Tips for Living with a Small/Galley Kitchen

Galley kitchens seem to be quite a common theme with new builds, but while it may feel like you're limited with what you can do with a small kitchen, there's no reason why it can't still be the space you've always dreamt of.

So here's my five top tips for living with a small or galley-shaped kitchen, without going mad...
Organisation - This seems to be the golden rule to living in a small kitchen, and I can't stress enough how important this is. If your kitchen is anything like mine, cupboard space is limited so you'll need to be ruthless to fit everything in.

I've got a system that involves baskets, jars and everything having its place which seems to be working at the moment - it's funny how many bits you can squeeze in once you've got yourself sorted. If you follow me on instagram you'll know that I've recently been spending my Sunday evenings working my way through and decluttering each cupboard (I know, I really am that cool). I'm currently putting together a post on how I got on and sharing some advice to approaching such a large job, so keep an eye out for that on the blog in the coming weeks.

Storage - I'm defiantly one for not linking having anything on show (have a look at my storage solutions in small homes post here for more on this), but there are a few bits that do live outside the cupboards in nice jars and pretty containers, freeing up valuable cupboard space.

This means I can hide away as much as possible - for example my bread/rolls etc live in a cupboard, meaning I don't have to take up valuable worktop space with a bread bin.

Maximising space - Think about adopting the 'kitchen triangle' approach when deciding where everything lives.

This is something my husband was adamant we would be doing, and I must admit, although I thought it sounded a bit ridiculous to start with, it really does make working in the kitchen 'flow' easily. The 'kitchen triangle' is a theory that all your important appliances (fridge, oven and sink) should be located within a triangle shape, meaning they're all close to hand and you're not taking over the whole room when cooking. Although, saying that, as you can see ours is a bit of an odd-shaped triangle!

So for example, all our utensils are located around the oven, whilst our crockery lives adjacent to the sink. And although I still love using the 'I'll get out of your way' excuse when the hubby's making dinner, this is approach is defiantly helpful if you've got limited floor space. I've popped below a diagram showing where I store everything in our tiny kitchen.

Wall space - Maximising wall space is also very important - I'll never have room in here for a dresser unfortunately, however my mini wall version gives me somewhere to display my pretty pottery, without taking up much room at all. In addition, why not think about putting something behind the door? We've got a blackboard behind ours, meaning there's no wasted wall space at all.

Seating - Whilst a galley kitchen is probably not going to be somewhere you can have a table and chairs, why not compromise with a breakfast bar and stools? This is a bit of a life saver for us, being somewhere you can have a cuppa or a quick breakfast, plus also provides a more social area within the kitchen, whilst taking up very little space at all - you can find some stools very similar to ours here. We then have a dining table and chairs in our conservatory, where we can more comfortably eat dinner or have friends over.

Have a look at my Beautiful Galley Kitchens board over on Pinterest for more inspiration.

Want to return to this later? Pin the image below:

What are your tips for decorating a small galley style kitchen?

Thanks for reading,
Sam Xx