Designing a New Kitchen Layout

The kitchen is the heart of the home, and no matter how often you use yours for cooking, this will be one of the most highly trafficked areas of your home. Designing a kitchen layout is about more than just finding space for everything or making things look pretty. The best kitchen layouts have been designed for function. Here are some tips for the perfect kitchen design for your space. 

The Kitchen Triangle

Every kitchen has what is called the “work triangle” or the “kitchen triangle.” The three points to this triangle are the sink, the stove, and the refrigerator, which are the most often used fixtures in the kitchen. The triangle doesn’t have to be perfect – few are. For the best layout, though, make sure that each side of the triangle is at least four feet long, but not more than nine feet long. Overall, the three sides should not total more than 25 feet.

The kitchen triangle needs to be unobstructed for best results. That means that you shouldn’t have an island or other obstruction cutting through the paths of the triangle. Doing so will disrupt the flow of the kitchen traffic.

Counter Layout

There are three traditional ways to lay out a kitchen in terms of counter placement. The most popular version is a U-shaped design, where the countertops (and stovetop, sink, etc) cover three walls. You can also work with an L-shaped design, and as the name implies, countertops in this kitchen floor plan cover two adjoining walls. The third traditional design is the galley, which has counter space on two long walls parallel to one another.

The counter layout depends largely on your doors and the length of the room. U-shaped designs work well with a kitchen that is square (or nearly square), while longer rooms work better with L-shaped or galley counter layouts. As you’re planning this, work with graph paper to get an accurate reflect on the size of the room so you can see if your design plan is practical.

Workspace

Without space to work, a kitchen is impractical. When you move into a house, you may have to live with poor design choices that give you little room to work, but if you’re designing your own kitchen, you can take care of potential space problems before they ever arise.

First, consider your space by the sink. If you only have a single basin, you’ll need counter space for a drying rack, which should be right by the sink. The area around the sink should, if possible, have counter space on both sides. You’ll also likely find it useful to have workspace beside the stovetop, and most home chefs like an additional third countertop area to do work. For many meals, you’ll need to be preparing multiple components at once, so you’ll want as many work surfaces as possible.

One way to instantly double the countertop space in your kitchen is to add an island. Even if your kitchen is fairly small, an island might be a good idea – just look for a surface that will match the small size of your floor space, like a tall café table. When considering an island, make sure that adding one will not disrupt the triangle flow we talked about already, or you will constantly find yourself bumping into it.

Dining Room Placement

When you’re laying out your kitchen, you need to know where your dining room will be located so that your floor plan can account for the flow of traffic from one space to the other. Some people with small houses have the dining room table in the kitchen itself, which is fine, but if otherwise, you’ll be transporting food from one room to another. Having to walk around numerous obstacles to do so can be frustrating.

In addition, think about where you’re placing your refrigerator in conjunction with the dining room. You don’t want this appliance to be too far away, as you’ll likely have to get more drinks or ice from the freezer during some of your meals. At the same time, be careful about placing a refrigerator right beside a doorway, since that can lead to blocking problems when the door is open.

One way you can help to eliminate kitchen to dining room flow problems is to build a pass through into your design. Not every kitchen works well with this option, since existing pipes and wall size can be a problem, but at least consider it!

Doors

Lastly, as you’re designing, think about all of the doors that have to swing open in the kitchen. The cabinets are a challenge themselves, but beyond that, you’ll have to contend with oven doors, refrigerator doors, and possibly dishwasher doors as well. You already read a bit about the importance of making sure that the doors of appliances aren’t blocking actual doors into and out of the room, but they should also work with one another and with the flow of the kitchen. Is there enough room between the stove and the island to open the door all the way? When the dishwasher is being loaded, is there enough space to open the refrigerator door? Don’t make the mistake of creating a floor plan that looks good on paper, but is impractical as far as function goes.

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