7 ways to make your small kitchen feel airier and brighter, instantly

Photo source: https://unsplash.com/photos/white-wooden-kitchen-cabinet-with-white-pendant-lamp-1by_GbwEMwc

The struggle with small kitchens is real, and oftentimes, there’s a cluster of details that make the room feel even more confined than it should. We don’t talk about clutter and the containers you could hide in the cabinet boxes but about the areas that often go overlooked, like ceilings, corners, textiles, and so on. Then, there are welcome additions you could integrate instead of getting rid of in the kitchen to make it feel larger and refreshed, like mirrors. Let’s discover 7 upgrades you can consider if you feel like your kitchen is too boxed-in.
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​Profit from the power of mirrors 

You’re likely knowledgeable about the mirror’s power to visually extend a given room. It helps you see more space, such as the room you have left behind you, if you look straight at it. But it also mirrors everything in the area, which can almost double the size. Basically, your brain perceives new depth and brightness, and that’s exactly what you could use to open up your space. 

The thing is that kitchens aren’t exactly the types of rooms where one would imagine a mirror standing naturally, as if it’s part of the décor. But dare to think outside the box and you’ll be quick to find some truly interesting and stylish ways to integrate the expansive power of mirrors into the exact space where you’re, after all, carrying out much of the day’s activity. For instance, you can install an antique or smoked mirror backsplash; this will conceal the splashes that would be visible on clear glass while making the most of the mirror’s effect of opening up the space. If you have a small coffee bar, you can line its back with a mirror and create a bright, luxury feature that’s also eye-catching. The cleverest thing to do is to place the mirror opposite a light fixture or in front of the mirror as you’ll maximize its effect by amplifying brightness. 
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​Embrace monochromatic minimalism

​When you use extremely contrasting shades in a tight space – say you combine dark lower cabinets with white walls – you basically segment the room visually, which can make it feel even tighter than it actually is. The eye is naturally attracted by the line where the dark shade ends and the light shade begins, which can make the room appear confined. That’s why you’re advised to sync the colours of the parts that make up most of your kitchen.

Choose similar colours for the walls, and trim to harmonize the details and eliminate any harsh visual boundaries. You can find a wide variety of kitchen colours at Kitchen Warehouse Ltd. For instance, if it’s for small rooms in need of a room-enlarging effect you’ll need light, bright ones – think cream, greige, off-white, and soft shades reminiscent of nature like sage and sandy beige. It's easier on the eye when the walls and the cabinetry melt into one continuous shade without interruptions, with everything cohesive. This is a trick that'll make the space feel bigger and more fluent. 
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​Paint the ceiling a lighter shade

​Referred to by home designers as the "fifth wall", the ceiling is a large surface area that’s often overlooked by homeowners. It’s not just about what’s at your eye level because your gaze catches so much more of the room. The kitchen ceiling also has different areas prone to either coloration or discoloration depending on what activities are carried out, and this is yet another reason to focus a little on it too, especially since a fresh coat of paint can achieve your target. For an airy atmosphere, you should choose a lighter shade than your walls for the upgrade, or opt for a soft white. Such an upgrade can make the ceiling feel so much more elevated and the room larger. 
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​Choose reflective surfaces 

You can also bounce the light around by leveraging the finishes of the largest surfaces in the kitchen. If you currently have matte countertops or muted timber cabinets, these might trap the light instead of reflecting it, dimming the room’s natural light. Ditch those matte, dull materials in favor of new ones with more shine and you’ll see how your space will instantly transform. There are materials that can act like secondary mirrors and share the natural daylight and evening task lighting, like high-gloss acrylic.
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Even the tiles matter. Some glossy subway tiles will capture the light from nearby windows and brighten up a corner that used to be darker.  
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​Light up the room’s corners 

​Welcome to the kitchen’s corners, another frequently neglected area that holds a lot of potential to either confine or visually enlarge a room, depending on how you approach them. These zones are usually shadowed for the better part of the day, depending on the position of the building, so the floor feels visually shrunken most of the time. Fortunately, there are ways to illuminate your corners, like using LED strip lights placed under the cabinets, or some small, battery-based puck lights just for the dark corners. This will expand your kitchen’s visual footprint – with the added bonus of creating a warmer and more welcoming ambience overall.
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​Reconsider the colour of your textiles 

We often omit how much of an impact some subtle elements, like the chair cushions, towels, mitts, and window blinds, can have when taken together. Yet, if you take a small kitchen that chooses these items in lighter colours and compare it to the same kitchen opting for dark, you’re sure to sense a difference immediately. Opt for lighter colours as they’ll soften up the view – but keep in mind that some may need more frequent cleaning, like the chair cushions. 
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​Swap some uppers for open floating shelves 

​If you can eliminate the upper storage completely and still have space for your essentials, you’re in luck. These components can be among the main reasons why a room feels enclosed for they simply box you in. If not, you can try a hybrid approach. Swap just a few upper cabinets you can live without for wooden or glass floating shelves in order to free up some space and help light flow across the walls. Even the smaller additions can have a sizable impact when strategically chosen and placed. 
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No one says you should spend a fortune, tear down cabinetry, or sweat to open up your kitchen. It’s in the little upgrades like these that you can transform the feel of a room.

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