Kitchen Layout Planning Guide

Why the layout comes first

Doors, handles, colours and even worktops can be changed later without starting again. The layout cannot. Once the sink, cooker and fridge are fixed in place, with pipes, waste and cables run to suit, moving any of them means taking the kitchen apart. That makes the layout the decision to get right first, before anything is chosen for how it looks.

A good layout is one where the jobs you do every day flow from one to the next without crossing back on yourself, where there is somewhere to put things down next to the hob and the sink, and where the room still works when two people are in it. None of that depends on budget. It depends on the shape of the room, where the services can go, and an honest look at how your household actually uses the kitchen.

The work triangle and work zones

The work triangle is the oldest rule in kitchen planning, and it is still a useful starting point. It links the three places you move between most: the fridge, the sink and the hob. The usual guidance is that each side of the triangle should be roughly 1.2 to 2.7 metres long, with the three sides adding up to somewhere between about 4 and 8 metres. Shorter, and the cook is cramped; longer, and every meal involves a walk.

The triangle works well for one cook in a separate kitchen. It works less well in larger, open-plan rooms, with two people cooking, or with an island that holds a sink or hob. There it helps to think in zones instead: a preparation zone with the sink, a run of clear worktop and the bin; a cooking zone with the hob, oven and pan drawers; a clearing-up zone with the dishwasher close to the sink and plates stored nearby; and a storage zone with the fridge and food cupboards near the door you come in by with the shopping.

Whichever way you think about it, the test is the same. Walk through cooking a normal evening meal on the plan, from fetching food out of the fridge to loading the dishwasher, and see whether you would be crossing the room, opening a door into someone, or carrying something hot past a doorway.

The six main layouts

Almost every kitchen is one of these six shapes, or a combination of two of them.

Key measurements

These are the figures we work to when planning. They are general guidance, and appliance instructions always take priority.

• Gap between facing runs About 1 metre at minimum for one cook; around 1.2 metres for two people or where appliance doors face each other.
• Clearance around an island About 1 metre on every side, more where stools are used or appliance doors open.
• Work triangle Each side roughly 1.2 to 2.7 metres; all three together about 4 to 8 metres.
• Worktop beside hob and sink Around 400 to 600 mm of clear worktop on at least one side of each, for pans and dishes.
• Standard unit depth Base units and worktops are usually 600 mm deep; wall units are shallower, typically around 300 to 350 mm.
• Worktop height Standard base units, legs and worktop come to roughly 900 mm, and plinth height can be adjusted to suit taller or shorter cooks.
• Oven and dishwasher doors Open, they project roughly 550 to 600 mm into the room, so they set the minimum floor space in front of them.
• Extractor height Set by the manufacturer of the hood. The minimum above a gas hob is usually greater than above an electric or induction hob.

Planning the storage

Most kitchens have enough cupboard volume. What they lack is storage you can reach. Deep base cupboards with a single shelf hide everything at the back, which is why wide pan drawers have largely replaced them under the hob and the main worktop: you pull the drawer out and see everything at once.

Tall units earn their space. A larder unit with internal drawers or pull-out baskets holds more food than several wall cupboards and keeps it at eye level. Where wall units are wanted, run them to a consistent height so the top shelf is still usable, and consider leaving a section open above the preparation area so the worktop does not feel boxed in.

Corners and small gaps need a decision rather than a filler panel. A 150 mm gap can take a pull-out rack for trays or oils, plinths can hold shallow drawers, and the space above wall units can take cornice or extra cupboards for things used once a year. Plan where the bin, the recycling, the cleaning products and the everyday plates live, because those four decide whether a kitchen stays tidy.

Appliances, sockets and lighting

Decide on the appliances before the layout is finished, because their sizes set the units around them. Integrated appliances sit behind matching doors and need housings built to their exact dimensions; freestanding ones need a gap with a little clearance either side. A fridge door should open towards the worktop you will put food down on, so check the hinge side early.

Keep the dishwasher next to the sink and the bin close to both. Put the oven where its open door does not block the main walkway, and allow worktop beside the hob for hot pans. A tall oven housing beside a run of base units also needs a stretch of worktop next to it for dishes coming out.

Sockets and switches follow the layout, so they are planned with it. Electricians generally keep sockets at least 300 mm from the edge of the sink, and avoid putting them directly above the hob. Integrated appliances are usually wired to switched outlets that can be reached above the worktop, so they can be isolated without pulling the appliance out. New circuits, such as one for an induction hob, must meet Part P of the Building Regulations.

Lighting is the part most often left until last. A ceiling light behind you casts your shadow on the worktop, so plan task lighting under the wall units or above the island, and decide on any plinth or cabinet lighting while the cables can still be run.

Layouts for Derby homes

The age of the house usually points to the layout before anyone has measured. These are the patterns we see most across the city.

What fixes the plan

Before choosing a shape, it helps to know what the room will and will not allow.

Width matters more than length. Below about 2.5 metres across, the realistic choices are a single wall or a tight galley. From about 2.5 to 3 metres, a galley or an L-shape. Above 3 metres, most layouts are possible, depending on length and doors.

Doors and windows break up runs of units. A door in the middle of a wall leaves two short runs, and a kitchen with three doors is a corridor before it is a kitchen. Sometimes moving or blocking one door does more for the layout than any choice of units.

Services decide what is cheap and what is not. A sink needs a waste pipe with a steady fall to the drain, so the further it moves from an outside wall, the harder that pipe is to hide. A gas hob needs a gas supply, and any gas connection must be made by a Gas Safe registered engineer. New electrical circuits, such as one for an induction hob, must meet Part P of the Building Regulations.

Radiators and chimney breasts take up wall space. Base units cannot go in front of a radiator without losing its heat, so it may be worth moving it or swapping it for a tall, narrow radiator or plinth heater. A chimney breast can be built around, used as a feature for the cooker, or removed, which needs structural advice.

Then there is how you cook. One cook or two, cooking from scratch every day or warming food through, eating at a table in the kitchen or in another room, children doing homework while dinner is made: these decide whether you need a tight working triangle, room for two, or space for people who are not cooking.

Knocking through to open-plan

Opening the kitchen into the dining room or back room is one of the most common changes people ask about in Derby’s terraces and semis, and the order of work matters.

First, find out whether the wall is load-bearing. Many walls between a kitchen and the room next to it are. If it is, a structural engineer sizes the steel beam and its supports, the work needs building regulations approval from the council, and the opening is made and signed off before the kitchen goes in. In a listed building, listed building consent may also be needed.

Then plan the new space as one room. Decide where cooking stops and living starts, usually with a peninsula or island, and keep the hob away from the seating. Extraction matters more in an open-plan room, because cooking smells and steam now reach the sofa. The floor finish, lighting and radiators all need to suit the new room, not the two old ones.

Common layout mistakes

• Squeezing in an island

  An island with too little space around it becomes something to walk around rather than work at. If the clearance is not there, a peninsula usually does the job better.

• No landing space

  A hob or sink with no worktop beside it means turning round with a hot pan or wet plates looking for somewhere to put them down.

• Dishwasher away from the sink

  Plates should go from the sink to the dishwasher without being carried across the room, so keep the two next to each other.

• Doors and drawers that clash

  Check that drawers clear handles in corners, that appliance doors do not hit each other, and that the room door does not swing into an open drawer.

• Bin in the wrong place

  The bin belongs in the preparation zone, ideally in a pull-out unit under the main stretch of worktop, not wherever a cupboard was left over.

• Planning for the showroom, not the household

  Open shelving, handleless doors and high-gloss finishes all look best when they are styled. Plan for the kitchen on a Tuesday night, not the photograph.

Planning tools and the site measure

Online planners from the big kitchen retailers are a good way to try out shapes and see roughly what fits. Most retailers also offer design appointments. Use them, but treat the result as a draft.

Planners assume square rooms, level floors and straight walls, which older Derby houses rarely have. They do not show where the waste can run, where the joists go, or whether a wall is load-bearing. A plan that fits on screen can be a few centimetres out in the room, which is the difference between an appliance sliding in and not.

That is why every job we do starts with a visit to measure the room and look at the walls, floor, pipes and wiring. If you are buying your own kitchen, it is worth checking your plan against that site measure before you order. Derbyshire Joinery Specialists was founded by Liam Taylor, who has more than ten years in property and joinery, and our joiners work alongside partner electricians, plumbers and tilers, so the services are planned with the layout rather than after it.

Kitchen layout questions