Nancy Sapper thinks her Voorhees kitchen is on the smallish side, but she hasn’t seen the doll-size kitchen in Justin Spring’s New York City studio apartment.

Spring, the author of The Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook, cooks in a kitchen just 45 square feet in size.

The author had years of practice cooking on a 36-foot catamaran. He strongly recommends little-kitchen consumers severely purge unnecessary gadgets from their tiny spaces — he eliminated a gelato machine — and make use of drawer and closet organizers.

“Yes, indeed. Small is beautiful,” writes Spring.

So how small is small? Sapper’s kitchen is more than twice the dimensions of Spring’s 45-square-foot space — and that doesn’t even include her kitchen dining area. But in suburbia, where many homes feature kitchens so enormous they look like rooms straight out of a Food Network set, her kitchen may seem modest to some.

But that’s only in size. Last summer, her 24-year-old kitchen underwent a massive re-do in the neighborhood of $50,000. It didn’t grow in square footage, but rather efficiency and beauty.

Sleek, warm wood replaced vinyl flooring. Light, painted cupboards with an antique look replaced dark and dreary cabinetry.

“I have a larger sink, deeper and bigger,” Sapper says. “This is all custom cabinetry. It doesn’t bing when you close the doors and I have automatic closure.”

The removal of soffits permitted the installation of taller cabinets, 36 inches in height. Sapper now has so much usable closet space she has room to shelve the goblets she once stored in a carton in her garage.

The custom cabinets attractively disguise appliances, too, like the dishwasher and refrigerator. It gives the kitchen a smooth, uniform look. Previously, the existing white refrigerator stuck out visually next to the dark cabinets like a pale blotch in a black sky.

Travertine marble is the material for an attractive back splash. Recessed and under-cabinet lighting give the room a bright and stylish look. Previously, what Sapper called ugly fluorescent lights illuminated the kitchen. With separate electrical switches, she now can light different areas, including the under-cabinet lights.

“I love the warmth of it,” she says. “It’s a very classy look.”

John Bowling, Sapper’s cabinet designer at DuBell Kitchens in Winslow Township, suggested size matters in kitchen renovations, but only to a point.

“It’s not really the size of the kitchen,” he explains. “It’s getting the most use out of that kitchen.”

Sapper figures she does. The 66-year-old Realtor, who has visited many kitchens, is pleased with her room’s look and practicality. She offered this advice for homeowners embarking on renovation: “Think about it carefully. Get your prices. Visit your vendors . . . You must plan.”

As for author Spring, he suggests in a telephone interview a wait-and-see approach before sinking big bucks into a renovation.

“My feeling is you should work in a space for a year before you renovate,” says Spring, whose book is subtitled, Everything You Need to Know About Setting Up and Cooking in the Most Ridiculously Small Kitchen in the World — Your Own.

Short of renovation and the addition of sleek, new cabinets, Spring recommends tackling clutter. He sees tidiness as a small-kitchen virtue.

“I have become in my early 40s a real neatnik,” he says. “It gives me peace of mind.”

Reach Judith W. Winne at (856) 486-2441 or jwinne@courierpostonline.com

source : www.courierpostonline.com By JUDITH W. WINNE