How we maximise countertop space in a fully equipped Green Kitchen

355

Coastal Living
HDB (BTO)
~1,000 sqft
3 br
Couple Living

Welcome to our Kitchen! Here's where we spend most of our time trying new recipes and meal prepping for the week, which also explains why our top priority was to MAXIMISE countertop space so we can prep, hold massive ingredients and cool food. Besides maximising countertop, we also wanted to ensure: 1) Work flow makes sense ("Kitchen Triangle Rule") 2) Cleaning & maintenance are kept to minimum 3) Able to fit all required Kitchen equipment & appliances 4) Within our $40k reno budget because Kitchen works cost the most! As for the design of kitchen, we wanted to keep the bright & airy vibe so we went with the same Coastal Green & Beige theme and kept all HDB BTO fittings for both wall & floor tiles, as they were close to light grey and blends pretty well with the two colours we've chosen.
Ours is a Galley Kitchen combined with Service Yard and Bomb Shelter (next pic), so you can imagine just how small it is and how challenging it was to squeeze all our Kitchen appliances & equipment while still having sufficient countertop space to prep meals!
Besides the typical Oven & Microwave, we also own a Standalone Dishwasher which I understand not many see the benefits of it. This is a life-saving machine for us and we use it almost on a daily basis because we both suffer from eczema and daily dishwashing simply triggers our condition :'(
How we maximised this side of the Kitchen was to flush our Kitchen Sink and Dishwasher to one side, so we can have a continuous countertop which is necessary for us during meal prep days! A must have in kitchen - LED lights underneath top-hung cabinets! This is essential at times when our body blocks off ceiling lights while cutting / prepping meals. We've also reduced the size of our Kitchen sink to make way for more countertop space, and eventually got one that's 70cm long. This is really the minimum measurement for those who are looking to get a built-in oven because the trays are humongous! Anything lesser than 70cm would really have trouble fitting, them much less wash them.
If you had came from our Entryway post, you would know that we actually extended 2/3 of the wall behind our fridge! This was mainly to ensure we could maximise kitchen countertop space while fitting all kitchen appliances. In order to fit both Microwave and Built-in Oven, we knew we had to go for a tower cabinet layout to make use of air space. Thankfully we're both 1.7m and taller so we could still make use of top-hung cabinets fully.
We also made a bold decision to place our Hob & Hood next to the laundry rack, and invested in a Chimney hood instead of an integrated hood in hopes that it could help reduce any possible lingering food smell on our clothes. We've actually tried stir-frying kimchi, pork belly, and making jap curry while our rack is fully loaded with clothes and our clothes still smelled good! The reason why we went for Chimney Hood is also because we didn't want any top-hung cabinet above Hood as we've seen our parents' top-hung cabinets above hood are usually very greasy and dirty and it's not something that you'll climb and clean each time after cooking. It's certainly a lot easier to clean your wall tiles than to clean carpentry.
Saw the cut-out on the top left corner? They are switches for our LED light and Dishwasher. Electrical Cost-saving Tip: You can hide switches underneath top-hung cabinets so you don't have to invest in fancy switch covers and save some $$!
- #savecost
- #electricalpoint
Here's the other panel of switches that we hid in the top-hung cabinet above microwave . These are for our hob, hood, microwave and built-in oven. Though some might find it troublesome to have to open a cabinet door before switching on/off, we find that it's actually quite clean because we don't have to constantly clean / dust them.
And our last must have for the kitchen is... a Spice rack!! For those who cook and use a lot of spices like us, this is really a MUST HAVE. Having this placed next to our Hob is simply strategic because we can simply grab and toss them in while cooking!
Last but not least, please make sure to plan the height of your concrete sink base to be higher than the robot / handheld vacuum height you've bought / planning to purchase! We're so glad to have factored that into our reno planning because look how our Dry & Wet vac can clean every nook & cranny easily!