Wednesday, January 18, 2012

when we first bought this house i thought i'd want to redo the kitchen right away (want to, not necessarily be able to) since it was so outdated.  But then we started living in the house and cooking dinner each night.  i quickly decided there was no way i was going to spend money on a tiny galley kitchen (or, gallery, as sean calls it) that was just so annoying to cook in.  sean and i literally run into one another, our "work triangle" is more of a work line and it's completely closed off from the rest of the house.

i did paint and switch out the light fixture.  we also got all new appliances.  but we still have particle board cabinets and laminate counters that actually have burn marks in some spots.  oh!  and we have this built-in cutting board thing (under my pretty butcher block) that is so so SO gross.  and a cracked tile floor.

this is the whole kitchen. save for the fridge directly behind me. i can probably touch the microwave and window at the same time.  and my arms are of normal length.
but now i'm sort of back on the let's just redo it! train.  because it is so small, it can't be that expensive right?  and maybe we could knock that wall on the left out (between the kitchen and dining room)?  there's no room in the house to expand the kitchen so it would still be a galley. and it would still be small.  but we'd have real wood cabinets and non-plastic countertops!

searching "galley kitchens" on pinterest, i realized that any kitchen that's semi rectangular gets assigned the galley label.  also, if my kitchen was the size of any of these, i'd have zero problems trying to squeeze my butt between sean's and the dishwasher door.



that lemon tree thing on the counter would take up my whole kitchen.


they have a seating area in their kitchen.  i have a foldable stool that i use to access the cabinets over the fridge.

Source: houzz.com via erin on Pinterest


this one's closer but still feels pretty wide.  i'd need go-go-gadget arms to reach both sides at the same time.

i guess people don't make pretty kitchens in tiny sizes? does everyone just tack a bulky addition onto their house and call it a ($60K) day?  that's what the majority of the neighbors have done but we are definitely not ready for that. 

(i've typed galley so many times it's starting to look like a made-up word.)
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15 comments:

  1. Have you looked through Apartment Therapy's "small cool kitchens" for some inspiration? Some are still not as small as yours, but some are pretty small.

    http://community.apartmenttherapy.com/contests/smallcoolkitchens/2011/entries

    http://contests.apartmenttherapy.com/2010/small-cool-kitchens/main/category/own

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  2. I am right there with you, man. Like yours, I'm not sure you would even call ours a galley kitchen. It's all on one wall, and honestly, I'm a little jealous of that pseudo-counter you have on the opposite wall. For what it's worth, it's really cute in photos, and I totally would have pinned it as inspiration when I was looking for grey galley kitchen inspiration.

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  3. stephanie - thanks for the link! i found a small dc kitchen that has a very cool layout.

    mandy - aw, thanks! i'll admit, it's way worse in person. ha. but yes, the half counter practically doubles our work space.

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  4. I live in a DC rowhouse and totally understand it! The previous owners of our house knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and created a peninsula of cabinets/countertops/breakfast bar in its place. If the wall was still there our kitchen would feel tiny, but that simple opening makes it so much bigger without doing a costly addition. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

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  5. we have already been asked by lots of people why we didn't expand our kitchen when we renovated. i didn't see the need. our galley kitchen is 10 x 10 with 5 ft of walking/moving space between the two lines of counters/cabinets.
    if you're open to taking out a wall - it would definitely visually open the space and if you can steal a little room from the dining room, might give you a bigger counter & cabinet space on that side of the room. you can also take the cabinets all the way to the ceiling to maximize storage space. i love when people renovate within the original footprint when possible. we had to add on to get a new staircase, but other than that, i love that our house is the same size as it was when built in 1922.
    can't wait to see what you come up with!

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  6. I second what Kristin said! I'm sure if you knocked out a wall it would be much more open, even if you didn't have any more actual space.

    When we were house shopping we toured a 2,000+ sq. ft. house that had a galley kitchen. It was sooo tiny. You could barely open the oven door all the way. And it was in the family room! It was like they forgot they needed a kitchen and then just slapped one in. It didn't seem small though because there was only 1 wall and the rest was open into the family room.

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  7. My first thought for finding relevant pictures of galley kitchens was Apartment Therapy, too. If you do a keyword search on their site for galley kitchens, you get tons of results. And just think what a service you'll do for the next galley hunter on Pinterest by pinning what you find.

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  8. Ok, I want the lemon tree in that pot! I like all the kitchens but the first two are my favorites. I think we could "redo" yours over Easter (aren't you in duck then).

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  9. mom - i love it too, i've always wanted a fruit tree!

    i think we're going to need more than one weekend. and a couple of professionals...

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  10. Have you looked at any of the "Not So Big House" books? One's on remodeling; others are about new construction. Anyhow - her thing is about making every space useful but beautiful.

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  11. It is really small but I think it still has great potential. You have plenty of natural light which is good and quite a lot of cupboard space (by my standards).

    Knocking through to the dining room is a great idea! shifting the upper cupboards and appliances to the opposite wall and installing an island unit may provide you with tons of extra space! Or... you could just rip out the length of counter running under the window and install and folding option only up when you need it? Could buy you an extra foot of room?

    Lovely blog you have here - came via Yellow Brick Home :)

    www.flossyblossom.blogspot.com

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  12. Here's a neat galley one.
    http://www.houzz.com/photos/117849/kitchen-with-bamboo-cabinets-and-resin-countertops-contemporary-kitchen-birmingham

    No clue if it would be functional and where half the stuff is...

    Thought of you though!

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  13. jennifer L - thanks! i love the open shelving! and wouldn't mind the HUGE window ha.

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  14. i feel your pain. my kitchen is ridiculously small. i have my cutting board on top of the radiator which takes up a pretty large portion of the kitchen. the other counter space i have that is usable is probably 30x60 cm. one lower cabinet cannot open because the stove is directly in front of it and i only have two cupboards one of which i have to squeeze my butt in the tiny space between the stove and the counter to get into. i literally cannot open my fridge door while standing in front of it and it almost always knocks the cutting board off the rad. i love love love to cook but this kitchen just depresses me. i am actually jealous of yours!

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