January 6, 2016

Creating Space in a Tiny Kitchen

Martie Big Creek Farmhouse Remodel coffee service, counter space, creating space in a tiny kitchen, galley kitchen, stainless shelf rack 12 Comments

Good Wednesday morning! I promise to keep today’s post a little short…yesterday’s was a doozie!  I just had so many pictures of Coach’s hard work, and I didn’t want to leave out any details!  Today, it’s my work you’ll get to see, so you automatically can assume it will take up less of your time.  I’m going to show you how I went about creating space in a tiny kitchen, and made it more functional, less cluttered, and more my own.

My Galley Kitchen

It’s definitely a galley kitchen, no doubt.  To see some really fancy galley kitchens, click here, whereThis Old House has a slide show of high dollar, shiny little kitchens.  Creating space in a tiny kitchen doesn’t have to be super expensive, unless you want your kitchen to look like the ones in the slide show.  Here’s my kitchen.

To the left of the stove, there is one cabinet of drawers, the one we built our own countertop for.

(It’s one of those photos in my library that won’t stand up straight for squat, sorry.) This has been the extent of my counter space for the past year.  My last kitchen had tons of counter space, so this has been an adjustment.  It really got frustrating during the holidays, and I realized I needed to make some changes.

My kitchen is in two parts.  The galley kitchen part, where the sink and stove are, is the tiny party.  There’s a step up into the eating area, which is pretty large.  The fridge is right at the edge of the large part, right beside the step.  I have the big, pretty pantry cabinet, and the other barn wood cabinet which holds the microwave and the booze (two very important kitchen appliances) in the big room.

Creating Space in a Tiny Kitchen

Coach bought me a pretty little wine rack for Christmas, which I knew immediately would hold nothing but glasses and stemware, freeing up a lot of space on that counter.

Doesn’t that look nice?  As you can see, I also moved my coffee service over here, to free up more space in the small kitchen!

I had to do a lot of rearranging to make all of this happen, which forced me to clean out the bottom of our pantry cabinet.  It’s not anything to brag about, so no pictures.  I did organize my Tupperware cabinet, though!

Nice, huh?  I love having that little rack for all my lids.  I have to do some stacking to fit it all in, and I’m working on making the rest of my family memorize the order, so it doesn’t look like a hurricane hit it ever again (I know, I’m dreaming).

The best thing I did was to assemble a new little shelf rack I picked up at Home Depot.  I was hoping it would be perfect for the small space between my stove and the tall cabinet.  Here’s what I used to have:

This picture was taken before we stained the tall one and before we finished the countertop or even added drawer pulls, but it’s the only one I had showing my minuscule skillet storage.  See that tiny white plastic thing between the cabinets?  I have had that thing since I was going away to college, and it’s literally worn slap out.  Here’s my new one:

Like I said, I was hoping it would fit, and it does!  I just had to get a little creative….

Creating space in a tiny kitchen is all about getting creative, right?

The basket you see hanging out above my new rack is one of two that I hung to use for utensil storage.  It really frees up counter space to take advantage of my wall space!  I have too many utensils, if you can’t tell.  I do use most of them, though!

I bought these baskets from a local man who weaves them by hand.  I have a whole collection of them, but these two with the little handles were perfect for this.  I just attached them to the wall with little cup hooks.  My hanging baskets are just one more way of creating space in a tiny kitchen.

Success!

I love my kitchen so much more now!  Last night when I was cooking dinner, I had a place to set things down, thanks to my new shelf rack,and that held down on a lot of griping and bad words.  All of my utensils are in reach in my cute little hand made baskets. I still have a few ideas up my sleeve for this little kitchen of mine, but these improvements have made a huge difference.  And you know what?  It turns out I’m a genius, because that little stainless shelf rack said it took two people to assemble it, and I did it all by myself!

If you’re ever in the neighborhood, please stop by for a cup of coffee!  I really like the coffee service over here closer to the table, and I could drink a cup any time of day or night!  In closing, I’ll show off my cute little espresso cups that we use to hold our coffee scoop and sugar spoon.  Having a little sister work at Starbucks had its perks; these were a gift from The Squirt last Christmas, and I just love them.

Would you mind sharing your ideas for creating space in a tiny kitchen?  You can just comment your ideas, or even share your own blog post about it in the comments.  I’m always up for new ideas, and until I hit the lottery or sell a kidney, this is the kitchen I’ve got. It works, I can assure you, because none of us are going hungry, but I’ll sure take your ideas and suggestions into consideration! Creating space in a tiny kitchen isn’t always easy, but with a little creativity and handy hubby like Coach, I think I did a pretty good job!

See you soon for coffee!

X,O,X,O,   Martie

This post is linked up with Wonderful Wednesday, Thursday Favorite Things, FoodieFriDIY, and Over the Moon!