A kitchen’s average size has shrunk since the heady days of the 1960s, when cooks had 15.37m2 at their disposal*. This has left some new-build homeowners – and Londoners living in what are often very compact homes – with precious little room to play with, in turn, propagating a mistaken belief that they can never own a dream designer kitchen.
Research from The Used Kitchen Company – www.theusedkitchencompany.com – found that around one-in-six people (17%) believe you can only have a designer kitchen if you “have a really big kitchen space”. But with both Londoners and owners of homes built since the 1980s matching the profile of many of TUKC’s customers, this immediately proves to be a fallacy.
A look at some current recycled kitchens on offer from TUKC shows why. The online portal, which features kitchens – used and ex-displays from showrooms – priced at a 50-70% reduction off their original retail price, has fabulous designer options for all sizes of kitchen. TUKC also has some space-enlarging tips up its sleeve, telling small kitchen owners to look for, or later include:
- optimised drawer space, such as double-layered drawers, to keep clutter off the work surface
- handleless units, for a sleek, streamlined look
- mirrored splashbacks, to make the room appear bigger
- bold coloured base units and lighter wall units
- white, light, or high-gloss finishes that will bounce light around the room
- corner solutions that create more storage area – avoiding waste in corners
- flush-fit induction hobs, to add to the streamlined work surface look
- boiler top, to avoid having a kettle take up worktop space
- open shelving
- in-built, compact appliances
TUKC currently has a Bulthaup designer kitchen, only used for around a year and available with appliances included in the sale, which is perfect for a thinner and longer galley-style kitchen and priced at just £10,000.
An ex-display industrial-grey coloured kitchen with sliding island worktop – is another highly compact space economiser, as the hob and sink are hidden under the worktop, leaving you with plenty of space and eating area. The island has two 900mm two-drawer units for storage on one side and two 900m double cupboards on the other. It also comes with a counter-mounted Tambur unit, in a lighter grey, which offers elongation to the design, for aesthetic appeal.
Add to this a Hacker kitchen, perfect for a tighter space, a compact Yeso with Siemens appliances, and many more options besides and the myth that you can only have a designer culinary environment, if your home boasts a big kitchen area, is well and truly exploded.
The Used Kitchen Company’s CEO, Looeeze Grossman, says: “Owners of smaller kitchens need not relinquish their dream of owning a designer kitchen, or feel the only way to own one is to either extend or move. We have amazingly compact, slimline and space-mean designer kitchens at a bargain price and would urge anyone seeking one to sign up for our newsletter, to be notified of new arrivals.
“We have made the dreams of many homeowners with smaller-sized kitchens come true and manufacturers are regularly focusing on compact kitchens. This means that TUKC then, in turn, sees recycled kitchens, of a suitable size, listed. Just learn the tricks required for making the most of a small space and let The Used Kitchen Company’s team do the rest!”