Tiny House Episode 15: Not so Tiny Kitchen

One room that was particularly important to us when we designed the tiny house was the kitchen; we knew we didn't want it to be tiny. We wanted a functional space that would be appropriate for cooking meals from scratch and cleaning and preparing vegetables from the garden. One of the main issues we saw with the RV designs was that they had awkward kitchens with little counter space and sinks that were next to useless for washing large pots and pans because they were so small. The house we were renting at the time had a kitchen we liked and I discovered that it's dimensions were small enough that, with a bit of tweaking, we could make a similar kitchen work in the tiny house.

Three views of our off grid capable fridge. Center: You can see the old-school cooling system and propane burner. Right: Our refrigerator is set up very similar to a normal fridge but isn't quite as deep.

The kitchen design we came up with is 8' x 7'7". It has a standard-sized double sink and counters of a normal depth. One section of counter is 3' wide and the other section is 4' which gives us two areas of useful size. Additionally, we have enough space that both Aimee and I can work in the kitchen at the same time should the need arise. The appliances are smaller than those found in most conventional kitchens but not as small as what would be found in an RV.

Both the fridge and the range are made by a company called Unique, who specializes in off grid appliances. While they are fairly basic appliances, by todays standards, they do seem to be well built and we haven't had any issues with them in the year and a half in which we have used them.

The refrigerator has a normal layout like you would find in a standard fridge. One thing you might notice is that there isn't quite as much depth as you would expect due to the propane cooling system in the back.

Our refrigerator is 6 cubic feet which is big enough to fit about a weeks worth of fresh food for our family. It has a 2 cubic foot freezer which has also been of adequate size. It operates on either propane or 110V AC power. While we have been very happy with the refrigerator one thing to be aware of is that it doesn't have an auto defrosting feature so this needs to be done manually every month or two.

The controls for the fridge. From left to right: Batteries for lights, igniter, burner indicator, pilot button, temperature control knob, power indicator, mode selector.

The range is a 24" wide propane model, which is a good compromise for those wanting to save some space but still have a enough room to cook normal meals. We can use two large frying pans and a pot on the cooktop at once or four smaller ones. The oven is big enough to fit two normal sized cookie sheets. It also has a broiler at the bottom which is nice to use once in awhile.

There is a good amount of usable counter space between the fridge and the stove.

One aspect that worked out well, since the kitchen was of more normal dimensions, was the ability to buy off the shelf kitchen cupboards and countertops. This saved me a considerable amount of time rather than having to design and construct the storage space myself. I was sure to plan carefully so that I could buy standard countertop widths and not have to cut them down to odd sizes.

Here is the kitchen with everything roughly placed in it's final position. The sink isn't cut in and the pantry was built at a later date.

Here the kitchen is a bit further along with the cupboards in their final positions and the sink, shelves and drying racks installed.

There is still plenty of work to be done in the kitchen but I will save that for future posts!

Thanks for reading everyone! Please upvote, follow and resteem to support this work. As always, comments are welcome and I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about tiny houses.