Kitchen design tips
The kitchen is the most-used room in the house and the one with the most irreversible decisions. Get the layout, workflow, and joinery right before you choose a tap or a splashback tile.
- Keep the work triangle between 4 and 8 metres, with no single leg under 1.2 m or over 2.7 m
- Choose drawers over doors for base cabinets, the most common kitchen regret
- Plan a double power point (GPO) for roughly every metre of usable bench
- Lock in appliances early, some have long lead times and need a dedicated circuit
Layout types
Choosing the right layout for your space
Kitchen layout is determined almost entirely by the room's shape and dimensions. Unlike other design decisions, you cannot change the layout after construction without significant cost. Settle this decision before engaging a cabinet maker.
The work triangle
Positioning sink, fridge, and cooktop
The work triangle connects the three primary activity zones in a kitchen: the sink, the refrigerator, and the cooktop. The combined perimeter should sit between 4 and 8 metres, and no single leg should be less than 1.2 m or more than 2.7 m. Triangles that are too tight feel cramped; triangles that are too large mean excessive walking during cooking.
The triangle should not be interrupted by traffic paths, doorways, or fixed obstacles such as an island. If a through-corridor cuts across it, people moving through the kitchen will constantly interrupt the cook. This is one of the most common layout mistakes in open-plan renovations.
Bench workflow zones
Beyond the triangle, think of the bench as a sequence of zones in the logical order of meal preparation. From left to right in a typical right-handed kitchen: a landing zone beside the fridge for groceries, a prep zone of at least 900 mm (ideally 1200 mm), a cooking zone at the cooktop, and a cleanup zone centred on the sink with the dishwasher directly below.
The cleanup zone is the most frequently used part of any kitchen. Position the sink where you can look out a window or into the room rather than into a wall, and allow at least 400 mm of bench either side for stacking and draining.
Joinery and storage
Drawers versus doors
The most common regret from kitchen renovations is specifying too many door-fronted base cabinets and not enough drawers. Drawers let you see and reach the full contents without crouching, making them superior for almost every kitchen item except bins and large pots. A kitchen with drawer stacks for the majority of base cabinets, and doors reserved for the bin cabinet and any tall storage, will function significantly better day to day.
Every item visible and reachable from a standing position. Best for pots, utensils, dry goods.
Items behind doors require crouching, and the back of the cabinet is difficult to access. Better for bins or bulky items.
Overhead cabinets and clearances
Overhead cabinets are typically 600–720 mm tall and 300–350 mm deep. The gap between the bench top and the underside of the overhead cabinet should be at least 600 mm, typically 600–720 mm, enough for a stand mixer and for most adults to work comfortably. Mounting overheads too low makes the bench feel oppressive; too high and the upper shelves become inaccessible without a step stool.
Running overhead cabinets to the ceiling eliminates the dust-collecting void above them and adds useful storage, but the uppermost shelf becomes difficult to reach without a step. Specify a dedicated step-stool storage location if you do this.
Pantry options
A dedicated pantry is one of the highest-value additions to a kitchen, even at modest scale. The three most common configurations are:
Corner solutions
The inside corner in an L or U-shaped kitchen is unavoidable dead space unless it is designed for. The standard options are a lazy Susan carousel, a Le Mans pull-out (a kidney-shaped shelf that swings out of the corner), a corner drawer system, or an open shelf at the corner with the adjacent cabinets angled to access it. Avoid designing a kitchen where the corner simply cannot be reached, you will end up storing seldom-used items there and gradually forgetting they exist.
Appliance placement
Oven and rangehood heights
If your budget and space allow only one upgrade in the joinery specification, it is usually the tower oven.
Where the manufacturer's instructions specify a greater clearance, follow the larger figure. The rangehood width should match or exceed the cooktop width. Confirm the rangehood's electrical and ducting rough-in with your builder before the walls are closed.
Refrigerator position and clearances
The refrigerator should be accessible from outside the active cooking zone so family members can reach it without interrupting the cook. Position it at the entry end of the kitchen run, with a landing bench of at least 400 mm adjacent to it, somewhere to set things down when loading and unloading.
Check the appliance specification for required clearances. Most refrigerators need roughly 25 mm at each side and 50 mm at the rear for ventilation, but always confirm against the manual, as some models need more. French-door and side-by-side models have wide door swings that can conflict with adjacent cabinets; check the door opening radius before confirming the cabinetry dimensions.
Dishwasher location
The dishwasher belongs immediately adjacent to the sink, ideally within one cabinet width, so scraping, rinsing, and loading are a single motion rather than a walk across the kitchen. Which side of the sink it sits on depends on your dominant hand: right-handed people typically find it more natural to have the dishwasher to the left of the sink so the door opens toward the dish rack.
Induction versus gas
The cooktop fuel is one of the biggest decisions in a new kitchen, and the balance has shifted decisively toward induction. Induction heats the pan directly through an electromagnetic field; gas sends most of its heat past the pan.
Power, waste and services
Power points and circuits
Too few power points is one of the most common post-renovation regrets, and it is fixed only at the electrical rough-in stage, once the splashback is on, adding an outlet means cutting it open. Plan generously: a useful rule of thumb is a double GPO for roughly every metre of usable bench, positioned above the splashback (around 150 mm above the benchtop), so kettle, toaster, blender, and chargers can all run at once. Map your bench appliances before the electrician arrives, not after.
Major appliances need their own dedicated circuits: the oven and an induction cooktop each draw enough current to require a separate high-amperage circuit (an induction cooktop is typically hard-wired, not plugged in), and the dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator each want their own outlet. If the island carries appliances or is used for homework and devices, plan power into it, a pop-up or recessed side outlet, which means running conduit under the slab or floor before it is closed. All of this falls under the AS/NZS 3000 wiring rules and must be set out with your electrician at rough-in.
Bins, waste and recycling
Bin storage is easy to leave until last and then regret. The most workable solution is a pull-out bin cabinet between the prep zone and the sink, so scraps go straight from board to bin and from bin to rinse without crossing the kitchen, but kept just outside the main work triangle so it is not underfoot while cooking. A 450–600 mm cabinet typically houses a twin pull-out for two streams.
Plan for the number of streams your council actually collects. Australian kerbside collection is moving to three, and in many areas four, bins: general waste, commingled recycling, and a separate FOGO (food organics and garden organics) stream, so a single bin and a recycling tub no longer cuts it. Allow for a multi-compartment pull-out, plus a small benchtop or in-drawer caddy for daily food scraps that you empty into the FOGO bin.
Island design
Sizing and clearances
Surfaces and finishes
Benchtop materials
The benchtop is the surface you will use every day and the one most likely to show wear. Common options in the Australian market:
No longer available for new kitchens. The manufacture, supply, processing and installation of engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs has been prohibited Australia-wide since 1 July 2024, with an import ban from 1 January 2025, due to the silicosis risk to fabricators. Existing benchtops are safe in place but cannot be cut or re-fabricated. Specify porcelain or natural stone instead.
Marble, granite, quartzite. Unique character; every slab is different. Marble etches and stains with acidic liquids. Granite and quartzite are harder and more durable. Requires sealing on installation and periodically thereafter.
Highly resistant to heat, scratch, and UV. Lightweight compared to stone. Joins are visible and the material chips at edges if impacted. Growing in popularity for outdoor kitchen applications.
Warm, tactile, and repairable. Requires regular oiling. Not suited near the sink unless sealed with a waterproof finish. Butcher block configurations are practical for prep zones.
The most affordable option. Modern high-pressure laminates are durable and available in a wide range of finishes. Not heat-resistant; joining strips are visible at corners and ends.
The professional kitchen standard. Hygienic, heat-resistant, and durable. Scratches over time, which many consider acceptable patina. Cold and loud compared to stone.
Benchtop edge profiles
The edge profile affects how the benchtop reads in the room, how it feels to lean against, and how it performs over time. Square or pencil-rounded edges look modern and minimal; bullnose edges are softer and more traditional. A mitred edge creates the appearance of a thicker slab and suits contemporary kitchens where the benchtop is a feature material.
Splashbacks
The splashback occupies the zone between the bench top and the underside of the overhead cabinet, typically around 600 mm of wall. It must be waterproof, heat-resistant behind the cooktop, and easy to clean. The most common choices are:
Kitchen lighting
Layering light in a kitchen
The kitchen needs more deliberate lighting than any other room because it combines a task-intensive work environment with a social space. A single overhead fitting is inadequate. Design all three layers before your electrician does the rough-in.
Common mistakes
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