Anyone who has a small kitchen knows one thing is certain: There’s never enough counter space.
Or cabinets. Or drawers. Or kitchen and pantry shelves. There’s just not enough space in general. But let’s stay focused on countertops for today, shall we?
Is it just me? Perhaps. Give a little wiggle room and I’ll fill it with a knick-knack or decor item. And that’s before the cooking starts or the kids run through the doors and dump their stuff. Space is a luxury and let’s just say that with 3 kids and being home most of the time during the pandemic, I’ve become acutely aware of just how important it is.
So! Countertops. They’re coveted. A kitchen countertop, in particular, is arguably one of the most-used surfaces in a home, no? And given that I’ve got so many fun and interesting decor items to display, I love to use them! But that whole space issue becomes a problem, so I’m forever changing up what’s on our kitchen countertops.
Enter: Cookbooks. They’re one of those items that a lady needs on hand! (Especially me, who is not known as a great cook and needs a little help.) But they just take up so much darn room.
If you’re like me and constantly battle the space game with your cookbooks, particularly in the kitchen, I’ve got two small kitchen cookbook display suggestions for you. These will help to keep your cookbooks readily on hand for when you need them, while still looking pulled together and leaving room for all the other stuff, too.
Two Easy Small-Kitchen Cookbook Display Ideas
Small Kitchen Cookbook Display Tip #1: Leverage A Tray
There’s nothing like using a tray to keep things compartmentalized, especially when you’re working with limited space. Trays help decor look organized and bring visual cohesion to displays.
I tried simply putting my cookbooks on the countertop with bookends, and it failed miserably. Why? First, visually, it was just kind of eh. But the real kicker was that between washing dishes and hands, water got on the counters and trickled onto the bottoms of the books, ruining some of them. To top it off, my kids dumped toys and other musings nearby, while Doug and I dropped mail and other random daily items, and it all started to look super cluttered.
Adding a simple tray to hold the cookbooks simply helped to visually break up the space. It said, “This is for the books. Everything else can go around me, but the books have a spot. Carry on!” Plus, the tray helped to protect the cookbooks from general messes – liquid or otherwise.
My favorite place to shop for trays is West Elm — they have so many beautiful options. The tray shown in the images here is the Lacquer Wood Tray in white, which I also have in gold! I love these because they’re high quality, easy to clean, and are the perfect size. They look great in any room of the house — I’m forever changing up my trays and how I style them — so they’re also fun to mix and match!
Small Kitchen Cookbook Display Tip #2: Leverage Shelving
This may seem super obvious, but the truth is that often the best solves are the most simple. After many different ways of styling our cookbooks in our kitchen, I’ve found that my preferred route is by bringing the cookbooks up and leveraging our shelving. We have limited cabinet space, and all are being used for kitchen necessities like plates and cookware, but we do have some open shelves that are perfect for display decor like cookbooks.
Leveraging shelving is the best way to amplify our countertop space, while protecting the cookbooks by bringing them off the high-trafficked areas. The only downfall is that they’re *slightly* less easy to grab, especially the cookbooks on the top shelf, but that’s an easy workaround that isn’t a huge deal for us.
