Good Things Come in Small Packages     

Rachel:

I know that Brooklyn kitchens are notoriously small, but the kitchen in our new house was really tiny. I love to cook and experiment in the kitchen, and I constantly host. After so many years of saving up to buy a house, I wanted to be able to enjoy a comfortable-sized kitchen.

Esti:

Small spaces are challenging, but they make designing a good layout even more satisfying. We actually got lucky with this kitchen because behind it, there was another small room that we were able to incorporate. A huge extra bonus of integrating that room was its east-facing window, which has the sun streaming in every morning.

Quality Counts

While Esti wasn’t involved in choosing the actual cabinets, she did highly recommend investing in quality cabinets. Between having kids and constantly cooking and baking, we needed my kitchen to hold up to our lifestyle. I’m glad we did! Five hectic years later, our cabinets are still in perfect condition.

Last-Minute Change

We were going to leave the original window in, but when we saw how small it ended up being, we made the upper corner cabinets on both sides a bit smaller and widened the window. It’s one of the best things we did.

What I’d Advise Someone Else

Don’t settle on the plans until you have most of your wish list met. We spend so much time in the kitchen, and we each know our own individual needs.

Exceeded Your Expectations

We have ten-foot ceilings and chose to do the upper cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. It’s great extra storage for things I use very infrequently and for extra stock of pantry items that I purchase in bulk or on sale.