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Think of a galley-style (also known as a corridor-style) kitchen. There’s not a ton of space there, but you can find ways to make it work. Treat meal prep like an assembly line. Designate one area for food prep, then you’ll have your spot for stovetop cooking, and you can turn a shelf top or long windowsill into a breakfast bar as your zone for eating quick meals.
If space is at a real premium in the kitchen, get creative with your shelving options. Adding floating shelves over an oven will keep things within reach. Your contractor can help you make the right call here — your shelving material shouldn’t interfere with the hood fan. If your cupboards are overflowing, you could set up a pantry area just outside the kitchen for extra shelving and storage, without sacrificing space.
Look up, way up
A cabinet you can’t safely reach is a useless cabinet. Be honest: Do you make any use of the cabinets that sit above your fridge? I certainly don’t.
We want to be mindful of the way we use our storage, especially in smaller kitchens so that no space goes to waste. Upper and corner cabinets can be awkward to navigate, but a few small design tweaks can make them 10 times more usable.
For upper cabinetry, I’m a huge fan of shelving with hydraulic systems included. These allow the shelves within the cabinetry to easily move up and down as needed, and make grabbing easy.
In corner cabinets, the Lazy Susan can let you access everything in the unit equally, but it doesn’t let you stuff that cabinet to the brim.