How To Renovate

EP69 How To Make Your Small Kitchen Feel Bigger

• Tash South • Season 1 • Episode 69

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Hello, I’m back this week with a little love for the small but mighty kitchen. If your kitchen didn’t get top billing—this episode is for you. Kitchens often have to work the hardest in the home, and when expanding isn’t an option, it’s all about making the most of what you have. 

Today, I’m sharing practical tips and a few interior design solutions to help you make your small kitchen feel bigger, brighter, and better. 

We’ll chat through: 

Lighting that flatters and functions – from hidden LEDs to layered lighting plans that bring warmth and brightness even to windowless kitchens. 

Layout love – why your floor plan is your best friend, how to test different configurations, and why every centimetre counts. 

Optical illusions – reflective surfaces, continuous flooring, and mirrored splashbacks that trick the eye and stretch the space. 

Storage (of course!) – deep drawers over cupboards, slim pull-out ladders, and even those genius kick drawers you might not have considered. 

Breaking the boundaries – how to borrow light and sightlines from adjacent rooms without knocking down all the walls. 

If you’ve got a small kitchen, don’t despair—you’re in the right place. 

I’ll see you inside! 


Other Useful Resources: HOW TO PLAN YOUR DREAM KITCHEN MASTERCLASS: https://www.southplacestudio.com/masterclasses/p/masterclass-how-to-plan-your-dream-kitchen

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant, and I'm here to help you design, renovate and style your home better. Let's create your dream home together.


Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

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https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


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TashSouth:

Hello, I'm back with some love for small kitchens this week. If you have a kitchen that's more on the smaller side, the more petite side of things, perhaps you have a slightly smaller home or you're in an apartment, for whatever reason, if your kitchen has not been gifted with a square meterage, then this episode is for you. It's a problem that I come across a lot in London because, as you may know, properties are very expensive here, and as you move further into the city, if you're in apartments, if you're in a block of apartments, the kitchen is not really given priority. They can be quite small. If you're in a home that has been divided up into apartments, like a maisonette or a Victorian home that's been converted from a large house into smaller flats or apartments, then also sometimes the kitchens can be really tiny. So I thought I'd do an episode today on how you can work with it. If you don't have an option to make your kitchen bigger, then let's work with what we've got. Make the absolute best of it. So I thought today I will give you some ideas, some tips, and some tricks to make the best out of that small space that has to work so hard within the home. So let's get into the episode, everybody. Let's start with light, number one. Now, light is very important in small rooms, whether it's natural light or artificial light. So if you are lucky enough to have a window in your kitchen, obviously that's great. That means you've got some natural light coming in, which automatically then gives it a sense of being a little bigger. But if you don't have a window, or if you have a small window, if it's in a dark area of the home, I would strongly recommend that you work with some artificial light in a really clever way to bring some elements of light into the room to trick the eye into thinking that the space is bigger and brighter. And even if you aren't blessed with natural light, you can really use artificial light to great effect. So, some ways you can use this is to work really well with some LED lighting, some LED strips. Maybe you can tuck them under things, under shelves, you know, so you don't see the light source, but you see the glow of the light, which almost mimics daylight in a way, because you just get the glow and you don't necessarily see the light source or the light bulb as such. And so just using LED strips in a clever way can really work in a small kitchen, and perhaps you then combine it with other light sources as well, or other light fixtures. So you could combine a few LED lights, whether they be tucked away on top of the kitchen cabinets, at the bottom, in the areas you need them most, like over the cooking area. If they're all tucked away and all you see is the glow, then perhaps you can bring in some more decorative lighting. Perhaps you can add a wall light or two, a pretty pendant, perhaps. So you can bring in other different light sources as well, and that's called layering the light. So if you're layering the light, you can then have more flexibility in terms of which lights you turn off and on, depending on whether it's for tasks like cooking, like cleaning, or whether it's just for atmosphere. So if you have a small space, I really would recommend that you work with a lighting. Get a really, really good lighting plan going because that is going to give you a sense of lightness and brightness and spaciousness in a room, which is all the more important when you're working with a smaller area. Next, let's talk about layout. So kitchen layouts are crucial to get right, especially when you're working in a small space. And this is where floor plan exploration comes in. So if you're renovating and you're doing your kitchen from scratch and you've got the opportunity for a new layout, I think really spend the time to get it right. Get your floor plan, practice doing some scale drawings, just do some sketches. You don't have to get technical. It's really easy to do a very simple sketch to scale that you can play around with your layout. Just sketch out the size of the room, sketch out where the windows and doors are, and then go from there. Then think about how you use the space, how you move around, how you particularly work in the kitchen, and then also the obvious things like if you have an oven, you need somewhere to be able to take somewhere hot and put have a landing area. Where are you going to put that hot thing? You need to have some space on either side of your hob, on either side of your sink. So, really think really practically about how you're going to use the space and then work from there. And every every centimeter matters. So spend some time on your floor plan, really try out some different options, find out what works best. Sometimes I find even masking the floor, so masking, use some masking tape to measure out the shapes of the cabinetry or the cabinet run or the kitchen island if you have one, and just mark it out on the floor and pretend you're using the space, and that's going to give you a really good idea of whether what you've drawn on paper is going to work or not. I've even built it up with boxes before when I've had clients who couldn't quite visualize or picture what it would be like when they're looking at it on paper, even if it was to scale and had measurements. We've sometimes gone in with a contractor and then built up with cardboard boxes or with pieces of wood or whatever's on site, just kind of a loose structure of where everything was going to be, the measurement between the countertops, so you could tell if it's easy to move around. So I would just say play around with your layout, really, really explore the layout, how you want the kitchen to function, how you use the space. Make sure you look into the distances between cabinets. So minimum flow distances that is so important when planning your floor plans because you don't want it to feel too cramped. You want to be able to use the space with flow with ease. So really explore your floor plan, especially when you're working with small spaces. You want to test it to the max to make sure that it's going to work before you start building anything. Next, I want to talk to you about optical illusions. So this is a great one for when you're working with a small space. And in kitchens, there's so much you can do to make the small space feel a little bit bigger because you've got a lot going in a kitchen. You need to put so many things in there. So you can't really get away with leaving things out, can you? It's not like you can leave out the oven or leave out the hob or leave out the fridge. Everything needs to be in there. So we need to find other ways of being able to make the space seem bigger, lighter, and more spacious than it is. And by working with a few optical illusions, a few tricks of the eye, you can achieve that. And so there are various ways you can do this. Think about the materials you're choosing, first of all. If you're choosing a material with a bit of reflection, with a bit of gloss, that's going to reflect light, make it seem brighter and more spacious. I would suggest perhaps you go for something like a composite or a marble or a quartz on your worktops that's got some shine to it, some reflectiveness to it, so that when the light hits it, it's bouncing back and it just seems like there's more light in the room. And you can also get creative on your splash bags. I used once in a really small kitchen, we used a mirror, but it wasn't just a regular mirror, it was an aged mirror, so what they call foxed mirror, where it's got lovely golden or silver tones to it, and it looks like it's aged, and it's not just plain mirror, so it's got some texture to it, it's got some character to it. That works great as a backsplash in a small kitchen because it's still mirror, it's still very reflective and bounces the light around in a beautiful way. Because if it's the kind of golden mirror, it makes the light seem golden. So you can choose your mirror according to the atmosphere you want to create in the kitchen, but you're also getting that bonus of that optical illusion of things being reflected, bouncing light around and the space just seeming bigger than it is. Also, think about the larger surfaces, like the flooring, for example. If the kitchen runs off the rest of the house and it's open plan, I would really suggest using the same flooring throughout. Perhaps it's an engineered wood or a tile. Because if you use a different flooring, it focuses on the kitchen floor and the small square footage of it. So if you can continue the same flooring from the rest of the property into the kitchen, it tricks the eye into thinking that it's it's continuous, it's a continuous space and it looks bigger than it is. So you think carefully about the flooring you choose, also. Next up, as you might guess, it's one of my favorite things: storage. So the storage in the kitchen is of utmost importance, especially when you're working with smaller spaces. You have to think really cleverly about how you're going to use the space you have. Because again, you've got to include the things like the appliances, and they take up loads of room, which might leave you with not much space left over for storage for all the things you need to store in a kitchen. So, really plan and zone your storage. For example, where is your food storage area? Where are your cleaning products area, your dishes, your cutlery? Think about everything. I would even go so far as to say make an inventory of all the items you want to store, and then plan your storage from that to make sure you have a space for everything when the kitchen is complete. And there are so many clever things you can do now. What I really love doing in a kitchen, even a small kitchen, is using drawers over cabinets. So drawers over cupboards, because drawers you can pull out, you can see everything that's in there. Great in a small kitchen where you don't have to get into a small cupboard, try and get to the back of it to get your plates or your bowls out. If you have a drawer, it's such an efficient use of space. You're using all of the space really well, and you can see everything that's in the drawer. So I use drawers for plates, bowls, saucepans, small appliances, then, of course, the slimmer drawers at the top for your cutlery and your cooking utensils. So really think about what you need to store and then plan from there. And there are so many clever fixtures and fittings and internals you can get now. You can get really narrow, kind of 30 centimetre, 20 centimeter floor-to-ceiling pullout ladders where they're literally just a slim, slim ladder that pulls out, and you can fit so many canned goods in there, all your dry goods can fit into what is essentially taking up 20 or 30 centimetres of floor space, floor to ceiling. So those are amazing, and what you can also get are called kick drawers. So, what these are, you know, that space between the floor and the bottom, the very bottom of your cabinet. Usually that's just covered by a piece of wood or material called a plinth. But now for smaller kitchens, you can actually get drawers that fit in that space, and it'll it's a shallow space, but it will be a wide, deep space as deep as your kitchen cabinets all the way around. And so, what you can do is have those installed, and then you can have amazing storage underneath for any smaller items that you need to store. I just think those are those are a great use of what would usually be just wasted space in a small area. And so I do think that if you get your storage right, you're automatically doing this thing where you're making your kitchen seem bigger because the better your storage and the more thought out it is, and if you have a place for everything, then of course that means that you're going to have fewer things on your countertops, fewer things around, and so visually you'll have less clutter on the countertops, which automatically then makes the room seem bigger. Because if your countertops are clear, you've got gorgeous light, you've got some reflective surfaces, then of course the room's going to seem bigger. So I really think think about so think about your storage really carefully, streamline, conceal where you can. I would suggest concealing obviously all the bottom units, all the bottom cabinetry. When we're thinking about a small room and we have wall cabinets, it might be counterintuitive, but I always suggest not to absolutely line all of the walls with wall cabinetry because that brings the walls in and makes the kitchen seem even smaller. So, where you can, if you're able to get away with not putting wall cabinets everywhere in terms of what you need to store, I would suggest doing a combination, perhaps in a different material on the cabinet doors on the wall, and then also break it up with some open shelves. If you have open shelves, it again visually tricks the eye because it beyond the open shelf, you see the wall, it makes the room seem deeper than it is, and then on those open shelves, you've got an opportunity to put some pretty things, to add some plants, and all of these things will add not only some style to the room but also this illusion that it's bigger. Then finally, in this episode, let's talk about how you could possibly borrow some space from beyond the room. So if you're renovating, you're doing your kitchen from scratch, look at the other rooms around the kitchen. Is there an opportunity where you could borrow some lights, perhaps put some sort of hatch or opening? Because if you can see from the kitchen out into a larger space, that also gives the illusion of it being larger. So that sight line of not just having the walls of the kitchen around you, but having a sightline out of the kitchen, whether that be a hatch or some sort of internal window or even just some light coming through. All of those things visually trick the eye and the brain into thinking you're in a larger, brighter space. So really consider that when you're planning your kitchen. If there is an opportunity that will work, that will work with the adjacent rooms. Don't only think about the kitchen as a unit within itself. Look at the adjacent rooms and see how the kitchen could work possibly with those to give that sense of it being larger. I don't know if you know, but back in the kind of 60s, 70s, 80s, all there was all the rage about these kind of pass-through windows, which was basically just a hole in the wall from the kitchen to the dining room where food could get passed through. I know it's quite an old-fashioned idea, but if you you think about that and you almost expand it, could you make a larger hole in the wall, a larger pass-through or hatch that could still work? Perhaps you could put some seating on the other side, some bar stools on the other side of your countertop. Perhaps you could make it taller so that it's not cut off a kind of eye level. It's still a hole in the wall essentially, but it's taller. So you're creating broken plan almost where it's not completely open plan, but you're not having to do major structural works. You could just make a link between the two rooms, which would make the space seem larger. So do think about how you can make the most of your plan. Think about the adjacent rooms and how you can use those to make the kitchen more functional and just seem better and larger and more airy as well. Or perhaps if you're not keen on just opening up the space or opening up a hatch, what could be done is that space could be filled with a shelves. So open shelves that you could put objects on, but you could still see all the way through from one room to the other. So that could be a really effective way of making your kitchen seem larger as well. But that's it everyone. We've come to the end of this episode. I really hope you enjoyed it. I hope you've got some great tips there to make your kitchen seem bigger than it actually is. If you enjoyed the episode, please do subscribe, send me a message, give us a comment, tap that like button wherever you're watching or listening. I love to hear from you. I love to hear what you're working on, what you need help with. So just drop me a line. I promise I'll get back to you. That's it for now, everybody. I hope you enjoyed the episode and I look forward to seeing you next week. Bye for now. For more information on my five-pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudio.com forward slash pillars where you'll find an introduction to the process which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudio.com forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on um planning permission, there is one on kitchen design, there is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your innovations.