•Transform your kitchen into a room that serves dual purposes.
•Learn the elements of chic, urban design.

Almost every woman living in a small apartment in a bustling city encounters a familiar challenge: Not enough storage space. Often the accumulated treasures of a young, sophisticated woman end up stashed anywhere extra storage can be found. Interior designer Alison Spear takes a whimsical approach to creating a safe haven for these precious possessions in the rarely used metropolitan kitchen.

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Double the room 

Evoking images of Holly Golightly's apartment in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Spear's Couture Kitchen, featured at the Kohler Design Center, expertly transforms the petite urban kitchen so that it dually serves as an elegant closet and dressing room.

"Couture Kitchen is designed for the urban working woman who has simply run out of space," says Spear. "This room visually demonstrates how a space can be used differently than intended and turns this particular kitchen into a fun and playful space where you never know what you might find behind a cabinet door or inside a drawer."

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Urban design

Contributing to the dressing room effect, mirrors serve to make the tiny space appear larger. Custom mirrors are inset in the elegant spruce-green Canac® cabinets, and a Robern® Métallique™ framed mirrored cabinet is centered directly above the kitchen sink.

The mirror effect continues underneath the cabinets. The backsplash is constructed of custom, brick-like mirrored tiles with a stylish, beveled edge. Additional mirrored elements within the space include the Ann Sacks® Alloy brushed-metal tile floor, and a generous mirror on the kitchen's left wall.

A simple white Carrara marble countertop complements the spruce-green color of the Canac cabinets and softens the metallic elements of the space.

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One pleasant surprise is the infusion of bathroom products in the kitchen--for example, a Purist® wall-mount bathroom faucet paired with Kohler's Poise™ entertainment sink. These petite fixtures create the appropriate scale needed for such a small space.

Other small-scale appliances are found throughout the kitchen to provide the minimal cooking support a busy, urban woman needs. Among these are a Gaggenau cook top, GE compact refrigerator and Avanti wine cooler.

A custom Canac drop-leaf table and clear acrylic stools create a perfect niche for enjoying a snack or cup of coffee. A silver garland pendant chandelier augments the recessed lighting in the ceiling and under cabinets, tying the metal and mirror effect of Couture Kitchen together.

See designer Alison Spear discuss this room. Watch video.