Small Kitchen Design

Kitchen Space Planning

Planning the Design for Your Kitchen:
The kitchen is the place where your day starts, your parties end and a place to go for some chit chat over a hot cup of coffee or tea. Whatever it is, the kitchen has to work for you 24 hours a day - no matter how many hours you actually spend in it! For most of us, the kitchen is the heart of the home. Some may only pop into the kitchen for a drink, but for many, it is the room they spend a good part of the day - preparing, cooking or eating food. It also becomes the room where the family meet for informal meals and casual conversations.

Kitchen design is based on the four basic principles of storage, food preparation, cooking and eating. The design of any kitchen, no matter how large or small, has to take all these factors into consideration and create a space for each of these functions. A good kitchen is organised according to your own kitchen 'life' which means that everything should revolve around your own cooking habits, storage needs and be planned even right down to the way the garbage is sorted!

Start by dividing your kitchen into three main work zones, i.e. zones for cooking, storing and washing. For storing, make sure there is enough space allocated for the storage of food - both dry food and food that goes into the fridge.

For the cooking zone, place the hob near the sink for easy access to water when cleaning up. The workspace, which is the most important part of the kitchen, should preferably be placed between the hob and the sink; unless you have the luxury of having an island in your kitchen!













To make it efficient, make sure there is enough workspace around the hob and sink for your cooking utensils, chopping board and spices. The workspace is the most used area in the kitchen. Maximising this space will ensure that there is a space for everything. Your work top must also be able to stand the heat of hot plates and the stain of spices and tolerate sharp objects.

Keeping things near where they are frequently used will help make your kitchen really efficient. Add open shelves and wall organisers or stainless steel racks to help clear your workspace and to keep things that you use often, such as spices, condiments and cooking utensils like whisks and ladles, close at hand. You can add roller shutters to these open shelves to have the option of closing it when not in use. Roller shutters are instant space savers. They also work well in areas that are tricky for swinging doors. Pots and pans, cutlery and glasses should be within reach and stored at the right height.

If yours is a small kitchen, designing it is usually an interesting challenge and one needs to be creative when planning the space to be able to fit everything in. If you are working within a small space, put the limited space to maximum use through easy to reach wall organisers, out-of-sight cabinets and you can even consider an extra workspace trolley.