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Where do you spend most of your time when you’re home? If your family is like mine, it’s probably in the kitchen – where over the breakfast counter, the day unfurls. Over cereals or piping hot dosas and hot cups of caffeine to kickstart your day or a lazy breakfast over a warm weekend where the family comes together – to sit and soak in the beauty of being together.
But, no matter how large a kitchen is, it never feels big enough. From choosing clean lines and geometric angles to eliminate visual clutter and expand the space, even if square footage is minimal to incorporating designs which will stay light and bright – as Sandeep Joshi recommends – reflective surfaces, such as ceramic tile and stainless steel, subtly amplify the effects of natural and artificial light, thereby making the kitchen seem larger – it’s all about creating drama in the small space which creates a visual poetry.
CommonFloor brings you top ideas from interior designers to make your kitchen feel and look larger. Remember – you don’t have to go for all of them. Any one of these suggestions can make a world of difference.
When space is limited, it is important to choose furnishings and appliances that appropriately fit the scale of the room.
Some patterned wall coverings or floor coverings add visual clutter that makes a space feel smaller, but certain types of patterns have the opposite effect. Oversize diamonds painted on this floor create diagonal lines that give the eye a longer path to follow from one side of the room to the other, so the room feels wider than it really is. Combine this technique with low-contrast colors for big results in a small kitchen.
With all the traffic and mess that a kitchen can generate, it may seem counterproductive to paint it white. However, painting a kitchen white will significantly open up the space. The key is to incorporate a number of textures and different shades of white in order to keep the room from feeling bleak and sterile.
When white flows form the ceilings to the counters, cabinets and walls, it results in a seamless effect in which the eye can’t locate a boundary. So the room immediately feels more expansive.
You may be limited by the number of and size of the windows in your kitchen, but how you treat them can have a drastic impact. Try to keep the window treatments to a minimum. If privacy is necessary, try a valance. These allow an abundance of natural light without opening up your kitchen to on-lookers.
By eliminating walls, both physically and metaphorically, you can trick they eye into thinking the kitchen is substantially larger when the square footage of the space has not changed.
The cart features a solid wood construction in natural finish, stainless steel top, brushed steel hardware, two utility drawers, two shelves and casters.
Depending upon the layout of the kitchen, it may be possible to even remove a part of the wall. It goes without saying that this will make the kitchen feel more expansive.
Shelves flush with the walls and recessed into space between the studs add storage without consuming valuable floor or air space in a small kitchen. These recessed shelves – trimmed and finished to match the woodwork – blend with the architecture. If you don’t have space within your kitchen, instead look for a spot near your kitchen, such as a breakfast nook or passageway, to implement recessed shelves.
The style rule of horizontal stripes also applies to interior design. Horizontal stripes will make both a person and a room appear to be wider. Use striped flooring that goes from side-to-side instead of flowing the length of the room.
Install cabinets to the ceiling. Start with a taller cabinet and then line the others progressively shorter. In the open space above the shorter cabinets you can display items like collectibles, baskets or teapots.
Store seldom-used items such as holiday dishes or serving pieces on the top shelves of the taller cabinets. The point is to force the eye to go up and down with taller items. The room will immediately feel taller as a result.
Just as you go through your clothes closets once or twice a year and give away or sell items you no longer need, try doing the same in your kitchen. Because a cluttered kitchen feels smaller, simply reorganizing and tossing the things you don’t use will make your kitchen feel larger.
You can do this on the back of false drawer fronts at the sink and cook top, with specially-made narrow trays available at hardware stores and home centers. It helps eliminate clutter around the stove and sink.
Cap off the end of some cabinets with open shelves. With the shelves facing the opposite direction like the eating area or breakfast nook, it provides a convenient way to store books and other conversation-starting items. Having the shelf raised a few inches higher than the counter it is connected to will help hide any clutter that would be visible while eating.
Making a small kitchen look larger is a matter of fooling the eye and tricking the brain into thinking the space is bigger. One way to do that is to remove some cabinet doors or replace the solid fronts with glass. This pulls the eye past the cabinet frames into the depths of the cabinets, so the walls feel farther away. This trick is most effective if you can keep what’s in the cabinets orderly and color-coordinated. Clutter tends to make a room feel crowded.
An over-the-door shelf is a great way to display items in an unconventional way. Placing a ledge above the door frame (with the proper support on the ends) will provide yet another space to display your accents and wares. The height of the display will also draw the eye upward and make the room feel taller in the process.
Having the ability to store extra items and prepare them on the same surface is one thing. However, having the ability to move that out of the way when necessary is a completely different story.
If your kitchen has an adjoining dining room, consider opening the wall between them. This could be a do-it-yourself project if the wall is not load-bearing.
Interior Designer, Ashish Modi, Bangalore recommends: Ten Ideas to update your kitchen on a budget
Updating your kitchen can bring a high return on your decorating investment. Even though we spend less time than ever in the kitchen, we still want it to look good – usually from afar! Here are a few simple and inexpensive ways to give your kitchen a fresh look:
As you can see, a dramatic makeover in your kitchen needn’t cost the moon. All it takes is just a few inexpensive touches!
kitchen, kitchen accessories, Kitchen Cabinets, kitchen design, large kitchen, modular kitchen, Small kitchen
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Well written
Informative and to the point