A bigger floor area definitely means a higher market value. For apartment units, condominiums, and houses, every square foot of floor area matters. This dictates its price among other factors such as location, accessibility to important establishments, and view. In a fast-paced world where everyone is virtually too busy to spend time cooking a hearty meal at home, kitchens are put at low priority for floor area allocation. This is almost always the case for commercial dwellings. Only those who can afford bigger houses and/or remodel their kitchen can truly enjoy a more spacious kitchen. But instead of sulking at this unfortunate reality, we should try to make do with what we have. A good design can transform your kitchen and make it look spacious and inviting.

Here are some tips for designing your small kitchen:

1.    A small kitchen calls for small appliances. As much as possible, purchase the smaller version of the appliances you need in your kitchen such as microwave ovens, blenders, toaster, coffee maker, stove, refrigerator, etc. Opt for multi-function or compact appliances if you have to. This can save space and make your kitchen size more proportional to the things inside it.
2.    Make use of the walls in your kitchen. Aside from mounting some kitchen appliances on them like the microwave oven, include cabinets and shelves for storage of your plates and supplies. Hooks can also be tastefully mounted on the walls for hanging cooking pans but I’d rather they be stored neatly inside the cabinets.
3.    An island kitchen lay out is best for a small kitchen. The island serves a dual purpose as a working area on top and a storage area at the bottom. However, if the island is still too small for you to accommodate your chopping board, do not worry. Choose a chopping board that is wide enough to sit snuggly over your sink and you can do your chopping, dicing, slicing, and filleting on that space.
4.    If you run out of space to store your large pans, you can install and rack that hangs from the ceiling just over your island. Install hooks on that rack and your pans can dangle freely from that. Make sure the rack is not too high that it becomes a burden to reach for your pans nor too low as the pans can hit you on the head while going about the kitchen.
5.    Proper lighting can trick the eyes into believing that a space looks bigger. Install lights under the cabinets and the counter to create the illusion of a bigger space.