A well-furnished kitchen is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it can also make organizing and finding things easier. Kitchen furniture such as cabinets, kitchen islands, chairs, and tables are used during preparing food, for storing food items, utensils, and cookware. They are also important to consider when decorating a kitchen.

While a spacious kitchen may be perfect to fit in all the stylish kitchen design ideas you have in mind when it comes to kitchen furniture, at times you are left with a small kitchen to make use of.

However, a small countertop or space for only a few kitchen cabinets should not be enough reason to discourage you from adding some of those beautiful ideas you have in mind.

A small kitchen may seem tricky when it comes to furnishing, but it doesn’t matter what the size of the kitchen is. With some helpful tricks and tips,you can maximize the space you have to use in the small kitchen.

We’ve covered a couple of small kitchen design ideas in some other posts, but in this particular post, we are going to explore a few furniture ideas for a small kitchen.

How to furnish a small kitchen

Kitchen Island alternatives and ideas for small spaces

A kitchen island could be a very nice addition to a kitchen; it gives you an extra countertop space in the kitchen to work with when preparing meals, some Kitchen islands are also built with a base cabinet which could serve as extra space for storage of more kitchen items. The kitchen island could also be used for dining.

However, a kitchen island often takes up a lot of kitchen space, and considering that the floor space of your small kitchen might not be big enough to contain some Kitchen Islands, an averaged sized kitchen island may not be suitable for the small kitchen as it could impede kitchen traffic and make the kitchen appear a bit cramped up.

However, if you still want to go for a kitchen island, here are some alternatives to consider.

Make use of a smaller sized kitchen island;

There are a couple of smaller-sized kitchen islands that have been customized with small kitchens in mind, and depending on how small your kitchen is, you could go for a size that fits into your kitchen perfectly while leaving enough space for other things.

Use a Freestanding kitchen island

The kitchen island doesn’t have to be a stationary one in case you need some additional kitchen space and have to take out the kitchen island for a while, or perhaps if you change your mind about the kitchen island.

Use a kitchen cart

You could go for the option of a small kitchen cart that you could move from one point in the kitchen to another. This particular option allows you to roll this furniture to a clear corner when it is not in use or bring it closer when it is needed.

Positioning the kitchen island

Position the kitchen island in such a way that it doesn’t obstruct the flow of traffic within the kitchen, or in and out of the kitchen. If the kitchen doesn’t have enough room to position the kitchen island in the center of the room, consider positioning the kitchen island perpendicular to the walls or to the kitchen cabinets

Use Tables. 

They might not give you the extra cabinet spaces that the kitchen island may give you, but a small table can still do a great job creating an additional worktop for your meal preparations. They can be easy to move around, and the slender appearance of a table might just give the kitchen more room compared to the bulky appearance of some kitchen islands.

Kitchen Cabinet ideas and alternatives for small kitchen

Kitchen cabinets serve multiple purposes. They are especially useful for the storage of dishes, food, and other important appliances used in the kitchen. An organized kitchen cabinet would make activities in the kitchen easier; they make finding items for meal preparations and cleaning easier as everything you might need for use in the kitchen is often accessible in the kitchen cabinet.

 In a small kitchen, limited cabinet storage space might be a challenge. The few cabinets available might not be enough to store your kitchenware. Organizing them in an orderly and well-spaced fashion might also difficult. Here are a couple of storage ideas for cabinets that might be good for a small kitchen

Stacked cabinets

Need more cabinets but you do not enough floor space for them? Simply stack a few cabinets on top of each other.
For kitchens with a high ceiling or space between the cabinets and the ceiling, stacking kitchen cabinets can give you additional storage space. Although stacking cabinets to a particular height may give some difficulty in accessing kitchen items stored there, which may also limit their use to storing cookware or other items not used frequently. They might also make the kitchen appear a bit cramped up.

Use kitchen islands with cabinets.

If your kitchen can accommodate a kitchen island, you can incorporate cabinets into your kitchen island to give more space for storage.

Floor to ceiling cabinets.

You can use a tall cabinet extending to the ceiling, maximizing space for storage and to keep more kitchen items within reach and more organized.

Using the space above the cabinet. 

If you simply need more space for storage, and the cabinets are already filled up with other kitchen items, you can use the space above the kitchen cabinet for storage. You could also make use of organizers to store kitchen items like cookware in the space above the cabinets.

Use open Shelves for small kitchen

If you want a storage space like a cabinet while trying to make your small kitchen appear more spacious, using open shelves might be helpful to store items while giving the kitchen a spacious feeling. You can as well use shelves to store items that you would like to display or reach with ease. Shelves are cost-effective and you can also combine open shelves with cabinets.

Racks

Racks are slender and they help to save kitchen space as they can be mounted onto the wall. They provide a beautiful display of your kitchen items, clear clutter, and make those kitchen items easily accessible. You can have racks for specific items; dishes, cookware, utensils, wine, or even spices.

Chairs for small kitchen ideas

You may decide to squeeze in an eating area into your small kitchen, either by incorporating it into your kitchen island or perhaps leaving the kitchen island and going for a small table instead.

However, you might need a few chairs to add to this eating space. For a small kitchen, you would have to go for something portable or chairs that could be stacked to be able to create room for traffic when the eating area is not in use. You could choose to go chairs that slide under the table, or for those slender bar stools that could make the small kitchen look more spacious.