Surviving a kitchen renovation is never easy, as any homeowner who’s been through one will attest. When the kitchen space is small, however, the remodeling process can be even trickier. But with the right blend of creativity and smart design, small spaces can serve up style, seating, storage, and more.
Capitol Improvements
Designer Cindy Sayers, principal of Creative Design Solutions, met with homeowner Heather Boyles to develop a list of must-haves for Boyles’ Capitol Hill kitchen renovation. Coming up with the list – plenty of storage, entertaining space, and a cat-feeding station – was easy. Fitting everything into the Lilliputian, 81-square-foot space was a challenge.
Sayers started by narrowing the archway into the U-shaped kitchen, adding 24 inches on one side and 16 inches on the other side. One end now functions as a bar area for entertaining. The toe-kick area is open, allowing just enough room for Ivory, the cat, to access her feeding bowls hidden beneath the bar.
At the other end of the U, a retractable shelf provides additional serving space for parties, but slides under the countertop when not in use. Above, an angled glass-front cabinet provides storage for glassware. The end cabinets on each side are both practical and pretty, providing much-needed storage and an appealing view from the adjacent dining space. “Who wants to look at the side of a cabinet?” Sayers asks.
A non-negotiable soffit along the back wall took up premium storage area. To claim as much space as possible and maintain the exterior symmetry, Sayers and custom-cabinet maker Hakam Garbieh of Hakam Carpentry and Woodcrafting put false backs on some upper cabinets. Although shallow, these cabinets still provide valuable storage space.
Boyles wanted the oven to be the kitchen’s focal point. In planning the space, Sayers had eight inches hanging in the balance, so she added a glide-out spice organizer on either side of the oven. “In a small kitchen, a few inches can make or break how the client uses and enjoys the space,” Sayers says.
Boyles loves her streamlined, creamy-white kitchen. “Given what we had to work with,” says Boyles, “I can’t imagine getting any more out of this kitchen.”
Designer Details
As a designer for Nancy Thornett Associates Inc., Justin Cunningham has planned many kitchens. So when it came time to renovate his own, Cunningham knew exactly the look he wanted and proved that high-end features and high style are possible in small spaces.
Cunningham kept the existing footprint of his kitchen in a century-old Washington, DC, condominium building. The building’s age offered a few challenges. One was an awkwardly placed window. The tall window was only two feet off the ground, making it difficult to put a countertop and cabinets below it. Cunningham worked around the window by placing an angled, corner wall and smaller window in front of the existing one, allowing base cabinets to wrap around the two walls. To make the most of the corner space, he moved the sink under the window.
Two things Cunningham couldn’t move were the washer and dryer. To blend them into the space, he chose stackable appliances and concealed them behind custom cabinetry.
As a cook and entertainer, Cunningham outfitted the 100-square-foot kitchen with scaled-down, professional-grade appliances. For his second oven, Cunningham chose a speed-cooking GE Monogram Advantium, which converts to a microwave. “Narrower appliances and a dual-purpose oven all add up to saving space,” Cunningham says.
Custom alder wood cabinetry from Wm Ohs Inc. with a furniture-like finish helped with space planning, too. “There is no way you could achieve the level of fitting and finesse without custom cabinetry,” Cunningham says.
A pantry with glass-front doors adds Old World elegance. “The pantry dresses up the kitchen,” says Tracy Thornett McCann, president of Nancy Thornett Associates. “It looks like a hutch and gives this kitchen that classic feel.”
A Working Breakfast
Bethesda, MD, homeowners Brian and Caroline Smith wanted a breakfast area and workstation in their then 126-square-foot kitchen. They called Jennifer Gilmer Kitchen & Bath Ltd. to troubleshoot. President Jennifer Gilmer and Designer Amy Pasek carved out a niche for the desk by borrowing a few feet from a closet and removing part of a wall to open up the space. An L-shaped teak breakfast bar adjoins the desk on one end. The Smiths can now enjoy a casual meal and check e-mail from one location.
“You need to truly understand how you want to use the space,” says Caroline Smith. “Jennifer and Amy thought through all the details and came up with solutions that worked within our space. I got a true gourmet kitchen that I enjoy cooking and living in.”
To open up the space even more, Gilmer removed part of the wall next to the refrigerator and replaced it with a fully integrated, custom-built pantry set at an angle. “The angled pantry gave us more room for the bar stools,” Gilmer says. “It also created a softer entry or transition into the kitchen. By carving out these spaces, we only added 9 square feet to the kitchen, but it made a huge difference.”
Gilmer also removed a soffit and extended the cabinets up to the ceiling. She selected semi-custom maple cabinets with a Cameo White finish from Greenfield Cabinetry LLC and added flexible storage options, such as the open horizontal area above the Sub-Zero refrigerator for storing decorative trays and open deep shelves to the right for wine bottles and cookbooks.
“This kitchen reminds me of an old-fashioned butler’s pantry,” Gilmer says.
Double Oven Dilemma
When Bill and Marsha Uhr bought their Falls Church house, the kitchen had two stacked ovens, which Marsha really liked. But she also wanted to open up the 160-square-foot kitchen space, and the new layout couldn’t accommodate stacked ovens. Alison Martin, a designer for NVS Kitchen & Bath Inc., solved the problem by taking advantage of the under-utilized area beneath the kitchen’s bay window.
At the time, the space held a small, ill-fitting chest and waste basket. NVS raised the bay window, replacing the old one with a shorter window. Underneath, they installed Dura Supreme semi-custom triangular cabinets and a GE oven. The cabinets store small appliances and conceal a pullout bin for trash and recycling.
“The challenges with this kitchen,” says Martin, “were keeping the two ovens and providing as much storage space as possible. With triangular cabinets, this area is now usable space.”
At the other end of the kitchen, Martin raised the natural cherry wall cabinets to ceiling height for maximum storage. The base cabinets offer a variety of storage solutions – a pullout spice rack, a Lazy Susan with rotating shelves, and a half-moon swing-out shelf.
NVS removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room, integrating the two spaces. This created room for a two-level countertop, with the sink on the lower level and a serving area on top. “We entertain casually,” Marsha Uhr says. “I love that when I’m in the kitchen, I can see people in the dining room, and they can see me.”
To make the space even more inviting, NVS enlarged the entry leading from the foyer into the kitchen. Now friends and family can move easily through the open, welcoming spaces.
Great Things in Small Packages
A small kitchen may bring a few frustrations to the renovation process, but the finished project can have all the convenience and sophistication of a larger space. “You have to be incredibly creative to solve challenges in a small kitchen,” says Cindy Sayers of Creative Design Solutions, “but homeowners can get the kitchen of their dreams, no matter how small the space.”
