A small kitchen means you need to make smart choices. With two cupboards and a metre of worktop, every appliance has to justify its place and you need a clever, flexible layout. This guide covers how to kit out a compact kitchen that cooks proper meals, whether the space in question is a studio flat, a caravan, an annex or a student house.
Start with how you actually cook
Before buying anything, think about how you would like to be eating and cooking on a regular week. If dinner is usually one pot or one tray, you need very different kitchen equipment from someone who bakes every weekend. Write down the five meals you cook most often and choose equipment for those, to help prevent you from buying a large appliance you only use once or twice a year. In a compact space, every inch of the countertop is important.
Get the basics right first
The most important decision is what will do most of your cooking for you on an average night. Where there is no built-in oven, a mini oven with two hobs on top solves the whole problem from a single socket – oven below, pans above, no installation. The 28L size fits the tightest spaces and handles day-to-day meals for one or two, while the 34L and 48L step up towards full family cooking, with ceramic hob versions on both if you want heat you can turn down to a simmer rather than hotplates at a fixed high setting. Our mini oven buying guide compares the sizes and hob options in detail, so pick the cooking core there before spending a penny on anything else.
Choose appliances by the jobs they replace
For other appliances, you need to question if it does a job the oven or hob cannot, at least once a week? A slow cooker easily helps in a small home, and the compact 2.5L and 3.5L sizes are made for exactly this setting – dinner cooks itself in one pot while the flat gets on with being a flat, and it draws no worktop attention while doing it. An air fryer can be great for anyone needing meals in a hurry. A bread maker, juicer or ice cream machine tend to be used infrequently, so might not be suitable for a very compact kitchen. Whatever you choose, if it has not been used in a month, it should not live on the worktop.
Use the walls to maximise the worktop
Worktop space is for preparing food and in a compact kitchen it disappears quickly. Keep out only what gets used daily and push storage upwards: shelves, rails and hooks turn empty wall into useful space without costing you counter space. Sealed canisters keep dry goods tidy and visible, and glass storage containers double up as leftover boxes and serving dishes, which in a small kitchen counts as two jobs for one shelf. A rail for hanging cooking utensils from is a great, practical way to maximise space and make finding the right tool quicker too.
Make the space work while you cook
These are our top tips for keeping your kitchen functional whilst your cooking:
- Clear as you go, because there is nowhere for mess to hide.
- Keep one decent chopping board and wash it between tasks rather than storing three.
- Plan meals so the oven and hobs share the load – something braising away in the slow cooker while the mini oven handles a traybake is a full dinner from less than a metre of kitchen.
Build your compact kitchen
Start with the cooking core in our mini oven range, add a compact slow cooker for the meals that make themselves, and browse the rest of the kitchen electricals as the space takes shape.