Expanding Your Kitchen Without Expanding Your Home

Holidays make it tough to do any kind of kitchen remodelling with people coming in and out all season, perhaps family members are coming from out of town to stay over, or maybe you’re the one going away. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start planning now so that you're all set as soon as the holidays pass. Here are some of our best ideas to expand your kitchen within your current house floor plan.

Adding or improving your current kitchen storage is one small way to make your kitchen feel larger. Longer cabinets can make a space feel longer and will add more storage options to free up other areas of your kitchen. You could make use of your vertical space and expand your wall cabinets, pantry cabinets or pullout shelves all the way up to the ceiling. Using a step stool is a small sacrifice for all the added storage benefit and for freeing up floor space. Hanging wall shelves is another way to increase your storage, and if you prefer a more 'open' look, then consider adding shelves instead of cabinets in one area for a more spacious and economical solution. 

Glass and windows are a nice way to create the illusion of more space in your kitchen without affecting other areas. Windows can often compromise your immediate functional space, so vaulting the ceiling and moving the windows higher up allows you to use the more immediate space more practically for storage without compromising on sunlight. A vaulted ceiling can be painted a lighter colour and a skylight can be added instead of normal windows as well to visually expand the space and create natural light.

A more dramatic solution would be to open the floor plan. Creating an opening in part of your wall or partition creates a number. It can simply serve to connect the kitchen area to another part of the house, it can be used as extra counter space, or it can provide an eating area if transformed into a breakfast bar. With the breakfast bar option, any previous eating area you had can be transformed into further kitchen space. Another option is to remove a divide or an entire wall all together for an open floor plan. This allows you to expand the kitchen, create a dining area or build in that kitchen island you’ve always wanted. If you already have an island and want a more open space, consider removing the island and or have an island on wheels that can be moved to create more space when needed.

Our experts at Arc Designs can help you start planning for your dream kitchen now so that you can get started as soon as the holiday madness is over. For more information on what options you have with your kitchen space, visit us at www.arcdesignservices.net or call 0161 928 4433.


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Altrincham, Cheshire, WA15 9AD
United Kingdom