How to choose a kitchen layout for your actual room

A kitchen layout is decided by the room, not by the showroom. Get the clearances wrong and no amount of expensive cabinetry will make it pleasant to cook in. This guide walks through the working dimensions of each standard layout, how to test whether your room can take an island, and how to organise the space into zones that hold up when two people are cooking at once.

The measurements every kitchen is built from

Kitchen dimensions are unusually standardised, because appliances are. Working from these numbers keeps everything alignable.

Element	Standard	Notes
Base unit depth	600mm (24")	Plus door thickness, so worktop is usually 620–650mm (24.5–26")
Worktop height	900–920mm (36") from floor	Adjustable via plinth legs to suit the cook
Wall unit depth	300–350mm (12–14")	Deeper units at head height start to feel oppressive
Worktop to wall unit	450–600mm (18–24")	Under 450mm and you cannot use the worktop properly
Standard appliance width	600mm (24")	Ovens, dishwashers, most integrated fridges
Slot-in range widths	900mm and 1100mm (36" and 44")	Check the required side clearances
Minimum walkway	900mm (36")	Absolute floor for a single-cook kitchen
Two-cook walkway	1.2–1.5m (48–60")	Lets one person pass behind another at the hob
Facing runs, galley	1.2m (48") between fronts	Below 1.1m two opposing doors clash
Island overhang for seating	300mm (12") minimum	380mm (15") is comfortable for adults
Knee space at a seated overhang	700–750mm (28–30") height	Standard dining height under a raised section

:::warning Measure to the finished surfaces, not the studs. Tiling, plasterboard and skirting all eat width. In a galley under about 2.5m (8'2") wide, 20mm of unaccounted tile can be the difference between a dishwasher door opening and not. :::

Work zones beat the work triangle

The classic work triangle links sink, hob and fridge, with each leg conventionally between about 1.2m and 2.7m (4–9') and the total perimeter kept under roughly 8m (26'). It remains a useful sanity check. If your fridge is eleven steps from the hob, the layout has a problem.

But a modern kitchen has more than three points, so plan in zones instead:

The five zones

1. Store. Fridge, freezer, dry goods. Near the entrance so shopping does not cross the cooking area.
2. Wash. Sink, dishwasher, bin, cleaning supplies. Bin directly below or beside the sink, dishwasher within a step.
3. Prep. The largest continuous run of clear worktop. This is the zone people consistently undersize.
4. Cook. Hob, oven, extraction, utensils, oils, pans in deep drawers below.
5. Serve. Plates and glasses near the dining route, not tucked behind the cook.

Worktop you must not sacrifice

Two figures are worth defending in any layout negotiation:

• Prep run. Aim for a continuous, uninterrupted 900mm–1.2m (36–48") of worktop between the sink and hob. That is the space a chopping board and its bowls actually need.
• Landing zones. At least 300mm (12") of worktop on both sides of the hob, and at least 380mm (15") beside the oven and the fridge for setting hot or heavy things down.

Kitchens with a hob or sink jammed into a corner or against a wall end fail on these figures, and the frustration is daily.

Choosing between the layouts

Single run

Everything along one wall. Suits rooms under about 3m (10') wide, studios and open-plan spaces where the kitchen must visually recede.

• Works when total run is 3m (10') or more; below that the zones collide.
• Trade-off the work triangle collapses into a line, so you walk sideways constantly.
• Fix put a moveable trolley or a small table opposite to create a second surface.

Galley

Two facing runs. Still the most efficient layout per square metre for a serious cook, which is why professional kitchens use it.

• Works when the gap between fronts is 1.2–1.5m (48–60"). Wider than about 1.8m (6') and you start walking too far.
• Trade-off it is a corridor. If it is also a through route to the garden, cooking becomes a contact sport.
• Fix put sink and prep on one side, hob and oven on the other, so the busiest turn is a pivot rather than a walk.

L-shape

Two adjacent runs. The most adaptable layout and usually the right answer for a square-ish room that also holds a table.

• Works when you have two usable adjacent walls of at least 2.4m (8') each.
• Trade-off the corner cabinet. Every corner solution loses volume to the mechanism.
• Fix put the sink or hob in the corner run rather than a blind cupboard, or accept a plain corner cupboard with a pull-out tray.

U-shape

Three runs. Maximum storage and worktop for the footprint.

• Works when the internal opening is at least 1.5m (60") wide, and preferably 1.8m (6') if two people cook.
• Trade-off two corners, and it can feel enclosed with wall units on all three sides.
• Fix drop wall units on one side and use open shelving or nothing at all, so the room breathes.

Island

An island is a room requirement before it is a design choice.

• Works when you can hold 1.0m (39") minimum on every side that is used, and 1.2–1.5m (48–60") on the working side where a dishwasher or oven door opens into the gap. For a room to take a 1m x 2m island with proper clearance all round, you are looking at a minimum of roughly 3.6m x 4m (12' x 13').
• Trade-off islands with a sink or hob need services run through the floor, which is straightforward in a joisted floor and a much larger job in a solid slab.
• Fix if the room is close but not quite there, a peninsula gives most of the benefit with clearance on only two sides.

:::tip Before committing to an island, build it out of cardboard boxes at full size and cook three meals around it. Pay attention to the moment you open the oven and the dishwasher at the same time. That is the clearance that fails first. :::

Comparison at a glance

Layout	Minimum sensible room	Two cooks	Storage per m²	Best for
Single run	3m (10') of wall	No	Low	Studios, open plan
Galley	2.4 x 3m (8' x 10')	Yes, if 1.5m gap	High	Serious cooking, narrow rooms
L-shape	2.4 x 2.4m (8' x 8') of walls	Partly	Medium	Rooms that also seat people
U-shape	2.7 x 3m (9' x 10')	Tight	Highest	Storage-hungry households
Island	About 3.6 x 4m (12' x 13')	Yes	Medium-high	Open plan, sociable cooking

Storage, appliances and the details that age well

Drawers over cupboards

Deep pan drawers in the base units are the single best specification upgrade in a kitchen. Same footprint, but you see everything from above rather than crouching with a torch. Reserve cupboards for tall items and appliances.

Tall units

A run of full-height units at one end gives an oven at a sensible height, a larder and a broom cupboard in about 1.2m (4') of wall. It also breaks up the horizontal band of wall units, which stops a small kitchen reading as a tunnel.

Extraction

An extractor should be at least as wide as the hob, and wider is better. Ducted to outside beats recirculating by a wide margin for moisture and grease removal; recirculating with a carbon filter is the fallback when an external wall is not reachable. Mounting heights vary by appliance and by fuel type, so follow the manufacturer's stated clearance above the hob rather than a general rule, particularly over gas.

Worktop materials

Material	Durability	Heat	Maintenance	Relative cost
Laminate	Good until the edge chips or gets wet	Poor	None	Lowest
Solid timber	Dents and marks, sands back	Poor	Oiling, ongoing	Low to mid
Engineered quartz	Very hard, stain resistant	Moderate, can mark	Almost none	Several times laminate
Granite	Very hard	Good	Occasional sealing	Similar to quartz
Stainless steel	Extremely tough	Excellent	Shows scratches	Mid to high, fabrication-dependent
Sintered stone	Extremely hard	Excellent	Almost none	Highest of the common options

Choose by how you cook, not by how it photographs. If you put hot pans down without thinking, timber and laminate will punish you.

:::budget In most kitchen quotes, the carcasses are a smaller share than people expect and the worktop, appliances and installation labour are larger. If money is short, keep good carcasses and modest fronts, then upgrade doors later. Refronting a sound kitchen costs a fraction of replacing one. :::

Lighting and finish

Under-cabinet lighting is not optional in a working kitchen, for the shadow reasons set out in the layered lighting plan. Plan the circuits during first fix, following the sequence in renovation order of work, because retrofitting neat under-cabinet wiring after tiling is unpleasant.

For finishes, matt or satin cabinet fronts hide fingerprints far better than high gloss, and mid-tone colours hide wear better than either bright white or very dark units.

The short version

• Start from the fixed standards: 600mm (24") base depth, 900mm (36") worktop height, 900mm (36") minimum walkway.
• Plan five zones rather than three points, and defend a 900mm–1.2m (36–48") uninterrupted prep run.
• Galley is the most efficient layout, L-shape the most adaptable, U-shape the most storage-dense.
• An island needs roughly 3.6 x 4m (12' x 13') of room to work; otherwise use a peninsula.
• Specify deep drawers instead of base cupboards and duct the extractor outside where you can.
• Spend on carcasses, worktop and appliances; save on fronts, which can be replaced later.