Mini-Kitchen?

We bought our apartment last year while prices and interest rates were low, so we told ourselves it didn't matter that the kitchen was crowded and dark. It does matter!
Can you give us some guidelines on how to open it up some without spending a fortune in remodeling?



Small is beautiful when you use space-enhancing ingredients, such as glass tile, glass-fronted cabinets and strategic lighting.

I asked an expert. Kitchen designing calls for a specialist, a designer who also understands ingredients such as electrical and plumbing and load-bearing walls.

"My expert of choice is John Buscarello, a New York designer who discovered his niche in kitchens because he loves to cook and eat. It's a niche he fills often-many New Yorkers have kitchens they can barely squeeze into.
John also practices what he preaches: The warm galley kitchen we show here is his own. What started out as a scant 12-foot long and 7-foot wide gained some three extra feet of space when John knocked out the wall that separated it from the hallway (where the poster hangs). He also triaged the hall coat closet and pulled that space into the kitchen.

Wherever you find it, every square foot is precious, John believes. "A small closed-in kitchen feels claustrophobic. I often end up opening kitchens to adjoining rooms."

What if you can't actually renovate the space? "If you can't make it bigger, make it a jewel," the designer advises. Among his suggestions:

Forget white. "People think you have to paint small spaces white or light colors. That just equals bland! Add spice with color-real color-on the backsplash, on the ceiling. ... Say, a light blue or green. Or pink! I've put a fleshy pink tone of the ceiling of a kitchen that had pink cabinets. Make the ceiling color intensive enough to read."

Consider glass tiles for the backsplash. "Glass adds dimension. And it's easy to clean." (John's come from Artistic Tile, artistictile.com).
Use cabinets with glass-fronted doors. "To show off decorative dishes. Not such a good idea if you're storing cereal boxes." (John's maple cabinets are by Wood-Mode).

Light it lovely. Under-cabinet lighting strips (and outlet strips) are attractive and effective over work counters.

Floor show. In tight spaces, John favors large-format (12 x 24 inch) porcelain tiles. "Big tiles make the floor itself look bigger," he reports.