1. SWAP CUPBOARDS FOR OPEN SHELVING
While two layers of kitchen cabinets might seem necessary for storage in a small space, it’s worth remembering that the boxy, blocky look this can create might make your space feel cramped and overcrowded. When Shapeless Studio designed this Brooklyn kitchen, they wanted to place greater emphasis on the details of lower millwork, and so eschewed wall-hung units above.
2. OPT FOR POCKET DOORS
When designing kitchens small and large, San Francisco studio Edmonds + Lee Architects favor pocket door cabinetry for keeping surfaces streamlined. ‘There's always the question of where to put the microwave, toaster and other appliances you use on a day-to-day basis but don't want to necessarily want on show, particularly in an open-plan kitchen’ says practice co-founder Robert Edmonds.
3. CAPITALIZE ON VERTICAL SPACE
‘For this project, we were lucky enough to have very tall ceilings,’ says And Studio founder Arianna De Gasperis of the kitchen in her Jersey City brownstone. ‘Thanks to the room height, we were able to extend the pantry cabinetry to just below the ceiling to maximize storage in the space.’
4. CONSIDER SLIDING DOORS
Amy Vroom of The Residency Bureau employed a host of clever tricks when overhauling the kitchen in this two-bedroom condo in Seattle, including sliding slatted timber doors on the upper cabinetry that nod to the home’s 1960s origins. ‘The house is only 1262 square feet, so every inch was important to my clients,’ says Amy.
5. INSTALL PULL-OUT SOLUTIONS
We love this neat little coffee bar, which interior designer Cathie Hong installed as part of a Californian kitchen redesign. A bi-fold door in this bank of oak cabinetry peels back to reveal a perfectly configured coffee station, which can hidden away when not in use.
6. INTEGRATE CURVED CABINETRY
When Idan Naor of Inworkshop Architecture reworked this New York apartment, he implemented curved cabinets as a functional response to a challenge in the floor plan. ‘The design of the curved cabinetry centers around creating a fluid use of space in a high-traffic area,’ explains Idan.
7. EMBRACE UPLIFTING COLOR
‘Color can profoundly affect your mood and can do a lot of the heavy lifting in smaller spaces to create a specific atmosphere or feeling,’ says Keren Richter of White Arrow studio, who chose the marine-inspired ‘Hazy’ shade from Kelly Wearstler’s Farrow & Ball collection for the kitchen color scheme in this Hamptons beach house.
8. CONSIDER A TWO-TONE SCHEME
If storage requirements necessitate wall-hung units (as they often do when space is tight), one way to lessen the impact of upper cabinetry is to choose a lighter color than that used for the base cupboards. New Generation Improvements offset the stained timber cabinetry in this Silver Lake remodel with pale-green cabinets above to create a two tone kitchen.