If you’ve been following the news in Philadelphia, you probably know that the mayor has proposed a tax on sweet sodas and sugary drinks. Just like in New York City a few years ago, when the Board of Health tried to ban large sodas and large portions of popcorn, he and his minions are convinced this will spell the end of obesity. I’m all for ending corpulence, but does anyone think this will actually work? Will a few extra pennies (yes, we still use them) keep the public away from your candy? The Associated Press says this legislation has failed in more than thirty cities and states so far, so what’s the problem? The only reason I go to the movies is to eat popcorn loaded with the wonderfully disgusting artificial butter-like substance and then wash it down with a sweet drink.
If the authorities are allowed to tax sweets, what’s next in your bag of tricks to reduce the girth of the size-impaired? I can only imagine that the appropriate committee will decide that large refrigerators should be illegal because they can be used to store large amounts of sugary drinks. Next, logically, the use of large pantry cabinets would be prohibited, because you could fit large boxes of sugary cereal in them. Clearly large kitchens themselves would be on the agenda, because if you only have a small kitchen it would encourage people to be smaller so they have more room to move.
Of course, all this is nonsense. People should be allowed to buy food in the quantities they want, and certainly should be allowed to have kitchens of any size, without being subject to additional taxes. However, if you don’t have a large kitchen, you can make your little one look and feel bigger by following a couple of design tricks. And the government will never know!
If you are working with a small space, the first impulse is to use wall cabinets that extend to the ceiling. While this will add an extra shelf in each cabinet, it will also close in on the room, making it appear smaller. If you have 96″ ceilings, stick with standard 30″ or 36″ high wall cabinets, but ask for an extra shelf for each. In most kitchens, cabinets are underutilized due to lack of Shelves Shelf in a standard height cabinet can increase your usable capacity by about 20% and by leaving some open space at the top of the cabinets it looks more “airy” You can store some decorative cookware in there.
Consider adding open shelves between some of the wall cabinets. While this won’t actually increase your storage capacity, this technique will help make the kitchen look bigger.
Keep all cabinets level with each other instead of moving them up and down. By keeping the cabinets level, including open shelving and leaving the soffit open, you draw attention horizontally rather than vertically, making the space appear larger.
The best way to maximize storage space in any size kitchen is with accessories like lazy-Susans, pull-out trays, and tilt-up drawers. Corners are almost impossible to avoid in some kitchen designs and if you have a corner, the best way to deal with it is to install lazy-Susans in the corner cabinets. Although they are not 100% efficient, (you lose some space on the sides), it makes everything much easier to reach. And you can also add an extra shelf to a Lazy-Susan or adjust the bottom shelf up several inches to allow you to use the base of the cabinet as an extra shelf. Avoid cabinets with blind corners at all costs! Those are those hideous cabinets, that stack in the corners to fill up the space. If there’s no way to avoid having a blind corner base unit, insist on half-moon shelves, which make the space more accessible.
Pull-out trays allow you to pull out all the items in a base cabinet so they are easily accessible without having to search the back for something you misplaced several years ago. It’s also much easier on your back because you don’t have to bend over as much to retrieve pots and pans.
If you currently have a small kitchen, or if the government regulates that you can’t afford a large one, by manipulating a few design elements and maximizing internal space, your small kitchen can feel and act much larger than you ever thought possible. And you can hide the Frosted Flakes in your bedroom.
