Kitchen design

The job the room is hired for

A kitchen is hired for cooking, and cooking is a path: fridge to sink to hob, walked hundreds of times a week. Keep that triangle tight (each leg 1.2–2.7m), keep landing space beside each station, and keep through-traffic out of it, and almost any style succeeds on top. The modern complication is audience — kitchens are now rooms people sit in — which adds a second rule: the cook faces the room somewhere in the plan, or the kitchen’s social ambitions stay theoretical.

Clearances that decide the layout

• Work triangle legs 1.2–2.7m; total circuit under 8m.
• Landing zones: 40cm beside the hob, 45cm each side of the sink, 40cm at the fridge’s opening side.
• Aisles: 110cm for one cook, 120–130cm where two work or an island invites leaning.
• Counter runs: 90cm of continuous prep surface somewhere, unbroken by hob or sink.

Lighting it

Task first: continuous under-cabinet light over every worktop, a strong source over the sink and hob. Then the social layer — pendants over island or table, dimmable — so the room can go from surgery-bright at 6pm to dinner-warm at 8.

The mistakes this room attracts

• The triangle broken by an island, so every pan of boiling water travels around furniture.
• Zero landing space beside the hob or fridge — the daily juggling act.
• One central ceiling light, guaranteeing the cook works in their own shadow at every station.
• Corner cupboards without hardware, archiving cookware by inaccessibility.

When it is small

Small kitchens beat big ones at the actual job — everything is a step away. Protect the 90cm prep run, hang what can hang, go full-height with wall units, and resist the island: a small kitchen with a clear aisle cooks better than a big one furnished into detours.