Content creator Lucy Kalice is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on cleaning, home decor and making the most of small spaces. See the rest of her articles here.
Last year my fiancé and I made the brave decision to renovate our house (I say brave because, wow, renovations are stressful!) We were in an unusual position where our house had subsidence so major work was being done on the house to fix the issues.
We decided that whilst this work was going on, we may as well use this opportunity to renovate and give the house a little makeover. We did the floors, we did the bathroom, but the one room I was most excited to renovate was the kitchen – the heart of the house.
The style and colour of the kitchen wasn’t to my taste, it was very white and very clinical. There was nothing warm or welcoming about it. But surprisingly that wasn’t the main problem. The main problem was that there wasn’t enough storage or space. The island was unnecessarily huge but without any storage in it.
We had a huge L-shaped corner cupboard but you couldn’t use half of it because you couldn’t reach in it. And in the cupboards we did have, there were barely any shelves so everything was dangerously stacked on top of each other waiting to fall-like a game of Jenga!
Oh and I’ve just remembered the worst part. We had our tumble dryer plugged in next to our kitchen table and it was such an eyesore…who wants to eat dinner sat next to a tumble dryer?! Not me!
So when we renovated the kitchen I made sure every nook and cranny was accounted for. Ever since, my day to day life has never been easier, I no longer pull a muscle trying to get a tin of tomatoes from the back of a cupboard and it is life changing. So here’s what we did...
1. We turned as many cupboards we could into drawers
Drawers will absolutely change your life – bold statement, I know but hear me out…being able to pull out drawers means you have full visibility of every item, unlike when you have a cupboard and you can’t even see what’s in the back. You can utilise every bit of space in a drawer and you have easy access to items.
2. We integrated all our appliances
That tumble dryer I was talking about earlier? Now has its own perfect home under the kitchen counter and a cupboard door in front of it so you wouldn’t even know it was there.
The same goes for our dishwasher and washing machine. These are integrated in our kitchen island with cupboard doors…the kitchen is seamless and now a work of art (if I do say so myself!)
3. We swapped a freestanding bin for an integrated one
Freestanding bins can get in the way, so we put in a drawer bin so it has a permanent space. It doesn’t get in the way and it looks neat and tidy.
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4. The L-shaped corner cupboard is now a two-tier Lazy Susan
This might be my favourite feature of the kitchen and a great hack for utilising space. The shelves spin 360º so you can get to each and every item in the cupboard with ease.
5. We put in small internal drawers to utilise space
Before you ask, yes I am obsessed with drawers…is it obvious? But seriously something to consider is are you wasting space at the top of a drawer.
We had two drawers which we felt this was true so we added in shallow internal drawers and they are perfect. One we have our chopping boards and baking trays in and the other we have bin bags. Such a small addition that creates huge space maximising opportunities.
So there we have it, the kitchen space hacks that have changed my life. Which ones would you choose?
