Tiny kitchen with a tiny budget.
60 square feet. The size of our galley kitchen in the small condo we purchased was a challenge made more difficult with the lack of funds. The usual reasons for renovating were already in play: outdated appliances, little storage capacity (with hardly any in the complex) and every room needing work because the space was never renovated.
At 660 Square feet, in its existing state the condominium was adequate for one person but not for a couple of people with lots of stuff.
We were stuck with the same footprint because the kitchen was efficiently positioned. Any ‘bump out’ along the pass-through area separating it from the dining area would interfere with the passage of the stairs to the living room and the entry way to the dining table. The removal of the corner of the kitchen would also take away from the existing small volume of shelving.
Our solution was to built up and down, literally.
Years ago while in Japan, I remembered being astonished at the storage efficiency of homes with the smallest square footage. A number of common themes were evident: use every amount of available space, scale the furniture, minimize visual clutter by blending within the expanse of walls , reduce the variety of paint colour in the overall condo palette and hide the storage.
As many people do, we did the work ourselves because we didn’t have much money left after we bought the place. I also didn’t have anything more than portable power tools. Forget about using a drill press or table saw. Any serious cutting of material would have to be done with my circular saw jig on a fold up table and slow-w-l-l-y. Our reality is we live on the 4th floor of a 4 story complex so tromping up the elevator several times everyday was not reasonable. It made more sense to move my worldly collection of tools into the dining room and haul them out outside onto the deck.
5 years later, we had replaced everything from the cabinets to appliances to the wiring.
I cut the mdf cabinets, raised them to the ceiling and squeezed a skinny pull-out between the fridge and wall for baking pans and big plate storage. I made drawers in the plinth area of the cabinets. I converted waste pieces of the countertop when cutting out for the sink and cooktop into countertop extensions with drawer slides. Finally, I tore out the pass-through wall and replaced it with a maple and glass cabinet.
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Cabinets built from floor to vaulted ceiling to overcome lack of storage. I made the decision to block the narrow horizontal window positioned at the ceiling lline with a thin mirror facing the outside. Condominium bylaws exist which prohibit any exterior alterations to the building envelope so the alternative to remove the window is not possible.
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Many plinths have at least 4" of height which is adequate clearance to install a drawer, Using drawer slides and a false front for the plinth face, I managed to built a couple of drawers to store pans. The sides measure 2.25" on the inside. To further mask the drawers, the low profile pulls were made out of the same maple material and screwed at the highest position on the fronts. This also prevented someone from inadvertently kicking the pulls. I left the middle plinth removeable and without a drawer to access the plumbing in case of water leaks.
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The view from the dining room. The pass through was knocked out, wall removed and replaced with tempered, frosted glass on both sides. The bottom support is a simple frame structure welded from angle iron my father scrounged from the junk yards. Stock, pre-made moulding was expensive so I ripped flat stock I found second hand.
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The problem with accessing items from high cabinets is having to consider the items one uses on a daily or regular basis. You'll notice the flatware, bowls and cups are all on the lowest level. Special pieces were placed on the upper levels and purely decorative ones were near the top (like the carved cedar native boat).
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The kitchen in its original state.
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Thanks for your valuable effort
Very handsome kitchen.