High-End Kitchen Appliances for a Small but Stylish Space

Nothing sets you up for the day like a strong coffee. For many, this morning ritual is non-negotiable as it helps to start the day on the right foot.

If you are accustomed to grabbing your coffee on the run, think of the money you will save on that daily visit to the well-known coffee shop brands. At the price they charge for a skinny white or a decaf Americano, you will soon save enough to justify the cost of a coffee machine, which is great because these machines aren’t cheap.

Take the Miele CM6350 Countertop Coffee Machine for example: this thing will set you back over $2,000, but it makes excellent coffee. It looks good, is super-quiet, and feels more compact compared to others at the same price point.

This coffee maker has a ton of extra features, like a cup warming rack to keep the coffee warm for when you are ready to drink it, a programmable menu that allows you to select the drink that’s right for you, and a milk frother that helps to make rich and creamy cappuccinos. The only negative is that it doesn’t allow you the option of using disposable water filters. On the one hand, you save on that cost, but on the other, you have to ensure you descale the coffee maker regularly to stop the build-up of limescale.

If you live in a small space, a good microwave oven is a necessity, not a luxury. No compact kitchen should be without the space-saving and time-saving gifts of a microwave oven. They take up a lot less countertop space than they ever did and can perform many of the functions of a conventional oven, including browning, grilling, and a convection setting. Best of all, they cost a fraction of the money to power and run.

The Master Chef 5 Ovens in 1 microwave is an excellent example of a versatile, and compact modern microwave that frees up space and time in your kitchen. It’s sleek, comes with a trim kit to set it into neatly into a cabinet, and the drop-down door frees up space on the countertop.

At just over $600 it isn’t a budget buy, but for that price you get a microwave that bakes, broils, grills, roasts, and microwaves, as well as a convection setting and a massive 1700 watts of maximum power. It even has a smart brain that enables it to automatically select the correct cooking times and temperature to remove the guesswork from mealtimes. The only negative that comes to mind is that if you are catering for a larger gathering, a microwave isn’t going to offer you the most significant capacity.

No small kitchen would be complete without a compact fridge freezer. It is possible to purchase countertop varieties, but frankly, they are too small. We would recommend that you look for is a compact version of a standard fridge freezer that fits into a smaller space in the kitchen.

Slimline fridge freezers vary in size If you want to maintain the right style for your kitchen theme, it should look and feel like a full-size fridge freezer, offering the illusion of space without taking up too much room.

One of the best compact fridge freezers on the market is the Midea WHD black fridge freezer, which has been specially designed to cater to apartment and small space living. It has an ample fresh capacity of 2.2 cu ft, with a 0.9 cu ft freezer compartment located on the top; more importantly, it looks like a standard fridge freezer. It comes in black so should fit most modern color schemes and styles, and because it’s compact it’ll be relatively inexpensive to run.

The only downside to choosing this apartment-style fridge freezer is that it seems like a sizeable sum of money for not a lot of fridge freezer. When you select a smaller fridge freezer, and many other compact appliances, you often find you pay more for less.

Who wants to spend their valuable time with their arm elbow deep in a bowl of soapy water, scrubbing the dishes? It’s not the most glamorous of domestic duties, and it’s certainly not kind to your hands. Every stylish kitchen needs a dishwasher, and small spaces are no different. A dishwasher not only saves you time, but it also saves you money too, with the average machine using less water than a sinkful of dishwater.

There’s also the superior cleanliness that a dishwasher can provide: every plate, cup, bowl, and spoon gets washed to remove every trace of dirt to leave you with cleaner dishes than you could ever hope for when hand washing them.

You could choose a countertop dishwasher that typically holds up to 6 place settings, but that might be a step in the wrong direction as they can be cumbersome. Having a microwave, a coffee maker, and a dishwasher on your work surface is going to make your kitchen look crowded, so we recommend going for a slimline version instead that sits under the counter or in a defined space.

This Bosch 18” 800 Series is a great addition to any compact kitchen. It’s super-quiet, running at 44dB, making it one of the quietest dishwasher brands in the U.S. Even though it is a slimline model, it still has a third shelf maximizing the inner space by another 30 percent.

Food processors are essential for modern living. With hectic work life and busy schedules, we don’t have the time to stand dicing and slicing in preparation for the evening meal.

That’s where a food processor comes into its own. It allows you to prepare complicated and numerous ingredients quickly to remove the chore out of cooking. They slice, dice, grate, mash, and blend with the flick of a switch, halving the prep time to save you the effort.

One of the best food processors on the market is the Breville BFP 800BSXL Sous Chef model. It retails at just over $350, so by no means is this a cheap device, but it comes with 5 multi-function discs, 3 blades, a 5.5-inch feeder chute to avoid pre-cutting most fruit and vegetables, and a massive 3.8-liter mixing bowl. When you’re done mixing ingredients, you can toss most of the detachable elements in the dishwasher for the ultimate in convenience.

The only thing to consider when investing in a food processor is where to store it. They are big, bulky items with awkwardly shaped bodies, so putting them away will take up valuable cupboard space in the kitchen.

If you want something more substantial than a microwave to cook on, then you’d better look at a more conventional range to meet your needs. There are some fantastic slimmer models out there, typically 24 inches in width, designed especially for compact living spaces.

What the freestanding range offers you is greater capacity, which is perfect if you like to cater for larger gatherings. Generally speaking, these stoves have 4 burners or rings depending on whether it’s an electric variety or gas as well as a multi-functional oven with adjustable racks.

The Ancona Gourmet Series is one of the best examples of a compact range available. It comes in ultra-modern stainless steel, which is right on current trend, and it has a 4 burner gas cooktop with an 8-function electric oven. Dual fuel is often the best combination in a range, especially if the electric oven offers a convection option like the Ancona. Because it is a smaller model, the capacity is reduced so you may struggle with that family size turkey at Christmas, but it should cope with the mundane daily tasks you throw at it.

Today’s toaster ovens are a far cry from those you might remember as a kid. If you have a small kitchen, a toaster oven could transform the way you cook. They are versatile and take up little countertop space, which makes them the ideal kitchen aid, whatever the size of your room.

So how good are they? They bake, brown, broil, roast, toast, reheat, and keep warm. In the case of the Cuisinart TOA-65, it even has an air-fry function for healthier results. This toaster oven almost negates the need to have a standard range, and if you marry the microwave with this thing, you have the ultimate in small space cooking tools.

At close to $300, this toaster oven is expensive, but you really do get what you pay for.