Love the contest idea but I'm not sure what the 'small' cut-off is. For example, while lovely, the 3rd kitchens in rows 2 and 3 would qualify as pretty good sized in my books.

gigijade, it's 120 sq ft max.

The set up for viewing these on the contest site is wonky. It would be nice if they could be viewed as a slide show.

These are definitely small kitchens. Sure, some people have much smaller ones, but appliance doors take up enough space to where you need a lot of that empty space just to make sure a completely open dishwasher door doesn't hit a cabinet.

If you can fit an island in it, I don't know where you can get off calling your kitchen "small." Just sayin'.

I consider 120 sq ft a pretty good sized kitchen and I agree if you have an island in your kitchen (unless it's actually half in another room) your kitchen isn't small.

Re: the island. In some cases, the island forms a wall between the actual kitchen space and the adjoining room, so while you see that someone can fit an island, it doesn't mean the kitchen is huge.

And I think in this case, kitchen refers to the total workspace for food prep, not including breakfast nooks or table and chairs.

AMY_IN_STL - I think AT made 120 square feet the limit because most kitchen remodelers and planning companies base their pricing on a 10x10 kitchen, or 100 square feet. The 120 adds some wiggle room. I have a 100 square feet kitchen ...it's not at all a big kitchen. It's big enough to cook in, but not big enough to fit more than 2 people comfortably.

Hi guys! Here's our FAQ answer on the topic of the 120-sf cut-off:

I think 120 square feet is too big to be called a “small” kitchen! Where do I complain?
We want to allow for modern preferences for open kitchens, which often occupy a disproportionately large part of a home, even in small apartments. We also do not want to focus purely on the size of the kitchen, as the point of this event is to find inspiration and good ideas in all kitchens of relatively modest size. Any questions about contest rules should be directed to the email address below, and not posted in individual entry comment threads. Comments on the administrative rules of the contest will be deleted from contest posts.

I'm renting and I have a tiny kitchen myself. It's easy to say, "wow that's a great kitchen" or "ooh I would LOVE to cook in there!" which is why I had to look at all the pictures twice and then again. Although the "spacious" looking kitchens look to be the most pleasant to work in, I find that Olga's kitchen is most inviting and lived in despite the narrow galley style.

i LOVE Jamie's and Bryce's!!! :) :)

I CANNOT believe you are calling these small kitchens. Please come to NYC and see what we're working with. I can't even open the refrigerator and the stove at the same time!