Are you so frustrated with your small kitchen that you’re considering demolishing it all to start your remodel from the ground up?

Unfortunately, not everyone has the budget or the space for that chef-worthy kitchen of their dreams. If that’s your reality, don’t despair! There’s so much you can do with a small kitchen footprint.

Here are some phenomenal small kitchen remodel ideas to get your creativity flowing:

7 Tips for Your Small Kitchen Remodel

When it comes to small kitchen design, a great way to make your space feel bigger is to utilize optical illusions. Here are some ideas that fit with just about any budget and kitchen space.

 

1. Incorporate Creative Painting Strategies

An easy and affordable solution to small kitchen remodel is paint. You can use paint to add drama, coziness, and even the illusion of more space to a room.

Some ways to use paint to make your small kitchen look bigger include:

• Stick with light, neutral colors
• Pain dark cabinets a lighter color, or keep bottom cabinets dark and painting upper cabinets a lighter color (creating the illusion of height)
• Add pops of color behind open shelving or a bold accent wall
• Keep your ceiling white
• Avoiding matte paint (satin or eggshell paint allows light to bounce off of surfaces, making the space feel bigger)

 

2. Replace Cabinet Doors with Glass and/or Add Open Shelving

Adding glass doors to cabinets and/or replacing cabinets with open shelving can make it seem like you have more space. Of course, for this trick to work, you need to keep your shelves free of clutter that may make your space look messy as well as small.

Some ways to make glass cabinet doors or open shelving work in your space:

• Stick with a color palette (put all white or all red dishes on display, while storing mismatched dishes away somewhere else)
• Balance smaller and larger items
• Keep things functional by keeping items you use daily close at hand and putting those you use less often on the higher, out-of-reach shelves

 

3. Try Geometric Patterns

Geometric patterns are becoming a major trend for small kitchens. It’s not only a fun element to incorporate, but it adds texture, depth and can trick the eye, making your kitchen look bigger than it really is.

You can add geometric shapes using tile, wallpaper, or kitchen accessories, like a floor runner.

Beware of adding too many geometric patterns, though. The more you add, the more chaotic your kitchen will look.

 

4. Connect Your Kitchen to the Great Outdoors

Do you have a nice outdoor space outside your kitchen walls? Add some French doors – they’re definitely worth the investment. They will bring in a lot of light into your kitchen and extend the sightline out of doors, making your space look bigger.

 

5. Add Some Accent Lights

Our eyes are drawn to shadows, and they can make a small space feel cramped. Adding accent lights, particularly to shelving or underneath cabinets, removes shadows, effectively opening the space and making it look bigger while increasing the functionality of your kitchen at the same time.

 

6. Streamline Your Storage Space

Aside from looking and feeling cramped, a small kitchen has another problem – lack of storage.

Something we recommend doing regularly is taking inventory and spending time decluttering. Take inspiration from Marie Kondo and go through your belongings and keep only what you need and use. (Do you really need 10 spatulas and two food processors?)

Once you’ve decluttered, you can make good use of the space you have by investing in appropriate organizational elements such as a corner cabinet. Hide your coffee pot and toaster while making them easily accessible.

7. Widen the Space with Horizontal Stripes

We all know that wearing wide, horizontal stripes can make us look bigger than we’d like. Similarly, adding horizontal stripes to your kitchen can make it seem wider. You can add these stripes with wallpaper, tile, flooring or rugs.

 

Hire a Contractor

You might think you can save money by doing a small kitchen remodel on your own. In some cases, this can be true. It can however end up costing you more in the long run.

Hiring a contractor can be a lifesaver when issues arise, particularly structural, electrical or plumbing problems. It’s very rare that a remodel is as simple as just painting and tiling, especially in older homes.

A licensed contractor will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration. They’ll make sure the work is done right, providing peace of mind that your kitchen remodel is going to stay in good working order for years to come.

Just because you have a tight budget and a small space doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful kitchen. With our small kitchen remodel ideas, we can help you create a space you’ll love, one that will truly be the heart of your home.