A Custom Kitchen Redesign That's Making Us Rethink Our Cabinetry

All too often these days, kitchen renovations seem to favor a wide open approach: massive "islands" that offer precious extra counter space; main storage that's relegated to dusty open shelves above the sink; and color schemes that are so dependent on white paint that you don't feel comfortable drinking red wine (or cooking!).

But when we talk about smarter kitchen design, especially in spaces that aren't very large, what we want is clever, bespoke solutions. We want a room that makes sense for our lives, not false impressions of more space, not endless countertop corners that fill easily with clutter, not pallor when we want brightness.

The following three cabinetry solutions were actually designed by the homeowners—a couple who makes up local design firm Studio Miller Atre. Their leg up? They were matched with a general contractor through a start up called Sweeten, which pairs homeowners planning their renovations with professionals who can help. The result is a kitchen that's realistic for the family who lives with it, but also rife with innovative small space solutions we'd all do well to keep in mind.

1. Open up the wall above the counter.

In this small kitchen that's really just a nook off the living room (hello, Brooklyn-dwellers), one family got rid of overhead cabinetry altogether. They left the upper half of the main wall storage-free—no open shelves, no hulking closed cabinets—and opted for only a single shallow display shelf that's really a top lip of the backsplash: It's too narrow to hold more than small personal objects, which keeps sight lines clear across the room, and prevents any distracting stacks of dishes from upstaging the awesome decorative stone.

The lower line of cabinets are custom woodwork, which conceals hardware (like any other cabinets), but also acts as a piece of furniture.

2. Reclaim adjacent square-footage for floor-to-ceiling storage.

Having skipped the usual arrangement of cabinets stacked on either side of the counter, this family instead dedicated a full adjacent wall to very subtle, but expansive, storage that can be used to house appliances and even pantry space. The square doors and minimalist pulls manage to make a generous storage wall feel understated and even austere; it actually appears to open up—rather than cramp—the kitchen's workspace.

Opting for custom millwork, a design made to fit their favorite appliances easily and exactly, is money well spent when space is tight—and it's a design that keeps on giving, right down to a sleek pull-out prep station.

The obvious alternative would have been to forgo these custom cabinets in favor of another few feet of counter space along the main wall (a tempting proposal when your kitchen's footprint is that tiny) but by instead dedicating that square-footage to a storage wall, the entire room is actually opened up—and a cramped walk-in pantry is avoided.

3. Break off a section of cabinetry to conceal appliances.

You might have noticed by now that the fridge is nowhere to be found! True, they could have opted for an undercounter refrigerator that would be housed by the stove (a recently common fix for sidestepping a space-hogging full-sized refrigerator), but it would have been a tight squeeze, not to mention very appliance-heavy visually.

Enter: the third major element in their storage solutions.

Between the kitchen and the living room, the family had an integrated column unit designed to conceal a fridge and add even more pantry space. Custom panels that match the other storage wall keep the fridge from interrupting the overall design.

For more on this original design by Kumar Atre and Casey Leigh Miller Atre, of Studio Miller Atre, check out the full apartment renovation on the Sweeten blog.