Kitchen Layout Ideas That Actually Work

Governing dimensionClear width between opposing walls, measured at three points

A layout is chosen for you long before you have an opinion about it. Room width, the position of the back door, where the window falls and how many people walk through on the way to the laundry will each rule out an option. Start with those four constraints and the list of workable plans is usually two, sometimes one. Everything after that is cabinetry and finish.

Decided firstWidth, doors, window, traffic — then the layout

Four layouts, and the room each one suits

Read each one against the plan you have, not the kitchen you saw. The note under each heading is the condition that has to be true for it to work.

Galley

Two parallel runs. It is the most efficient plan per square metre and the most sensitive to width: too narrow and two open doors meet in the middle, too wide and you are walking the length of the room for every task. It suits the long rear rooms common in Bentleigh weatherboards and semis.

Works when1000–1200 mm clear between opposing bench fronts

L-shape

Two adjacent walls, leaving the rest of the room free for a table or a run of glazing. It is the easiest plan to open onto living space and the easiest to under-use, because the corner absorbs a cupboard unless it is drawn as a proper corner solution from the start.

Works whenTwo usable walls meet and the third holds a door or window

U-shape

Three runs wrapping the cook. It carries the most storage and bench per floor area of any plan, but it closes the room in and needs real internal width before it stops feeling like a corridor with an end wall. Two corners means two corner decisions.

Works whenAt least 2400 mm of internal width between the two side runs

Island or peninsula

An island is a fourth run that has to be walked around on every side, so it demands more width than any other plan. Where the room is short of that, a peninsula gives you the same bench and seating off one fixed end and only two aisles to keep clear. Sinks and cooktops in an island bring services with them, which is a floor decision, not a bench decision.

Works whenRoom width carries a 900 mm island plus two working aisles

Sizing, seating and services are set out on Kitchen Islands.

The numbers that settle the argument

These are planning figures, checked against the site measure before anything is drawn. Most layout disputes end the moment they are written on the plan.

01 Galley aisle1000–1200 mm, front of bench to front of bench02 Single-cook minimum900 mm, and tight the moment a dishwasher is open03 Island aisle1000 mm on the working side, 1100 mm where people pass

04 Bench height900 mm standard; 920–950 mm suits taller households05 Seating overhang300 mm knee depth, roughly 600 mm of width per seat06 Door swingsOven, fridge and dishwasher arcs drawn before the island is fixed

Doors, windows and the path through the room

In most older Melbourne homes the kitchen is also a corridor. People cross it to reach the back door, the laundry or the garden, and that path is fixed by the building, not the plan. Keep it running along the edge of the work zone rather than through it and a modest kitchen behaves like a larger one.

Windows decide almost as much. A window over the sink rules out overhead cabinets on that run, which has to be made up elsewhere — usually in tall storage or drawers. A second window on a side wall often makes an L-shape the only honest option. Where a door swings into the room, measure the arc before you commit a bench to that wall.

Traffic ruleThe through-path runs beside the work zone, never across it

Use the triangle as a check, not a rule

The old work triangle — sink, cooktop, fridge — still catches obvious mistakes, like a fridge marooned at the far end of a galley. What it does not describe is a kitchen with two cooks, a coffee station and a dishwasher that has to be unloaded while someone else is chopping. Draw the triangle, confirm no leg is absurd, then plan in zones instead.

Zone 01Store — fridge and pantry together, nearest the entry pointZone 02Wash — sink, bin drawer and dishwasher within one pivotZone 03Prep — the longest uninterrupted bench you can hold, sink sideZone 04Cook — cooktop with landing space either side, never at a cornerZone 05Serve — crockery and drawers closest to the table or island

Tight rooms need the zones compressed rather than dropped — see Small Kitchen Renovations and the guide to small kitchen ideas.

Turning a layout into a drawing

Once the room is measured, the workable plans reduce quickly and the conversation moves to cabinetry, benchtop and services. That documented plan is what a quote is priced from.

Request a quote → or ask a layout question