IN THIS GUIDE
01  The triangle, and the clearances that outrank it02  The five layouts, compared03  Sink, cooktop, fridge04  Windows, doors and the walking line05  Where to read next
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5 LAYOUTS · 1200 WALKWAY · 900 BENCH · 600 MODULE

Kitchen layouts explained: the room chooses the plan

Five layouts cover almost every kitchen in Oakleigh: single-wall, galley, L-shape, U-shape, and a run with an island. Which one you end up with is decided less by taste than by the room itself — its internal width, where the window sits, and how many doorways people walk through on the way to the back door. This guide sets out how each plan behaves once the dimensions are on paper.

How a layout is drawn for your room

01 · 1200 / 1000 / 400

The triangle, and what outranks it

The work triangle — sink, cooktop, fridge — is a useful first check, not a rule. Keep the three legs short enough that you are not walking the room to drain a pot, and long enough that two people are not fighting for the same square metre. Most kitchens settle somewhere between a metre and two and a half metres per leg.

What actually decides whether a layout works is the set of clearances around it. These are the numbers we test before any plan is drawn, because a triangle can look perfect and still leave a drawer that cannot open:

1000–1200   between two facing runs — under a metre and two people cannot pass; over 1300 and you start walking instead of turning.1200   between an island and the bench behind it, measured from bench face to bench face, with the dishwasher door counted in.300–400   of landing bench each side of the cooktop, and at least one clear stretch beside the sink for the drying rack.400+   on the hinge side of the fridge, so the door swings past 90° and the crisper drawers pull out.600 · 450 · 300   the module widths a run is built from. A plan that is 80mm short of a module is a filler panel you will look at every day.
Measured properly, these numbers are what turn a wish into a buildable drawing — the first four stages of our thirteen-step process.

02 · SINGLE-WALL · GALLEY · L · U · ISLAND

The five layouts, compared

Single-wall

Everything on one run: fridge at one end, cooktop and sink spaced along the bench, tall cabinetry taking the storage upwards because there is no second run to hold it. Common in units and rear extensions where the opposite wall is glazing. It works when the run is long enough to keep the sink and cooktop apart, and when the storage is planned properly — see small kitchen renovations.

Galley

Two parallel runs with a walkway between them. Nothing is more efficient per square metre: the cook turns rather than walks. Put the sink on one run and the cooktop on the other so two people are working across the space, not behind each other. The failure mode is traffic — if both ends of the galley are doorways, the household walks through the working zone all day.

L-shape

Two adjoining walls, which leaves the rest of the room free for a table or a walkway. The most forgiving plan in a Victorian or interwar house where one wall carries the window and another carries a doorway. Its one weak point is the internal corner: it needs a bi-fold or blind-corner pull-out, not a cupboard you reach into blind. That detail belongs in the cabinetry schedule.

U-shape

Three runs around one open side. It gives the most bench and the most storage of any plan, and it suits a household that cooks properly and wants a real pantry wall. It needs internal width: around 2400mm between the outer faces, or the third run closes the room in and the corners swallow the benchtop.

Run plus island

The layout most people ask for, and the one most often forced. An island is only an island if 1200 survives on every side you work from; below that it becomes an obstacle, and a peninsula attached at one end is the better answer. Sizing, seating overhang and whether services run to it are covered in kitchen islands.

03 · SINK · COOKTOP · FRIDGE

Where the sink, cooktop and fridge land

Once the layout is chosen, three fixed points set the rest of the plan: the plumbing, the exhaust run and the entry to the room. Each one is placed against the walls you already have, in the order below.

03 · SINK

The sink goes where the plumbing and the daylight agree

Under a window if the wall allows it, because you stand there longest. On the island only if you accept a waste line through the floor and a bin drawer beside it. Keep the dishwasher within a pace of the bowl, on the side you unload towards, and leave one uninterrupted stretch of bench for draining.

03 · COOKTOP

The cooktop follows the exhaust

Ducting is easier on an external wall, and an overhead rangehood wants a straight run out. Never set a cooktop hard against a return wall or at the end of a bench — you need landing space each side and a splashback that can take the heat.

03 · FRIDGE

The fridge sits at the edge

Put it at the end of a run, near the entry, so groceries and drinks never cross the cooking zone. Check the hinge side, the door swing and the ventilation gap before the cabinetry either side is set out.

A traditional wood-toned kitchen has overhead cabinets, tiled flooring, a breakfast counter, pendant lighting and a large arched window.

04 · ONE WINDOW · TWO DOORWAYS

Windows, doors and the line people walk

Before any layout is chosen, the room is marked up with what cannot move: window sill heights, door swings, the meter box, the waste stack, and the path from the hallway to the back door. Those fixed points usually eliminate two of the five layouts immediately.

A window low in the wall rules out overhead cabinetry on that run, which pushes storage to a tall bank elsewhere. Two opposing doorways rule out a galley used as a corridor. A single wide opening into a living space argues for an L-shape with an island so the cook still faces the room. And a chimney breast or a bulkhead often decides which wall carries the cooktop, because that is where the exhaust can go.

Once the fixed points are recorded, the plan is drawn in module widths and checked against the clearances above — the working method behind every complete kitchen renovation we take on.