We had already owned this house as a rental for more than a year before we moved in, so being the serial renovators we are, we had pretty clear ideas about what we were going to do to the place to make it our own. First on the list was the kitchen, and we already had the plans drawn up and a deposit paid by the time we came to move in. Which was just as well, because the first time we used the dishwasher it leaked, damaging the old cabinetry beyond repair!

Due to space and budget constraints, we decided to keep within the footprint of the original kitchen, and kept the basic layout the same. With a total floor area of just under 7 square metres to work with, we had to pack a lot in a small space to make it a functional and good looking kitchen! Here are some of my favourite things we’ve done which make our small kitchen work.

Use dead cabinet space

Call me weird, but my absolute favourite thing in the house is this corner carousel storage unit. I get a childlike sense of glee every time I spin its smooth mechanism round, and marvel at its Tardis-like ability to store all my pots and pans in such a seemingly tiny space. We couldn’t fit a full sized cupboard or drawers in this space, so this was the ideal solution which uses otherwise dead corner space.

Under bench pantry

The old kitchen had an enormous corner pantry which was great for storage but ate into valuable bench space. With nowhere else to fit a full size pantry unit, our kitchen designer suggested an under bench pantry with sliding storage behind cabinet doors. It’s amazing how much food we can fit in these drawers! (Although clearly I’m not very good at keeping things organised in an orderly fashion)

Built-in bins

This built-in bin fits snugly under the sink, and pulls out to reveal two decent sized bins for sorting rubbish and recycling (again, please ignore my poorly organised cleaning products!)

Hanging utensil storage

These hanging rails  not only look great against the white tiles, they keep regularly used utensils handy when cooking.

Open shelving in unexpected places

I wasn’t at all convinced when my partner Cory suggested we should hang a shelf from the ceiling in front of the kitchen window. I mean, how crazy does that sound?! But we found the perfect industrial looking shelf that we had envisaged, and now it’s one of my favourite things in the kitchen. I use it to display plants and other decorative bits and pieces, but it could be equally functional to hold regularly used plates and glassware etc.

Banish the microwave

You might have noticed that our kitchen is missing something – a microwave. If like me, you hardly ever use one, it doesn’t make sense to have a microwave taking up valuable bench space in a small kitchen. I didn’t want to get rid of ours altogether, so it lives in the garage now! I know that might seem a bit odd, but our garage is only a few steps away from the kitchen so it makes sense for us.

So there are my 6 best ideas for a small kitchen. What have you done to make a compact kitchen work for you?