The U-shaped kitchen is one of the most popular work triangles (but often times, can leave little counter space because of it's small size). While the U-shaped kitchen saves steps, counter space is often minimal. So when we were in Sara Lov's kitchen last week, taking pictures for her house tour, she let us in on a little secret...
Initially, her fridge was positioned next to the countertop, leaving only two areas to spread out while cooking. Needing more space, Sara decided to move the fridge down a few feet and in it's place put a multipurpose prep table. The butcher block top is great for food prep while also being used for displaying mugs above and extra storage below. We love this simple idea for creating more space in the kitchen.
What are your tips for adding more countertop space for cooking?
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Comments (19)
what a wonderful solution to an all too common problem. wish i had the room to do that.
How funny - I did this in my first apartment back in 1985 using 5' long/24" deep restaurant-grade Metro shelves, a 6' long butcherblock counter cut to size - which left a space perfect for the garbage bag between the stove and the shelves...
We've used a large cutting board to cover 1 bowl of the sink when cooking. Easy, and works in any apartment w/ a 2 bowl sink.
bromelia --
I know what you mean - When I was a kid in Military Base Housing, my Mom would always move the refrigerator out of the space intended for it and put her convertible dishwasher there...
(Remember those? You'd hook the hoses up to the kitchen faucet before turning the machine on.)
...and in the narrow space between the fridge and the wall, she'd put her folding stepladder and ironing board.
Wow, that's a great idea! I never would have thought to do that. The little nook that she created is great and I'm sure it's nice to have that bit of extra counter space.
i live alone and bought a small top/bottom fridge/freezer and had it installed where the built in dishwasher had been. i didn't use it anyways, as most of my dishes are vintage of some variety or other.
i couldn't be happier with this solution.
Very clever and I love the owls!
I did this last year in our dorm room and put an ikea butcher block. My roomie thought I was a genius, too bad it took me a year to think of it ::whoops::
In Europe, small kitchens with little counter space are one reason why induction cook tops (and their technological predecessors) are so popular -- when not being used for cooking, they double as counter space.
As well, butcher blocks that fit into the top lip of your sink are very useful.
Good idea - though it's doubtful most have the space to do that.
It's! Its! It's like a crooked painting ...
Sorry, I feel better now.
This solution is a great idea, but the pictures from this article and the house tour don't show how the refrigerator relates to the dining space it was apparently pushed into. Is the glass display cabinet on the left side of the kitchen used to balance the bulk of the refrigerator on the right side?
I had a similar problem with the U-shaped kitchen in my first apartment. My solution was also to increase workspace by pushing the refrigerator 3 feet out into the 9'x12' dining area. Since the wall ended short of the refrigerator and I didn't want to see the coils and side of the unit, I bought a hinged screen to hide the back and side and visually extend the kitchen wall.
(sorry off topic) bromelia, whats the opposition to ironing about?
That unit is exactly what I've been looking for to put in my kitchen. Any idea on where to get something like that?
We were able to get more counter and drawer space by wedging a 10-in. wide freestanding Elfa drawer unit next to our stove, which is in a little corner by itself. The unit has a butcher block top, and mesh drawers for utensils, kitchen towels, onions, potatoes, etc. It's amazing how much storage we've gained from those 10 inches.
Then, to save space on the 10 inches of butcher block, we bought this lid/spoon rest, which is awesome: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002MR0B8
I love this adjustment to make the kitchen bigger. I definitely need one of those metro-shelving units for the tiniest corner of my kitchen.
Sara's kitchen looks like it was built in 1920's-30's Hollywood. It looks just mine!
I have a similar baker's rack from the container store. It was a necessity considering I only have less than a foot of real counter space.
I don't really get how this makes "more" space. If you have the space to move the fridge, you could have put the extra unit on the other side already. Now I get that having all the counter in a row without the fridge in the middle is better, but you have to already have the extra space to do this.
Two kitchens I recently saw spring to mind, in one the fridge was simply in the dinning room, its just made more sense in there, where there was much more room, so perhaps formal dinner parties fly out the window, but when one person is setting the table, the cheeses, yogurt, olives, and salad sort of naturally fall into their domain. The other kitchen had a small little balcony off the kitchen and the fridge made its home there. It was well covered, and an interesting use of space.