If you love cooking, baking and entertaining large groups of guests, an island kitchen is the best design to have in your home. Photos: Canva
Whether you are renovating your home’s existing kitchen or designing a new kitchen for your new apartment, it is essential to embrace the basics of kitchen design.
The journey of designing a dream kitchen is exciting yet intense, overwhelming and extremely complex to the faint-hearted. At the end of the day, you may still hire a professional to assist you.
But at least, with the basic understanding of kitchen design, you can appreciate the value of the design service and communicate better with your hired professional help.
Work triangle
Before we discuss the common types of kitchen designs, one critical rule to understand is the work triangle in a kitchen layout.
What is this rule of the kitchen work triangle? Imagine an invisible triangle connecting three critical points of any functional kitchen – sink, hob and refri-gerator. In every modern-day kitchen, we need these appliances to wash, cook and refrigerate foods like meat, seafood, vege-tables and fruits.
A single-wall kitchen works best in soho units and office pantries with small kitchens.
A work triangle is a simple guide to creating an efficient workflow in the kitchen where you move from each point with ease. The recommended total length of the triangle is around 26ft (7.9m). This works efficiently when, for example, you bring out vegetables from the fridge to wash at the sink, move them to another spot to cut it, and finally cook them at the hob.
When your three points are too far from each other, more time is spent walking from point to point.
It is not only frustrating but inefficient at all for those who often multi-task in the kitchen while cooking and washing in between. Apply this rule early in your kitchen planning. Typically, there are six practical kitchen layouts that you can consider. Let’s breeze through each of them.
A single-wall kitchen works best in soho units and office pantries with small kitchens. The work triangle looks more like a linear line in a single-wall kitchen. If you have additional space, run an island countertop or a dining table parallel to the kitchen for additional countertop space and storage.
A galley kitchen enhances productivity and allows more than one person to work in the kitchen.
When you have a set of cabinets each on both opposing walls in the kitchen, it is called the galley kitchen. Try this layout when you have enough width in a kitchen.
The recommended clear width of the galley is between four and five feet (1.2m - 1.5m). Compared to the single-wall concept, this layout enhances productivity and allows more than one person to work in the kitchen.
An L-shaped kitchen is great for open-space kitchens that flow into the dining room.
Another option for small kitchens is the L-shaped kitchen layout. Imagine extending a single wall layout to an additional counter to form an “L”. The additional countertop makes a lot of difference with the extra space for preparing drinks and food plating.
A common favourite is to incorporate a dining table embraced by the kitchen counter on two sides. An L-shaped kitchen is also great for open-space kitchens that flow into the dining room.
With a U-shaped kitchen, you’ll enjoy plenty of storage space and a sense of spaciousness.
If you have a larger kitchen space with good width, extend the L-shaped kitchen to a third side; achieving the U-shaped kitchen layout. You’ll enjoy plenty of storage space and wonderful spaciousness which allows several people to navigate the kitchen at the same time. If you and your family enjoy cooking together, this layout is the perfect solution.
A peninsular kitchen is achieved when you add a breakfast counter onto a U-shaped kitchen layout.
A peninsular kitchen is achieved when you add a breakfast counter onto a U-shaped kitchen layout. This is also my personal favourite because it allows one to grab a quick bite in the kitchen. It is also practical and saves a lot of cleaning time. I also love the fact that family members can hang around in the kitchen at the same time, cooking at the hob, making toast at the counter and reading the newspaper at the breakfast counter.
This type of layout requires a spacious kitchen and is ideal for large families. The island countertop is placed in the middle of the kitchen, surrounded by kitchen cabinets along the walls of the kitchen. If you love cooking, baking and entertaining large groups of guests, this is the best layout to have in a home.
Luxuriously grand, highly functional and impressive at first sight, it’s the kitchen layout that is built to impress.
With this new knowledge, you may attempt to design your own kitchen with your hired contractor or carpenter. If you require professional design advice, then look for your local kitchen specialists, interior designers or architects. Happy designing!
Tan Bee Eu is a professional architect registered with Lembaga Arkitek Malaysia. She teaches at Universiti Sains Malaysia and has two decades of working experience involving diverse local and international projects in architecture and design. She can be reached at www.betadesignz.com/contact.
If you love cooking, baking and entertaining large groups of guests, an island kitchen is the best design to have in your home. Photos: Canva
An L-shaped kitchen is great for open-space kitchens that flow into the dining room.
A peninsular kitchen is achieved when you add a breakfast counter onto a U-shaped kitchen layout.
A galley kitchen enhances productivity and allows more than one person to work in the kitchen.
With a U-shaped kitchen, you’ll enjoy plenty of storage space and a sense of spaciousness.
A single-wall kitchen works best in soho units and office pantries with small kitchens.
