A Cook's Tiny Kitchen in Kismet Cabin

I love to cook. I come by it honestly because I grew up in a family owned and run restaurant.  As I've begun to explore an unprocessed food life, my appreciation of food has grown. It started with the great bread trials a few years ago and now I regularly make foods from scratch, including cheeses and mayonnaise.

Before my venture into a deeper love of cooking, small kitchens in apartments were an annoyance. The two kitchens I actually enjoyed executing my culinary skills in were both kitchens that ran the length of one wall and opened into a studio apartment or great room. I liked these because I need space, space to move and prepare. (This is just one of the reasons that a bus may not be the best option for long-term living.)

Needless to say, I was very concerned about the "kitchen" in the cabin. I decided to look around at some other suggestions and recipes for cooking in a tiny kitchen. The most basic advice websites and blogs gave was to determine what you actually use in the kitchen. Apparently, it's like the clothes thing. You only use a small portion of your kitchen on a regular basis. So the question here is: What do I use?... The answer: everything. I'm serious, I use everything.

Kitchen in Kismet Cabin

Kitchen in Kismet Cabin

While I still lived in my apartment, I conducted a kitchen experiment. First, I put everything away in my kitchen drawers and cabinets. I am talking about everything that could possibly be used in the kitchen from spices to slicers. When something was used, I moved it to a rolling wire shelving unit I placed in my kitchen. I did this for a year. Things used regularly were moved to the middle racks while things used less frequently were moved to the top or bottom racks. The result was mostly empty cupboards by the 1st month. And they stayed empty for a whole year.

I have some pictures of my new kitchen in Kismet Cabin, but it is not finished yet. There's still some painting and wall shelves that need to go up. But this gives an idea of what I started with. In the above photo on the right, I have an over sized convection oven for baking, roasting, and warming food up. It sits on my small dorm refrigerator that I'm probably going to replace because I miss having a freezer. The refrigerator sits on top of my small "pantry" which stores canned goods. Beside these is my 6'x3'x1' rolling wire shelving unit that acts as my large "pantry" where I have my dry goods and all my kitchen equipment.

Kismet Cabin kitchen top.

The above photo on the left is the other half of my kitchen with my cook top and sink. I put a mirror behind the sink to help reflect light. There's also a draining board in the sink that I got from Ikea. My fantastic Kitchen Aid mixer is one from the 80s and still works beautifully. I love the look of it but only use it about once a month. So I use the bowl to store my cooking utensils. I have mason jars for storing my everyday eating utensils, which are actually my Great-Grandma Rose's silver.

Kismet Cabin lower cabinets.

Below the sink and burners are additional storage. There used to be cabinet doors over them, but I took them off because swinging doors are not your friend in small spaces. Instead I took a suspension rod and one of those 'cafe' curtains to cover the storage under the sink. I works well and I think it looks good. Under the burners, there was just a small amount of storage because the back portion under there is taken up by a small water heater. So, I decided to turn the shelves under the burner into a kind of display. I have my mason jars filled with natural herbs and pigments as well as oils and essential oils stored/displayed down there.

Re-purposed cabinet doors.

In case you are wondering what I did with the doors that used to be on the lower cabinets, I re-purposed them into shelves over the back kitchen window. I keep that one covered most of the time because it looks back into two houses and a driveway. I keep my study books and craft supplies on these shelves.

The last space I'm working on is the open cabinetry over the sink and burners. Thus far I've got my cooking oils and spices on the right side. On the left, I'm storing my eating plates and bowls. I plan to finish moving in the remainder of my kitchen stuff this weekend after I finish painting above the cabinetry (it's such a hard place to reach!).

Kismet Cabin upper cabinets.