Nothing is more frustrating than trying to plan a big family meal in a tiny kitchen.

If your home’s layout is short on space, there are a couple design tricks that can give your kitchen some elbow room. You can increase your space without compromising on style.

To give homeowners some hope for their micro-kitchen, we put together a list of design tips that will help you plan out a design that maximizes your space and give your decor a refreshing lift.

Consider Shallow Cabinets

Instead of choosing a stock-sized cabinet from a local hardware store, customizing your cabinets to shallow measurements that better suit the space is the way to go. Shallow or slimmer cabinets can open floor space and can actually improve the organization of your day to day items.

Skip the Double Sink

Do you really have a need for a double sink or is that just a graveyard for dishes you don’t want to do. Choosing a single basin sink can help you resist the urge to fill the sink with last night’s dishes and free up over a foot or more of counter space for what really matters.

Choose Compact

Opting for smaller appliances is one of the biggest underutilized tricks. Just because you’re scaling down doesn’t mean you’ll be cooking on miniatures. Appliance companies have smaller models specifically to accommodate the needs of a smaller kitchen. Even choosing a compact dishwasher saves a ton of cabinet space.

Install Cabinet Lighting

What’s worse than a tiny kitchen? A dark one. Adding some touches of ambient light beneath your cabinets can help you shed some light on the subject. These lights are easy to install and have long lifespans.

Take back your kitchen space.

Whether you’re ditching the hardware on your cabinets or brightening things up a little bit with some cabinet lighting, giving yourself more kitchen space is easier than you might think.