Chicago Bungalow Kitchens: Maximizing Your Space for a Healthier Life

While open concept kitchens of the 21st century reign supreme, original Chicago bungalow kitchens made up for their small stature with plenty of might. Initially, from 1910-1940, Chicago real estate developers architected bungalow kitchens to allow one person (i.e. the woman of the house) to work efficiently. Despite the dubious history of Chicago bungalow design, many homes still show its history.

This bungalow was no different in that regard as Mise En Place Home Edits faced several challenges for maximizing the most out of its kitchen space. 

Chicago Bungalow Kitchens: Recognizing the Challenge

When organizing Chicago bungalow kitchens, it is important to recognize what type of kitchen you will be working with. In this instance, Mise En Place Home Edits reimagined a galley-style kitchen. A galley kitchen's layout is characterized by two parallel countertops that incorporate a walking area in between. As previously mentioned, Cook County originally designed kitchens to be tight spaces, and this one was no different.

Starting off, this galley-style kitchen presented serious spatial challenges. The kitchen contained numerous cabinets. However, it also stored several appliances and cooking equipment. Meanwhile, the drawers fell victim to an age-old issue: organization. Items laid about, often requiring a search and rescue team to find the vegetable peeler. 

Chicago Bungalow Kitchens: Implementing a Plan of Attack

Whether tackling Chicago bungalow kitchens or another room of the house, implementing a plan of attack is vital. For Mise En Place Home Edits, we started with an open closet. To give a better idea of the home’s layout, the architects created the open closet in the dedicated guest bedroom. The guest bedroom remained on the other side of the kitchen.

Utilizing a couple of metal storage shelves, courtesy of the good folks at Home Depot, we build additional shelf storage beyond that. All of this shelving and storage space went to less-used items. Some of these seldomly used items entailed a deep fryer, mixer, slow cooker, and holiday-only roasting pans. Taking this kitchenware out of play meant freeing up counter and cabinet space.

Next, we stacked the commonly used pots and pans. Nowadays, most kitchens feature and assortment of organization devices for pots and pans because they tend to be plentiful. We implement pot racks to keep them vertical, as opposed to horizontal. As I mentioned in my last piece, taking advantage of vertical space allows for more room to play. Plus, the vertically stacked pots and pans allow homeowners to see what they have instead of trudging through kitchenware every time they want to steam vegetables.

But our storage devices did not stop there, either. From the pantry, the homeowner had several storage bins and baskets for placing like-minded items. This cuts down on losing materials as time goes on. Finally, we moved the assortment of spices into the pantry, giving the homeowners more open space adjacent to the stove.

Summary

Whether tackling a bungalow kitchen organization project, or another room entirely, following principles of cleanliness and pragmaticism permits homeowners to maximize their living space. But sometimes it is challenging undertaking a big project like this on your own.

For those times, contact the judgment-free, Chicago organizational experts at Mise En Place Home Edits!