Would like to see more ideas for small kitchens. Ours is an alley style kitchen and also home to our washer and dryer. No place to relocate to without adding on to house.

I love this renovation! It's great to see someone go to such great lengths to maintain the original style of the house - and I would LOVE that stove! So much harder to find pieces like that in Aus...

I would also love to see more small kitchens. Mine is only 100 sq. ft.

So cute and classic. This design will never go out of style. I love that they have a vintage stove

I had to reread the article several times just to believe that it was an architect who was acknowledging the reality that most of us live in homes with small kitchens, and is okay with that. Sometimes, it's not about the square feet, either. In my case, it's more like the square inches--my current counter space! While I like living my small life in a small house, I'd like to see more features like this that demonstrate how to gain efficiency with style.

I wish I'd seen this kitchen before writing about white appliances; that oven is TDF! Glad to see another elegant, functional kitchen that isn't bigger than my entire first floor.

Becky, can you post a link to your article on white appliances....

Lovely kitchen, thank you Becky! Add me to the list of people with small kitchens looking for good ideas. I honestly prefer my small kitchen. It's much more efficient for cooking and cleaning, and it's completely sufficient for a 2 bedroom house. I have to focus on what I need and not store things that don't get used.

Love, love, love! I enjoyed seeing how small kitchens can make bold statements. Like the kitchen profiled, mine is small with 4 exit/entry doors. It really limits access.

I am happy to see a kitchen redo which doesn't have me wailing " I like the before pictures"!!

I love this kitchen and would like to see more articles about smaller kitchens and smaller homes -- the ones most of us live in.

Great Article Van. It's refreshing to see someone make every attempt to restore a properties classic look. I wish I could have seen the outside of their home. It would be nice to have a thumbnail of the outside somewhere. Where can we find the article by beck Harris on white appliances.

would appreciate more small kitchen displays

I don't "get it" about large kitchens either...small says it all. franki

This little kitchen is packed with charm! I adore it.

so much character in windows + stove/oven - love it!!

Where's the "before"? Would have loved to see it!

Love this. Our 1920's kitchen has a similar look and layout, though actually smaller. We re-did it 23 years ago, but I'd love to put in marble countertops now. Great details - especially like the brackets and the stove.

So lovely! Agree that I want to see more small kitchen ideas. So tired of McMansion kitchens, only.

In my garage I have my Mama's 1950 Wedgewood stove that is fabulous. My daughter is going to put it in her kitchen and love it for what it is a gift from her Nannie. Why do people think big is better? Kitchens need to be functional and practical. All my family have agreed laminate is the way to go since you can replace it easily. I grew up with tile counter tops, no thank you. I want something easy to care for in my small kitchen (by today's standard).

Yeah, small kitchens - this one is wonderful.

Yes so great when magazines start dealing with most of the population realities..small homes with owners who dont have thousands of dollars! Would love to see more small budget friendly renovations.

I loooove that type of range/oven which makes the whole kitchen. I have my mother's 1950 Tappan Doughboy with amber glass rings around the knobs and am heartsick that I can't use it due to my cupboard layout. Since people are interested in this style of retro kitchens lately, maybe I should finally sell it instead of storing it. What's your opinion?

Thank you for keeping the beauty of the small kitchen and not knocking down walls. Awesome job.

I also would like to see more ideas for small kitchens. Like fran_e my kitchen is alley style with the washer and dryer. Would like to see how others have solved this problem.

Here here! More small kitchen ideas please, many thanks.

love this kitchen! we have a 1910 beauty (only all the beauty has been stripped away by previous owners!) it is small and has too many doorways and not enough counter space. we are in need of some revamping, and this was a great example of what i'm looking for!

I've always found small kitchens--as long as they have ample countertops-- more efficient and easier to maneuver than large cavernous spaces where you're always running from one end to the other. Interesting that these old Okeefe & Merrit stoves are showing up everywhere--my mom had one almost identical to this. Hers never worked that well when it was new, can't imagine that they're practical now. But they look great! Also, I can't imagine relocating two sets of stairs for a kitchen. I would have probably simply moved the kitchen to an adjoining room and started over, then repurposed the old kitchen for a guest or utility room.

nicely done!

Great looking kitchen design. I wonder how long the family will be able to keep the shelves looking organized with the open style doors and shelves?

What a great job you did with the vintage kitchen!! Proud to see that some people still care about our history! (too bad my contractor didn't listen to me...when doing the work on my Mom's house!!)

That marble is so hot. Love it. Totally defines the tone of the room.
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A lovely kitchen. I especially love the vintage stove! The open kitchen shelves and cabinets with glass doors really make the room look and feel more spacious.

We have a large 1865 kitchen with little to no wall space. I have 6 doorways and 3 windows that leaves us with no space. I tried everything. I tried to figure out an island but its in the way of the refrig. and the main passageway. I wish I knew what to do for more counter and cupboard space. Also, not many outlets and can't get an electrian to put any in b/c they don't like the lath and plaster, So, you can have the square feet and still not be very functional. It has been in the family for 50 years and my mother had every Holiday dinner and then some. I still don't know how she did it but she made it work. As long as I am still able to get dinner on the table, and I guess that is what it is all about.

Tastefully done! But is this really a pocket-sized kitchen? Looks pretty big to us.
Most our condo kitchen projects are 64sf-100sf. All are considered pretty small, especially when trying to design them more efficiently than the original builder did in the 80's.
Our last kitchen was a 6'x8' footprint, that's right only 48sf, with a concrete wall on one side and a small bathroom on the other. No room to steal from adjacent areas. The design process and sourcing the right appliances took almost as long as the actual construction! But, it came out beautiful and functional and the client LOVES IT!

If you can believe this mine is even smaller and I'm a Kitchen Designer of all things!

I like articles like this that deal with real world budget and space constraints. It's very easy to design a gorgeous kitchen with an unlimited budget-that's a no brainier!

The little things that keep with the style of the home really make the kitchen.. Would love to see the before pictures. Wanting to re-do our 20's kitchen in Berkeley and still remain true to the period.

What an adorable kitchen!! Is it me though, or does the mantle over the oven look like it is not level? Leaning down towards the left? Everything else, countertops, etc look to be okay.

I think the hood looks like someone stacked a mantle on top of the stove. Weird looking.

Kudos to Kelly. I am in love with your stove. Where did you find it????

Yes, I am in love with the stove too, but I don't see anywhere here what it is...

This is the nicest small kitchen I have ever seen.

Love this kitchen. Kudos to all involved.

I love the door on the cabinets removed it makes it lookalike there is more space

What is in the other side of the refrigerator? Which they had a picture...

Where is the microwave? Love this kitchen. Wish you could find more small scale kitchen and home illustrations instead of the large scale. Gone to many sites, click on small and you get large, not huge but certainly not small and practical. I tend to believe that the majority do not have large kitchens but evidently online sites do. Also over the years, I have learned that the more extra space and storage you have, the more you clutter. When we downsized, I did not realize what a pack rat I had become because I had the large to huge rooms with huge closets and storage space. Give me the smaller more practical any day but also give us ideas.

iPads ! Correcting first statement. What is on the other side of the refrigerator? Wish they had a picture.

Can you supply the contact details for the cabinet maker? Thank you

LOVE that stove!

LOVE THAT IT GOES WITH THE ERA OF THE HOUSE

How do you get the vintage stove to sit flush with the counters to ensure no crumbs escape inbetween the stove and counters?

Colors cab counters

Wall mounted tap

Sink area is simply superb!

I love that you kept with the original character of the home, and that you reused the cabinetry. I hate talking with contractors that say just tear it out, cheaper to replace! quality is lost in a lot of cases. Very nicely done!

So Nice!

Beautiful project. This creates a space that would make me feel that I could never sell the house.

Robert and Ronna, what a lovely kitchen. We bought a 1932 home that we plan to remodel and your story has inspired me. My question is with white cabinets I worry about maintenance and paint chipping. Any recommendations as far as paint, materials, etc. We have white cabinets now from the same period and find that over time it's difficult to keep from not chipping along edges. Thanks

What a charming kitchen! I'm glad you were brave enough to be different than everyone else. And that stove . . . wow!

Really lovely kitchen with great detail and personality -- I even love the tin can lid floor patch! The wall of light with the windows and door is perfect (you obviously live in a safer neighborhood than I do!!) And the butler's pantry is a beautiful addition, pulling it all together. Well done!

Yes, the reality of most people's homes is reflected in this article. Smaller, humble. My own kitchen is 154 square feet and despite grumbling about it when remodeling it has turned out to be the best kitchen I have ever had. I would love to see more of this sort of story and fewer of the massive expensive redos.

Charming and functional. The stove is the centerpiece. We (many of us, including me) have too much stuff in our kitchens. This kitchen looks just right. I must $ay I wa$ $tunned at the amount of alteration$ required el$ewhere in the hou$e to create this kitchen. I would be interested to know the total cost of the other alterations.

Love this kitchen. Very well done in keeping with the period of the home. I prefer a smaller older home with character than some of the big ones you see these days who lack warmth. Love the butlers pantry area. Job well done.

Nice job melding vintage style with modern needs. Love the old stove - it makes the room! Thanks for sharing.

THIS is the way to renovate a kitchen in an old house! I love how they kept the charm of the breakfast area by not "blowing out" the wall. Brilliant renovation!

Another old article. This time more than 4 years old. Is Houzz getting lazy or running out of new material?

This is an update on an old story with video. It seems that Houzz is exploring video to show and explain in more detail. The link to the video is at the top and bottom of the article.
Rob

Best kitchen remodel I've seen in 20 years! I love love love it! Beautiful, warm, inviting, functional! I'm so tired of the "kitchen as big as a gymnasium" look and the "kitchen in the living room" look. Kudos!

Very nice, yet I'm not so sure about the microwave in the cabinet - seems unsafe

magnificent!

It's about time someone finally said that we all don't have enormous kitchens. Looks wonderful!

Stunning! Not everything has to be big to be tasteful. I love my small kitchen!

They honored their vintage home with the thoughtful kitchen it deserves. Updating with a modern, glitzy kitchen would have been like putting hot pants on grandma. Wouldn't be right!

I love it! It's beautiful, practical and "big enough."

Finally!! A real budget remodel for real people!!

I love it! I love the can top in the floor, the butler's pantry, the smallness of it all, you didn't ruin the charm of that beautiful adorable home, the colors, the oven, the dog in the middle of the floor....just everything! You are awesome!

Great job Kelly family!

Ok now HOUZZ let's see some more REAL STORIES ABOUT HOW REAL PEOPLE DO IT!!!

Really beautiful update. For those who have not seen the video, it is worth watching. There is more detail about the project in it.

I love this kitchen! Simple clean lines. I too I'm tired of seeing kitchens (and all rooms for that matter) from multi-million dollar homes. It's not helpful for the vast majority of us.

Love this kitchen! What did they do with the utility/laundry room? Did the washer and dryer go to a basement, or something along those lines? Or perhaps they purchased stacked ones?

I love it! What a pleasure to watch this story! Great job all around.

I love the white appliances. I use them and hope to see them more and more - stainless is not for old homes (in general), its expensive, and gets fingerprints. I also love that the eating area is not in the kitchen - this leads to families sitting down and talking!

I love how they make everything they did sound revolutionary. (Narrow cabinets next to the oven? That's crazy talk! Glass doors on the upper part of a cabinet and drawers underneath? Now I know you're pulling my leg!) And I laughed out loud when she said they'd used a color consultant for that totally colorless kitchen. It's a perfectly fine, functional kitchen, but there is absolutely zero about it that's unique.

Koodos. This kitchen remodel was perfect! Perfect for this house, perfect in form and function. It's not a mc mansion mega kitchen, it matches this house beautifully.

Sweet kitchen! I grew up in a home where the kitchen was a nuisance in terms of flow - it was large enough overall but there were 4 openings including the back door and we never managed to find an optimal layout to get more counter space and more storage. I love how you solved the circulation problem in your kitchen and your other decisions were very smart - keeping the separate breakfast room but adding the tall cabinet on the common wall, choosing a wall-mounted faucet (to avoid water stains on the marble counter), hiding the modern range hood and microwave behind cabinetry. You did a great job! Thank you for sharing!

It's great to see someone utilizing a space without worrying about tearing down walls for open concept-kudos to this couple.

The genus is in what they did NOT do - leaving the breakfast room and the arches to keep the home's charm and not over-modernizing. The butter's pantry was the icing on the cake - what a jewel box!

Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

Amazing! I am looking at downsizing in Annapolis, MD - from a newer house to an older fixer upper - and this was a great way for me to start thinking about how to keep the integrity of the house while updating for modern conveniences! Lovely story!

SWEET!

Did anything change in the dining room? Curious how it went from being referred to as a dining room to a "breakfast nook" off the kitchen?

Beautiful kitchen! Can you tell us what the color of the kitchen wall paint is?

I absolutely LOVE this respectful reno! (I would have covered the fridge with custom cabinet door so the fridge blends in and your eye doesn't stop on the fridge.) I love that this family respected the character and architecture of this home. The details and smart design make it special! And, I am in love with the hallway! We live in a 1940 stone Cape Cod and we have arch doorways and we kept our separate breakfast nook! Congratulations on a beautiful, well-designed kitchen! Do you have room for one more? :)

I am so glad for this kitchen design. It's made me rethink the way I see our kitchen reno. While my late 40's kitchen doesn't have the character of arches, etc., I love the idea of holding on to some of the earlier custom details, like a china cabinet. Inspiring!

Absolutely love it. Similar with what I would like to do with my thirties kitchen in L.A., the butler's pantry is to die for, it is smart and lovely but wish they had revealed where the washer and dryer went. The garage? We have a similar issue, our laundry room opens up to the back yard and I'd love to re-orient everything, but laundry has to go somewhere, too.

What a gorgeous kitchen redo. Love a white kitchen and especially white appliances. So clean looking. Hate stainless steel appliances, they remind me of a hospital operating room or morgue, having spent many of my student nurse days scrubbing stainless steel after the surgical cases were done. What a delight from those McMansion kitchens so often seen.

Absolutely stunning - so lovely to see all that original character retained, and then improved. I totally agree with the owners' comment about a big kitchen not being necessary - character is far and away the most important thing. I'm very jealous of this kitchen! And I hope the owners enjoy it for many years.

I love what you've done with your small kitchen. It looks fresh and inviting and eminently practical--while keeping the architectural character intact. I have an old house from the 1930s that needs a kitchen upgrade and I'm inspired by what you have done. Great ideas beautifully imiplemented. Enjoy!

Well done !

It's great to see a small space use wisely.

I think you guys nailed it! Great job and it keeps the integrity of the house. I also love old stoves and made my 1951 Chambers the highlight of my kitchen

The photography on this video was about as bad as I have ever seen. All that swooping and panning was dreadful. Hard to see the kitchen through all that awful videography.

It is a really pretty kitchen, but is there a pantry somewhere to store groceries and is there a microwave? Two must haves for me. The stove is just perfect.

Just perfect!

Great kitchen! Love the butler's pantry addition. Many of the questions being posed are addressed in the video (the link is shortly after the start of the article). Definitely worth watching.

This is just the most charming kitchen and has inspired my daughter and I in redoing her 1940's bungalow kitchen. Love to see practical, interesting, creative and just outright pretty designs, as these.

Thank you for reposting this great article. This kitchen was thoughtfully planned with an every day cook in mind. The work triangle is concise and the design contains the all important work space on either side of the sink and the stove! So besides being clean and attractive, it also functions very well, and isn't that the major purpose of a kitchen? I think sometimes kitchens are planned by those who don't cook.

Love the kitchen renovation!!!! But where did the laundry room go? It was great they were able to use the home's existing footprint, but sacrificing a laundry room?

Beautiful real home!

What's not to love? They stayed true to the age and charm of their home; they updated to make it work well for them AND they understood the value of a small kitchen which IS what most of us have in our homes. Mine is bigger than most, but is still considered small by "modern" standards. It works just fine for us as does their kitchen. Well done!!!

The better half and I enjoyed this video as we too live by the belief that a properly designed small kitchen is better that a shock and awe large one. Congrats to the Kellys for a powerful kitchen design.

When we were planning our kitchen reno (our fixer-upper's original was awful) my better half had the option of having an open concept expansion or keeping the existing footprint. She opted for keeping the 120Ft2 space and we designed it to be ergonomic and modern while respecting, for the most part, the 31 kitchen design rules as published by the NKBA. Paramount among these rules is the kitchen triangle rule that makes for a safe and efficient kitchen. She's very pleased with it. . . and I with the wonderful concoctions that come out of that efficient space.

So, for all those who have small efficient kitchens. . . Bon appetit!

What a treat for my eyes, bleached out after looking at all the "German Kitchens" in another article. It's all a matter of personal taste, of course, but those kitchens look like laboratories, to me. THIS is my idea of a kitchen! Love that china cabinet, especially.

Perfection...well thought out in every way...function, budget, aesthetics :)

Talk about a tiny kitchen... it's not always about gaining space but about gaining better function. We walked into a mess at our vacation condo, after the neighbor upstairs had a house fire. Water damaged almost everything and mold started to appear. It was ugly to begin with and needed an update, especially the old green upper cabinet (on the far right). We had a small budget to work with and a tiny kitchen that needed to function better. Remaining in the same footprint was a must. Every inch counted and we only had 95" x 53" to work with. Our biggest challenge was 'cutting out' the cabinets to fit within a 4" indent along the wall. Here are before, during and after photos. The stove and "corner sink" had already been removed in this before shot. Not shown installed in the after picture, is the cabinet hardware, vent hood over the stove, and a panel to cover the cutouts of the lower cabinet corner. We gained more counter top space, more storage, a larger sink and a lighter brighter space to work in. Now we can't wait to go back and enjoy a long weekend.

What a truly beautiful reno. Every detail...

I hope it didn't cost too much in blood, sweat and tears!

This is a great kitchen! I think they did a great job keeping the character of the house and I love vintage stoves! An earlier comment about "is this really a small kitchen"....yes it is and the kitchen that that person referenced in his/her company projects are what would be called tiny, not small like this one.

Perfect!

We have a tiny kitchen that we did a modest remodel on. We kept the built in cupboard, just resizing the one above the fridge, and stealing space between the sink and stove for an "18 dishwasher. We replaced the hardware and the dingy white laminate countertops with granite fx laminate, which has made a world of difference.

A charming little kitchen with an efficient layout. But not a budget kitchen since it involved relating interior & exterior stairs as well as a window, & raised the ceiling.

Check local codes if you plan to use a vintage stove. One of my clients chose to keep her Wedgewood, & the Planning Dept. wanted a 6" clearance on the sides & back because they said it wasn't automatic ignition & wasn't designed for zero clearance. I researched documentation on a website called The Old Appliance Club that proved the city was wrong, (If it has the letters CP on the front or top, it is automatic ignition & designed for zero clearance - CP stands for Certified Performance). But since it was being refurbished, I wanted to be sure it was safe, so I suggested fireproof sheetrock & tile around the opening, & the city approved it with a 2" clearance. Still a place for crumbs to fall, but better.

A couple of minor points: While the cabinets look great, I generally recommend frameless cabinets in a small kitchen to maximize storage. I would also suggest a quartz that looks like marble or quartzite instead of carrara marble unless the homeowner doesn't mind potential staining.

I'm attaching pictures of 2 kitchens I designed - the one with the Wedgewood & one with a quartzite counter.

I guess some readers read the article and others saw the video. So here's the answers from someone who did both: the cabinets are not the original - they are custom made with the soft close feature. The microwave is in one of the cabinets which the wife prefers. So long as the door is open when it's used, there is no danger to storing it that way. They chose a white refrigerator to fit in with the rest of the kitchen because a paneled one is $7,000 and the one they have is only $700! Significant savings, I'd say! Someone asked where they got the stove - a friend of the family had it, never used it, didn't want it, so gave it to them! Nowhere in the article or in the video, did I hear mention of this being an inexpensive reno - it's just a reno which honors the originality of the home. When you have a kitchen with four doorways taking up space, it's handy to have an architect to figure it all out! As for the glass cabinets, that's a matter of preference, some of us love them and others hate them - might depend on how neat you are. As for the marble countertops, I agree that marble-look quartz might have been more practical, but, once again, preference. (Or maybe they got a bargain!) Whatever! Someone questioned the wife's wisdom in consulting an expert re: the paint color. Perhaps her instinct was to go all white. But they wound up with a subtle variation with the soft gray ceiling and walls and the white trim, which gives it a level of sophistication. All in all a truly wonderful job - a kitchen I'd be proud to have. I hope they enjoy the heck out of it!

السلام عليكم

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Thank you for this article! Love how the family worked within their space to improve the flow of traffic as well as add workspace without destroying the original feel of the house. Beautiful!

I love it!! Having the whole family in the kitchen at the same time also showed the functionality and efficiency in the small space (See video).

Beautiful job guys, the color theme, the flow, congratulations!.

This was so informative, and what an adorable family! Bravo!

so lovely

Beautiful!!

Love it

Really cute house and love how the kitchen was opened up just a little to have more better flow. The windows are really nice and so lobe the paint color chosen. Very classy. 2017

This is such a beautiful home and an even more beautiful family. I love those older homes with charm from the 1920-30s.
I am happy to see the integrity of the home was kept! This couple nailed it all! So often ( always) it seems to be the trend to knock out walls and open it all up. Personally I like the separate areas reminiscent of a quieter simpler time. If you watch movies from this era you see kitchens similar to what this couple achieved. My only complaint... I wish it were my house!!!!! Excellent story

Love the look but too bad breaks codes in Canada ... unless corbels are metal (did I miss that?). It's frustrating when customers bring pics like this in only to be told we need minimum 18" from stove to combustible materials

Seriously my favorite kitchen on houzz. I have a small kitchen too and this is an inspiration. I agree about the charm factor and creating spaces that fit with the character of the house. So well done. Thanks for the tour and story!!

Absolutely lovely.

Hello
Any issues with heat from stove on the corbels ?

very lovely

i like this decore

I love how they make everything they did sound revolutionary. (Narrow cabinets next to the oven? That's crazy talk! Glass doors on the upper part of a cabinet and drawers underneath? Now I know you're pulling my leg!) And I laughed out loud when she said they'd used a color consultant for that totally colorless kitchen. It's a perfectly fine, functional kitchen, but there is absolutely zero about it that's unique.

Thank you for sharing...Love that you kept the character charm of the house! Agree that we dont need huge places...it's not all about size. My grandfather had a tin can patch on his lenoleum....a wistful memory of times past enrichens and warms. Very nice!

Just watched this older video. What a charming kitchen! Big, new kitchens are beautiful for sure. But it is absolutely true that a lot of charm and personality is lost in those big kitchens. This one has loads of charm and personality. There’s so much to look at. I love it!