In small apartment units, small kitchen designs look spacious when integrated with the dining area and living room. Photos: Canva
In Malaysia, our lives revolve around food. We ask, “have you eaten?” more often than “how are you?” It’s no surprise that the kitchen and dining areas are the heart of our homes, where family members prepare food and dine together.
Today we start on a new set of curated content where we discuss tips for small spaces usually associated with an apartment unit. Here are five ways to make the most of a small kitchen.
Design your small kitchen around the window to bring in natural lighting.
If you’re living in an apartment, always gravitate to the source of natural light in your kitchen. Natural direct lighting usually comes from the window in the kitchen and indirect lighting from the living room.
A small kitchen that frames the view is my all-time favourite. The visual connectivity to nature allows a sense of psychological relief. The ability to look far beyond small spaces calms the mind. Hence, my top tip is to position the kitchen design around the window. Place the sink to face the window. This way, you can do your dishes and watch clouds glide by. Plus, your dish drainer dries faster with the sun rays and ambient heat.
Less is more when you’re deciding colours in your small kitchen. White and black tones make the kitchen feel spacious, sleek and timeless.
Remember when I last discussed the power of colour? Bold colours are attention-grabbing and great as focal points.
However, it’s best to avoid dark bold tones in small kitchens. Dark colours like black, dark grey and timber make the space feel smaller.
Thus, white is best if you want to make your small kitchen feel more spacious. For style and character, you can always play with accentuation of timber tones and polished steel. White is calming and always the best choice for wall-mounted cabinets.
Go horizontal when you have a small space in your kitchen by using long linear cabinet door handles, horizontal proportions of tiles, lighting and drawers.
When you have a small space for your kitchen, resort to illusions and tricks of the eye. In small kitchens, we choose elements that celebrate horizontality. It’s simply the art of visual magic. If we want something to look tall, we go with vertical lines and stripes.
But in small spaces, we go with horizontal bands and lines to pull the eye across the breath of the room. Imagine long drawers, long sleek horizontally placed cabinet handles and backsplash of linear horizontal slim tiles.
You may even accentuate the countertop by using black granite to enhance that slim long edge of the counter.
Wall storage units are a great way to maximise storage and look impressively neat at the same time.
There is a fine balance between the right amount of countertop and storage space in a kitchen. In a small kitchen, allocate just the right amount of countertop space and hide the remaining clutter in wall storage units.
Invest in tall storage units that can organise your spices, sauce bottles, pots, pans, and appliances. Integrated wall storage units that include microwaves and ovens not only look neat, but allows you to maximise your storage space.
Go horizontal when you have a small space in your kitchen by using long linear cabinet door handles, horizontal proportions of tiles, lighting and drawers.
Most new apartments these days come with an open concept for the kitchen area. Look for the opportunity to fuse the function of dining into the kitchen design.
Consider a high counter with bar-stool seats to create a quick breakfast area. It’s always practical to grab your toast in the kitchen area.
When you’re rushing for work in the mornings, this strategy saves a lot of steps in cleaning up!
There you go, you’ve just picked up a set of five hot tips for small kitchens. In the next article, we will discuss kitchen ergonomics and how we can plan the core elements of washing, preparation and cooking.
Till our next mini masterclass, happy home-styling!
Tan Bee Eu is a professional architect registered with Lembaga Arkitek Malaysia. She teaches at Universiti Sains Malaysia and has two decades of working experience involving diverse local and international projects in architecture and design. She can be reached at www.betadesignz.com/contact.
In small apartment units, small kitchen designs look spacious when integrated with the dining area and living room. Photos: Canva
Go horizontal when you have a small space in your kitchen by using long linear cabinet door handles, horizontal proportions of tiles, lighting and drawers.
Less is more when you’re deciding colours in your small kitchen. White and black tones make the kitchen feel spacious, sleek and timeless.
Design your small kitchen around the window to bring in natural lighting.
Go horizontal when you have a small space in your kitchen by using long linear cabinet door handles, horizontal proportions of tiles, lighting and drawers.
Wall storage units are a great way to maximise storage and look impressively neat at the same time.
