in your kitchen. If your kitchen has more than the typical over-the-sink window, consider if you can replace the window with a windowed door. This feature will add more space and facilitate the creation of an outdoor eating area as well.
Plus, more light will lighten the mood of your kitchen.
9. Maximize the High Zone
If you have the luxury of tall ceilings, use them. Draw eyes up with taller cabinets and unique, warm lights.
Few people can reach the top of those tall cupboards, so make the tallest cupboards into open storage where you showcase your kitchenware. This will maximize the high zone and draw eyes upward, creating a visually bigger kitchen.
Small Made Big
If you want to enjoy cook, then maximize your kitchen’s functionality and make it look great.
Implementing a few small kitchen remodel ideas can make your space visually bigger and make you want to cook even more.
For more great remodel ideas, check out the rest of our blog and be sure to share this post if you found it helpful.
