Tiny House, Tiny Kitchen, but Just Look...

by Gail

1 Material

3 Days

Easy

At all the storage. Oops, I spoke too quick! All moved in & now, I'm outta space, & where can these go?

Less than a year ago, we moved into an RV that's about as much footage as the modern tiny houses.

This unit is 40 ft with more slides on other side

On sink side & over dinette

Plenty storage for kitchen stuff, right? Wrong!!! & pantry is separate cabinet next to kitchen. Oh my, where can I put these??? It's FULL! Whether in a regular house, mobile home, tiny house, RV, or camper, ever found yourself in this position & really don't need or want to throw items out, "think UP". That's just what I did, along with a couple modifications to kitchen.

I'll walk you thru this to show you how this was all done.

As you may or may not have guessed, I'm a short shrimp, as friends tease, so I must keep that in mind esp where safety is concerned. As shown in previous pic, microwave was in cabinet high up over stove -- being short was a concern with putting food in & out of it with having to reach so high or get on stool to do. I figured out how to solve that problem. Move it down to lower cabinet or on counter which would have left much less space to work. Ok, lower cabinet but there's no opening there.

Next step, take out stove. Ok, but you ask, how will I cook? First, I don't cook traditional way, I use NuWave oven & pic cook burner & actually have for years now. So, taking out stove was not a problem for me. Space stove was in was just right size for micro. However now, there's no counter top over & more or less a big useless hole area. Everyone likes a cutting board so perfect space for one there. YIKES! Those are expensive to buy & custom fit an already existing space. What to do??

I made my own from wood parquet flooring a friend had given me long long ago.

Here it is. Stove removed, micro moved to under this butcher block in counter.

To create this, with just a little wood put in for bracing & a sized to fit piece of plywood inserted, I had sufficient support for creation.

I laid out my tiles to fit area & fit flush even with counter top. These tiles have lips on them to lock them together, but I found on edges of some, I had to cut the lips off. Easy to do. Then I started gluing them down & caulked edges with clear to seal. Whether to use as cutting board or counter space, it's my choice but did give some more much needed work area. Now, that problem solved but I still NEED more storage.

Only 3 small drawers for silverware & other kitchen utensils. Where can I make some?? No place, so now comes thinking UP.

Drawers were just too few & too small. UP & where into what? I've enjoyed using metal wall pockets with flat bottoms everywhere to organize & keep things tidy. So why not put them to good "out of the way but handy" use?? I did, mounting them to the wall by punching small holes thru backs for screws. Now, cooking utensils & knives all have their organized places.

Still, where to put silverware? I had kept an old dishwasher silverware basket not knowing just exactly what I wanted to use it for. A HA, it now has a place, for silverware, mounted similarly as utensil pockets. Separated & neat ready at fingertips.

Another step in organization in this project, wire insert shelves make all of cabinets more useful all way to tops of them. I found all I have at thrift stores & yard sales & have many of them.

One more step in this kitchen re-do is the small 2 level wire basket that I originally got in a bathroom gift pkg. Better use in kitchen to hold frequently used liquid seasonings. You'll also see former micro cabinet with wire shelf insert.

The plan executed & ultra economically carried out.

Enjoyed the project?

You can do it! Saved to your projects

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1 question

Pam Parnell on Jul 23, 2017

How did you hang that double wire basket?

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Gale Nagy on Jul 25, 2017

Having lived the "full time" rving for over 2 years (several years ago - although in a 40 ft. motorhome) I learned quite early on - through several previous years of RV'ing experiences, to never leave any object in the cupboards that will scatter around when RV is moving and then fall on your head when you open the cupboard doors. Everything was corralled; plates stacked with either paper plate in between each; glasses carefully braced; baking "pans" all exchanged out for non metal so they could be easily stored; all heavy cans, bottles, etc, stored only in bottom cupboards; (yes we used real plates, glasses, etc - never broke) The dollar store is the RV'ers best friends. We also, in our final RV, did not put a regular oven in it - had a microwave/convection oven over the stove - worked just as well baking anything that we wanted. That left us room to have 3 drawers below our stove stop - where I stored all the pots/pans and baking stuff. Have fun in your adventure.

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Debbie Pavlakis on Sep 30, 2022

My RV's layout is very similar as this one. It has the same storage headaches. I use the built-in oven for storing things BUT there would be so much more space to store things with oven taken out! 💡GREAT IDEA!!
I've spent many hours staring and wondering how I could rearrange things and never thought of that, lol.
I love your ideas and I can hardly wait to try some out. Thank you so much for giving me the inspiration to explore some new possibilities!
🛠️🙋🌷

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