The Degnans

A low ceiling doesn't have to get you down in your kitchen design. Here at Wood & Wire, we prefer to make a feature of those quirky architectural elements and play to their strengths, which is just what we did in the Degnan’s low-ceilinged cottage.

Firstly, in a low-ceiling kitchen design we'd recommend keeping any dark colours down on the base units and leaving the space above eye level free for lighter colours, opening up the space and making it appear larger than it is. As you can see, at the Degnan’s we used black and green laminated plywood cabinets only around the base of their kitchen.

Next up is open shelving. While in some cases open shelving gives the impression of more space, in a low-ceiling kitchen design the opposite can be true. If you’re the kind of person who can’t resist filling a shelf with all your lovely things, then open shelving and a low ceiling aren't likely to work well for you. In this situation, too many things to look at make it a very busy scene, and since the ceilings are already low, you risk feeling like the walls are closing in too. So, unless you’re a minimalist, we'd always opt for closed-wall cupboards and as few of them as you can get away with, and we’d also recommend finishing them in light colours to keep things nice and airy, as we did in this example. Here, we used a mix of open plywood shelving and wall cabinets to keep things looking neat.

Larder units are a great way to maximise storage space in a low-ceiling kitchen design and, when planning them into a scheme, we’d take them all the way to the ceiling and keep them in lighter colours, as shown here. This way you get a full length of storage if your kitchen size will allow, and it’ll help keep the use of the wall cupboards to a minimum.

On this low-ceiling kitchen design we had the additional overhead beam to consider, but with our bespoke solution this wasn’t a big deal, as we were able to easily build around it without compromising the design.

Lastly, in a low-ceiling kitchen design we'd always recommend recessed spot lighting wherever it’s possible, as this keeps the ceiling free of any clutter as well as reducing the risk of head injuries!

Kitchen Cabinets - Birch Plywood | Worktop - Dekton | Kitchen Doors and Drawers - Green, Black and White Coloured Laminate