That's not that small. You can definitely do it. That's the size of most of the kitchens in the world, and many of them are at least partly unfitted. I even have a little table in my current kitchen that I eat and work at and move to one end when it's in my way.

If you're talking about a step-in kitchen, at some point you reach the stage where your sink isn't going anywhere and your stove isn't going anywhere and the fridge is in the hallway and ... the one cabinet is bolted to the wall because it's the only place left. But you've got room to maneuver.

I don't know how much research you've been doing on this. Some of the things people call "unfitted" on this board aren't really. There are a whole lot of solutions for storage, various functions, etc. that you can choose from: Welsh dressers, pot towers, free-standing shelves, double-tiered tables, stepback cupboards, kitchen "armoire" type pantries -- even nails and hooks on the wall. Some are very, very cheap and it's an extremely creative and individual approach, which I like.

You just have to figure out the things you need (pot & pan storage, cookbooks, place to hang aprons, plant shelf, place for toaster & jams, place to display mom's platters, whatever) and find a solution for them. There's not an "unfitted checklist". Looking at a lot of European books and magazines helps.

Doodling helps. Have fun!

You are right, it is not tiny. The original design was 9 x 7, but I think I've convinced Hubby to push out at least one wall. But when I look at pictures I see that the country house with a huge room is breath-taking, while the compact room is suffocating.

Suffocating:
http://www.homeportfolio.com/PLUS/1600Popup.jhtml?prodId=114766

Here is a link that might be useful:

I think you can do it depending on what kind and how much stuff you have. It might take a little more creativity. Do you have lots of windows or doors to account for?

Another reason why the compact one could feel suffocating to you is that it has lots of dark colors and lacks window in that view. The breath-taking is looking into a wall of windows and most colors are light except for that stunning AGA.

You may find some ideas by look at lots of British sites - do some googling and see what you come up with. This is still a very popular approach in the UK - partly a "style" thing, but also because in some historically listed buildings it's easier to do that than fight the planning office. It may lead to some ideas, anyway...

Good luck!

That "breathtaking" kitchen is great. If you like that, have you checked out the Plain English site I'm fond of recommending? They have a similar feel.

That lovely green kitchen dresser along the left side is a very English piece of furniture, made by many companies including Plain English and The Kitchen Dresser Company. You can get them ready made or custom configured by the running foot, with glass fronts or open shelves or a combination. I'm sure with enough photos, someone could make you one here, in two or more pieces for easy moving.

Note the room doesn't have huge high ceilings, but its proportions are very pleasing and calming.

Simplicity is key.

growlery, thanks for the pointers. I found The Kitchen Dresser Company, but I'm on the wrong side of the pond for them. Have you got a link to Plain English (too many hits to be productive)? If I were rich, rich, rich, I'd put myself in Christopher Peter's hands and go on vacation.

I seem to prefer the very English pieces (especially no indented kickplate), beaded inset cabinets. (Oh, the things I've learned since joining THS Kitchen forum. Thank you all.)

You are right, simplicity is the key -- unless you are prepared to live with a lot of decoration (Unfitted Look in a Fitted Way). It looks smashing in a photo but a housekeeping nightmare. With my arthritic hands and German Shepherds, less is more.

Plain English..one of my favourite sites..for plain, lovely cottagey kitchens et al!

Here is a link that might be useful: Plain English

I recommend taking a look at barrelhaus' kitchen. It's small, unfitted, and absolutely beautiful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Barrelhaus's unfitted kitchen

I tried. My kitchen is about 9x17 with 3 doors and 2 windows that I wanted to keep. Once the sink, DW, and range are in, there's not a lot of room for unfitted items. With limited space, going unfitted wasted too much of it. Like most North Americans, I have too much junk I want to keep in my kitchen.

You might be able to pull off semi-fitted like the kitchen linked above, though. And with a squareish room like you have, an unfitted island in the middle will probably be perfect. Get doodling!

lol, fori. I've got a 14'X16' space and I can't seem to accomplish an unfitted plan that will fit all my junk in THAT space, even though it's the largest kitchen I've ever had. I think the best I'll manage is a small butcherblock island in the center of a U shaped plan with a peninsula. Oh, and yes, there will be upper cabs. I just can't figure out where people who are getting rid of their upper cabs are hiding all the mess! They must have huge pantries somewhere else...

Found the Plain English site and you all are right, it's perfect for the likes of me: some fitted and some unfitted, but with color and shape contrasts to add interest, subtly. Just as Barrelhaus did. Very, very lovely.

I am clutching because right now I have a good-sized kitchen and a 10 x 12 pantry.

Worried that I'll regret not doing the standard plaster-in-as-many-cabinets-as-possible thing, even though I much prefer the less-is-more style.

As an aside (I can hijack my own thread, right?), are there any Brits on this forum? All this gazing at English websites has me wondering about our differences. I don't notice much corian or granite countertops; I see wood and marble and steel and laminate. I've been warned off wood around sinks, but I see plenty on the British sites. Do they know something we don't?

lol, djdoggone. Your pantry is very nearly the size of my entire kitchen (I'm hoping to work in a little 4'X4' pantry in a corner somewhere!).

Your kitchen is a nice size and would work well unfitted.
I found Amish Loft Cabinetry while I was searching through the forum today.
They got rave reviews in the thread I read.
Gorgeous stuff!

Here is a link that might be useful: Amish Loft Cabinetry

You might want to check out the Varda kitchen line at IKEA. It has the same feel as the "breath taking" link and some pieces could work really well with English style. I have the kitchen cart and it is very solid and beautiful.

Also look at some of the IKEA islands--there is a new design called Stenstorp that looked great in the store it has one side for sitting and the other shelves.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Whoops, here is the IKEA link.

Here is a link that might be useful: IKEA Varda link

sarschlos, me too. I'm now trying to fit an entire kitchen into what used to be my pantry -- or less. From the husband comes the argument, "There's just the two of us. How much stuff do we need!?" But we live in a very rural area. There are no take out restaurants except a pizza place which we can't use because Hubby has diabetes. We cook -- and I do mean COOK (everything from scratch and tons of veggies) -- three meals a day. We cook for four: Hubby eats enough for 3 -- no joke. I can't figure out if my desire for a Plain English kitchen is a wish that my life were so orderly and simple, or a desire to make it so.

I'm not English, but I lived there for several years. So I'm going to have the appalling gall to speak for a country that is not even mine. I heartily beg their forgiveness. We have enough trouble with our presumption as it is!

I think it's just a different attitude. (If I get into it, I'll just get snarky.)

Some of it is an acceptance that there's beauty in wear. My favorite decorating book is "The Well Worn Interior" by Tim Whittaker and Robin Forster, and English book available in the US. Most of the people on this board would sniff at it and think it was the most horrible thing they'd ever seen. People here even like their Shabby Chic newly made to look shabby! But I love it. I wish I could have a 600-pound pitted, porous, lichenous stone trough for a kitchen sink! (Oh, was that sound the entire "building a home" forum fainting dead away?)

You can have wood around a sink, and keep it there for 100 years, if you like, if you just accept that it's going to wear. That's how all drainboards used to be. In the middle stages, it might even look kind of crappy. But eventually, it may look amazing. Or not. And they're not as germophobic. Don't get me started on THAT.

Also, different things are available there, and different things are cheap. I always think it's funny to drive down the road and see a sign that says "Traditional custom joinery: Furniture, kitchen cabinets, coffins made"

I just got this month's World of Interiors, an English design magazine that's available at Borders. It might give you some perspective, showing 2 very different unfitted kitchens. It has a feature on the kitchens at Petworth House, a stately home that prepared over 30,000 grand multicourse meals a year in a kitchen that's big, but I bet some people on this board are planning bigger. It also has a truly tiny eat-in kitchen of a Parisian doll clothing designer.

There are restaurant kitchens smaller than yours. It requires more thought than shoving everything in 2000 sq ft of cabinets, but if you have the time, maybe that urge to simplify is telling you something. Plan your kitchen like you're packing a suitcase for 2-3 weeks: what things do you really use that often? Plan first for them. Make a list. You don't sound like a Costco junkie who needs tons of nonperishable food storage, so it's just setting a limit on how much space you're going to allot it. Two people don't need 40 plates and glasses (like what's a dishwasher load?). Decide on a number. Then move on to stuff you use less often. You can always go to the basement or garage once a month or so for the big soup pot or the mixer. My older aunt has lots of cool storage on her back stairs, so she doesn't have to go all the way to the basement for the big bag of onions.

Because you cook a lot, you really know what you need and what works for YOU. If you bake constantly and want a huge bin of flour in the middle of your floor, do it. That's the nice thing about unfitted. You can always move it.

As long as it's a thoughtful solution to a real problem, it'll be the right one.

Even if you don't like the Ikea stuff (it's a touch modern maybe), they have a handy planner that helps you visualize an unfitted kitchen using their pieces. Then you think about where everything goes and either think "yeah...." or "I don't THINK so!".

And you don't have to give up uppers completely! Find a nice antique hutch or pie safe or something.

djdoggone-

Absolutely a small kitchen can be unfitted. Ours is kinda large and unfitted, but it would work on a much smaller scale. And ITA with fori, look for a hutch for the kitchen, it gives you unfitted style and lots of storage. I bought our hutch at a kitchen place that was changing out its displays and we've been very happy with it. It was a pickled gray and even tho I know grey is in now (Martha's kitchen and all), I painted it C2 "Fez", a chili pepper color. Here's a pic from when we just moved in last fall:

Good luck, and honor your inner unfitted and funky urges.

sandyponder

Love it, Sandy! I bet it took a lot of vision to see past the grey. I think it'd be awful in grey! But fabulous red.

Good point about honoring your funky urges. Maybe that's a big appeal of unfitted--something doesn't turn out right, you can just swap it out when you find a better piece. So you're free to explore and be daring.

Ha. I think I've found the place. I'm trying to re-organize and improve the looks of a really--honestly, truly--tiny kitchen, not like the behemoths always pictured as "tiny". My house is 825 sq. ft., the kitchen is about 9x8, but it has three doors.

There won't be any wall-moving or door or window relocation, so that's a restraint. I HATE overhead cabinets, think they're pointless and depressing. I LOVE old, stained wood, copper, tin, iron, cracked china, worn linens, the whole nine yards.

I'm looking for some visuals to assist me in organizing all the lovely old stuff I have in my tiny, really tiny, kitchen.

Thanks.

I am thinking about unfitted for a tiny space as well, and this thread was a great read. It is so hard to find information on unfitted kitchens. I just want something unique right now, while I live with it for a few years and unfitted would be great as far as being able to reuse and not waste materials when I do a full kitchen remodel.