apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time


Kitchen Tour: Yana and Leigh's Natural Wonder

[Chris, our NYC writer, will bring us Kitchen Tours, starting this week. He'll be checking out the rooms of NYC apartments we consider so dear: the kitchen. Any size, any style... To have your kitchen considered, see info at the end of the post.]

2006_11_13_yanaleighkitchen.jpg

Name: Leigh and Yana
Location: West Village, New York City
Kitchen Size: 5 feet x 9 feet

When Yana and Leigh bought this one-bedroom apartment, it had been an rental apartment with the same tenants for over thirty years. They set about gutting the place: all new flooring, new walls, new lighting system. They finished the kitchen early this year and plan to renovate the bathroom next.

Enter Slideshow with Captions

Their small kitchen is powerful. As you'll see in some "before" pictures they shared, the old kitchen had worn out appliances, small cabinets and only one drawer.

 
 

After searching for a custom cabinet that would make the best of an angled wall in the back of the kitchen, they decided to turn a wall in their entrance area into a pantry instead. The extra space gained with the pantry and large upper cabinets makes the kitchen work for them. Yana says the pantry is her favorite part of the design.

Yana and Leigh share their apartment with their baby son, Charlie. The renovated kitchen has plenty of room for a mini-food processor and bottles for Charlie. Leigh makes stoneware bowls and they look perfect against the warm, natural but modern color scheme they selected.

Thanks, Yana and Leigh, for sharing your kitchen with us.

We want to share your efficient, hardworking kitchen.
To invite us to tour your kitchen,
please click the "email us" button to the right and let us know.
Currently, we're only touring in NYC, but if you can send your own photos
from anywhere, we'd like to see.

Tags

Kitchen Tours

Related Links

Share

Comments (12)

Love the way that this kitchen has been transormed and great to see before and after pictures and how best to utilise every inch of space.

posted by Che on 2006-11-13 11:07:45

How cool is this? I'm always amazed at what people can do with tiny kitchens. Can't wait to see more of the series.

posted by Eric on 2006-11-13 11:42:57

What an amazing makeover! Fabulous use of space and a real inspiration to anyone with a tiny kitchen. For further inspiration, check out Justin Spring's appropriately tiny but information-packed book, "The Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook." It's available on Amazon, among other places. Justin knows whereof he speaks--he grew up on a 36-foot catamaran where the kitchen was a camp stove, an ice chest and a bucket. I have a normal-sized kitchen and I still found it full of useful ideas.

posted by Terry B on 2006-11-13 12:08:01

I would like to submit mine but I can't find your email addy? Please let me know what it is.

thanks!

posted by Minicoop on 2006-11-13 13:19:04

Minicoop, glad you're up fro it. The best way to contact me is through the "email us" link on the right side of this page.

posted by Chris on 2006-11-13 13:48:27

The cabinet/pantry is a creative idea! Sometimes I find myself stashing canned goods in the hall but this seems to have expanded the kitchen while keeping everything within reach.

posted by Joanne on 2006-11-13 13:50:11

thanks for this kitchen tour. I thought i was the only one cursed with a kitchen this tiny. I can't afford to do a gut job, so for the time being i'll paint the wall and cabs in the new year. What size refrigerator do you have? Can two adults and a child live out of 12 cubic feet of food storage?

posted by carolynapplebee on 2006-11-13 20:57:11

thank you for your comments! we have GE 16.6 Cu. Ft. CleanSteel Top-Freezer Refrigerator and it's a perfect size for our family. It fills up fast. I would go bigger than 12 Cu. Ft. if you can spare the space. we ordered cabinets from Luxor cabinets distributor who helped us with design/advice.

posted by Leigh on 2006-11-14 23:40:16

Did you do the work yourselves? Did you hire a designer? How much, roughly, did this cost? It's a really nice job.

posted by Stacey on 2006-11-14 13:40:20

Yana and Leigh,
A stunning transformation. Looks fab! Now, how do you like your new appliances? I am contemplating GE myself...

And thanks, Terry B, for the book suggestion. Will hunt it down for more teeny kitchen inspiration.

posted by terramia on 2006-11-27 12:09:54

Gorgeous!

posted by KathinCO on December 8th 2007 at 7:52am
view KathinCO's profile

I would like to buy uggs,ugg sale,ugg boots uk,ugg boots london,ugg boots sale,uggs,ugg london,ugg boots sale,UGG Bailey Button boots,UGG Nightfal boots and so on.

posted by windy00 on November 19th 2009 at 10:35pm
view windy00's profile