Have you ever noticed that cooking in a kitchen is more enjoyable when you can find items quickly and efficiently? Enjoying your kitchen can be easy in a large kitchen, but can often be a challenge in a smaller kitchen. Whether you are trying to find more space to prepare and cook food, or you don’t have enough storage, there are special challenges for small kitchen owners. Here are some ways to enjoy your small kitchen as if it were as grand as your dreams. Maximizing space is easier than you think!

• Declutter and purge: Before you get obsessed about how much space you don’t have, first determine how much usable space you do have. Go through each cabinet, drawer, shelf, and pantry area and pull out old items, throw away broken small appliances, and reduce your storage area to only used and needed items. Purging will help you start fresh in your organization and will help you maximize your kitchen space efficiently.

Photo credit: Kitchen Ideas For

• Assess your contents and invest in storage organizers: Small kitchens don’t always have the luxury of having a lot of real estate for organization. Therefore assess what utensils, dishware, glasses, dried and canned food goods and pantry items you have. Consider investing in stackable storage that will store items in a vertical fashion to save space. If possible, ask a kitchen organizer to assess your needs and custom build cabinetry organization tools inside your existing cabinets. From recycle and garbage bin pullouts, to hanging potholders and pegboards for your pantry wall. Take advantage of vertical wall space whenever possible.

Photo credit: Bloglines

Small kitchen living can be just as rewarding as large kitchens; in fact it may leave less to clean up after preparing your meal! Organization stores have sections dedicated to small kitchens. You will find plenty of ideas for decorating, maximizing undercounter space, and even magnetized knife displays to free up space on your countertop. Use these helpful tips to bring more functionality and enjoyment back to your small kitchen.

Photo credit top: New Kitchen Design

copyright Kit Latham

Gone are the Donna Reed-era days of happy housewives slaving over hot stoves all day in aprons and heels. After several decades of fast food overdrive, however, the movement to re-introduce healthy, home-cooked meals into our lives is in full swing, with local organic grocery delivery services popping up across the U.S. and popular cooking shows and blogs sweeping the nation by storm. Giving a nod to the bygone kitchens of yesteryear, we’ve rounded up some design inspirations for creating a retro-modern kitchen with all the technological advances to which we’ve grown accustomed, but still presented with the charm of the 1950s and early 60s.

British kitchen appliance maker Big Chill presents a candy-colored collection of retro 1950s-inspired stoves, available in eight different hues:

Smeg takes a similar approach to its homage to the TV dinner era with its line of vintage refrigerators:

Well before everyone was walking around with customized ventis from Starbucks, home-brewed coffee and espresso beverages were the norm; Ascaso harkens back to the sunny yellow kitchens of yesterday with its Dream Espresso line, available in a rainbow of retro colors, including this ray of sunshine in particular:

Of course, a retro kitchen couldn’t call itself such a thing without classic KitchenAid appliances to help whip up Betty Crocker recipes with Crisco shortening — two staples of the day — or even updated, heart-friendly, gluten-free recipes from more contemporary sources. Whatever’s on the menu, these irresistible mixers from KitchenAid’s Artisan collection are practically edible themselves:

Although much has changed since the days of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best, two things remain the same: a kitchen with kitsch is always adorable, and there’s nothing quite like a good home-cooked meal.

Photo credits: Appliancist, Retro Renovation, Smeg, Ascaso, Baby Loving Mama.

When you are cooking, do you prefer to be alone or to share in the experience with family and friends? If you love to entertain while in the kitchen or just enjoy being able to view adjacent living spaces, designing an entertaining kitchen is for you. The kitchen used to be a closed off room set aside from the other living spaces. Today, entertaining kitchens are perfect for busy families, enjoying the cooking experience with friends, and a more integral connection as the heart of the home. Here are tips to design your ideal entertaining kitchen.

• Your lifestyle and your kitchen: Everyone has a different lifestyle when it comes to everyday cooking and entertaining activities. Whether you enjoy having your large family come over on Sundays and everyone helps out in the kitchen, or you prefer to help your kids with homework at the kitchen bar, determine your lifestyle. Designing your kitchen with areas for people to sit in close proximity to the cook is ideal. In addition to seating, ensure pendant lighting, undercounter task lighting, and overall ambient lighting is placed around your kitchen for optimal safety and entertaining atmosphere.

Photo credit: Houzz

• Cooking with guests in mind: While ultimately you are cooking for yourself, having your guests involved in the experience is all the more enjoyable. When designing your kitchen, look for variable counter heights for kids and adults, to accommodate different activities and guests. Variable bar stool heights can accomplish the same effect. Ensure there is ample room for guests to eat, socialize and mingle if you have a party or gathering occurring while the kitchen is in use. The options are limitless!

Photo credit: Houzz

An entertaining kitchen is one of the most sought after amenities in today’s modern home. Even if you aren’t an entertainer by lifestyle, the ability to feel like you could is priceless. From seating and lighting to assessing your personal lifestyle, designing your ideal kitchen for engaging with friends can be a treat in itself. For those of you who don’t get much use from your kitchen, you will be surprised how many friends and family members will love to use your kitchen instead – once you use these helpful designer tips!

Photo credit top: Chic Coastal Living

One month into our new year’s resolutions — most of which are health-related — we’re getting a little hungry for some sinful and delicious culinary indulgence. So, instead of giving in entirely and diving headfirst into a New York cheesecake, we did the next best thing and made today’s roundup all about beautiful kitchens. Indulging our appetite for design is, after all, calorie-free.

First up is Belle Vivir. She doesn’t update her “kitchen of the week” section every week, but when she does, it’s grand, and today we’re taking a look back through her archives, including the stunning Scandinavian kitchen pictured above.

The Kitchen Designer gives us a sneak peek into the world of La Cornue’s Kitchen Magnifique — an aspiring chef’s wildest dream come true:

Over at Tile Envy, we’re given a rare glimpse into the home of abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler, and we can’t take our eyes off of this shot of contrasting textiles surrounding a delectable-looking piece of cake:

Elsewhere, Kitchens.com offers a great little feature that allows you to take an interactive role in choosing your ideal kitchen’s color palette based on the style you select…

You can channel your inner American Idol judge over at HGTV when you cruise through their “Rate My Space” section, which has more than 26,000 uploads to browse through.  It’s essentially an endless well of design do’s and don’ts…

…and FresHome delivers a roundup of no fewer than 30 kitchen islands to get our imaginations spinning.

Bon appetit!

Photo credits: Belle Vivir, The Kitchen Designer, and Tile Envy.

When most of us get in the kitchen, we can’t wait to use the latest gadget and tool to make our lives easier. Although, if your kitchen is small, you may feel that your choices for kitchen gadgets has to be reduced to a knife and a cutting board. Wouldn’t it be great if small kitchen owners could have one location where they could cook, clean, and prepare food without having to have a large kitchen?

The Cute Wee Kitchen by designers Adriano Conti, Corrado Galzio & Alex Innamorati may just solve your small kitchen dilemma. This creative invention offers the ability to clean vegetables and wash your dishes as well as several other handy features. The ingeniously small kitchen also houses a refrigerator, small pantry, oven, and two other cooking systems!

With a concept this functional, the ability for it to save energy, water and space is a step in the right direction for modern small kitchens everywhere. Whether you live in a cramped apartment, or you just enjoy cool, functional and innovative kitchen gadgets, the Cute Wee Kitchen is just for you! Who ever said ‘The best things come in small packages” may have been talking about the Cute Wee Kitchen.

Photo credit: Conti Design via Yanko Design

Accent pieces work great if they follow the theme that the appliances and furniture have. For instance, if your kitchen is completed with antique furnishings and appliances, then accent pieces should be of the vintage or antique variety and what about modern chic themes? Your accent pieces should follow suit as well.

In the age of modern design comes the vertical standing refrigerator from GRO design called the Bi-Axis Fridge. Designed for Samsung, this chic refrigerator compliments the modern theme for your kitchen where sleek and cleans rules. This fridge can be distorted from its customary vertical orientation to a horizontal sideboard, failing all conventional theories that say a refrigerator should be standing.

The design exudes sleekness, breaking boundaries for change in the kitchen setting and features a contemporary approach to kitchen furnishing. This fridge will definitely become the center piece of a kitchen.

The inspiration from GRO design comes for the increasingly blurred line between cooking and living areas in modern homes. The fridge’s retro feature complimented with the modern concept of a fridge transforms the whole idea of a traditional kitchen as soon as the traditional vertical position of the fridge is changed into a horizontal ’sideboard’, making it look like another piece of furniture rather than a large appliance.

The typical coils that you normally find in conventional fridges are no more there and are replaced with smooth flat surface with the interior surfaces having grooves that allow the shelves to be re-oriented according to the fridges position.

GRO is a multi-disciplinary strategic creative design agency that has been creating successful products for A-branded clients throughout the world, founded by three experienced British designers Roland Bird, Graham Hinde and Roger Swales for over 10 years.

Available colors include polymeric matte laminate, polymeric glossy laminate, wood, matte lacquer and wooden door with aluminium inlays. Choose from four luxurious worktops – stainless steel, laminate with wood front edge, solid Surface and quartz stone. Choosing accessories is where the design process becomes most creative, as one can configure all of the following – base and wall units, cupboards, drawers, lighting, fittings, complementary furnishing items and kitchen appliances.

Snaidero have two easy to use kitchen design software tools on their website, one for mapping out the floor plan, the other for adding the fittings and appliance. This the perfect tool for getting you started on your new kitchen plan, and encouraging one to be imaginative and independent in their own creative design.

The units can be adjusted to minimize the gap between the two, making the whole piece closed and more minimalistic. Embedded downlights are fixed to the upper unit, so the light shines downwards onto the work surfaces and sink. With the two units fixed together the whole piece just appears as a slimline red box on the wall.

Red kitchens are unusual and being such a bold color, red is quite difficult to incorporate into a kitchen design, as traditionally kitchens are more neutral and lighter colors, but because of its sleek and simple design, MOOVE 01 would work wonders in any space-saving modern kitchen style.

In recent years, design-conscious individuals hold style in the same regard as practicality with kitchen appliances and the Quadrio can boast this on the inside as well as out.  Not only does it have a wine rack holding up to six bottles but the ingenious and space saving can holder keeps up to four 330ml cans for handy dispensing. It’s clever storage options like this that not only help to keep the Quadrio organised but bring a sense of style to the way we can chill our foods.

Stepping away from traditional white finishes, the Hotpoint Quadrio is available in a range of contemporary colours from a seductive black design with the FF4DK, to a stainless steel look found on the FF4DX. As you would complement a white shirt with a black tie, a modern kitchen should be matched with chic appliances. It’s no surprise that the distinctive and practical Hotpoint Quadrio won ‘The Good Design Award’ in 2009. It’s on the good side of being different, and will ignite your kitchen with architectural magnificence.

According to the National Association of Homebuilders, many buyers consider the kitchen the most important room in the house. Dollar for dollar, the payback of remodeling your kitchen can come back to you in housing markets that have not seen significant drops in property values. In markets with depressed prices, a kitchen remodel can be the tipping point for bargain hunting buyers, because a new kitchen eliminates the hassle having to undertake the project themselves.

When watching a budget, do small things to create a fresh appearance in the kitchen. One of the best ways to save money with remodeling a kitchen is to plan the remodel so that none of the plumbing or wiring needs to be moved. Cosmetic changes, along with appliance upgrades, may be enough to give your kitchen a fresh look. New paint and an energy saving dishwasher or refrigerator go a long way toward enticing someone into sensing the value of a home. Almost anyone can apply a coat of paint, and the cost of installing new appliances may be included with the retail sales price. Combined with sales on appliances, rebates and tax breaks, it may make sense to consider updating older appliances to sell a home more quickly.

Installing new flooring, cabinets and countertops makes a significant difference in the appearance of the kitchen, but unless the homeowner has exceptional skills with tools and is capable of precision work, these projects are best left to professional installers. Any changes to wiring may need approval from the local zoning jurisdiction, something that a professional

Whether a kitchen remodeling project involves gutting the entire room or taking smaller steps toward improving its appearance or usability, it’s still the best room in the house to devote home improvement dollars, even with no plans to sell the home.

With a vast spacious twenty-six cubic feet capacity with Energy Star rating, Refrigerator 2 has a sleek titanium finish integrated with plastic enclosures, and all the high tech features you’d expect from high range modern fridge.

The beauty of the built-in LCD is not only being able to watch TV on it, but with access to the internet you can do your food shopping at your fridge as you check your goods inside.

Convenient and revolutionary, Refrigerator 2 represents the future of home refrigeration, a concept which embraces the internet and home living, making the kitchen a more user-friendly and stress-free experience.

Touch-up and clean the Façade

First impressions do matter and your home’s façade is the first thing your guest will see. There is no reason to pull out the paint brushes if you’re in a time crunch; focus on easier to finish tasks that can capture your guest’s attention. Clear cobwebs from beneath or where they have attached to brick walls. Leaves pouring over the edge of gutters are eye-catching in a negative way, so scoop all your gutters clean. Sweep your front steps and walkway free of debris.

Clean the Yard

If you found out about your unexpected guests a few days before their arrival, immediately mow the lawn. About three days after being mown, grass will be at its best state, looking healthy and lush, without being overgrown. The day that guests arrive, rake your yard and trim any overgrown branches from your bushes or trees. If you need to add color to the front of your house, buy a few potted plants and inexpensive planters. This is a great way to improve the look of your house without doing intense landscaping. Place the planters along your front steps or artfully around your door.

Clean the House

A thorough cleaning of your home is a necessity if you want to wow visitors. If it’s in your budget, hiring a cleaning agency is a smart idea. They can scrub your house, while you focus on other things that have to be done. If you would rather do the cleaning yourself, pay special attention to appliances. Shining faucets and stainless still finishes add light to a room and make things appear to be new.

Clear Out Clutter

Extra knickknacks or needless furniture make your house look cluttered. However, most people have them lying around and, typically, those knickknacks have meaning. There’s no need to toss them out or hide them – except for during this visit. If you have unnecessary furniture stuck into the corner of oft-used rooms, move it to the attic or a garage space while your guests are in town. If you never use it, then your guests certainly won’t either. The same goes for the odds and ends lying on shelves. Put them away until your visitors leave. Keeping clutter to a minimum opens up your space.

Utilize Light

Well-lit homes look larger and more welcoming than darker homes. Open all your window coverings before guests arrive. If they are coming at night, the light from inside your home will welcome them there. If it’s daytime, the daylight will brighten your house, giving it an appealing air.

Liz Childers writes about a number of topics, including knives and bird feeders.