Kitchen layout dimensions and clearances

Three kinds of number appear below, and they are labelled so you can tell them apart. Guideline means the NKBA planning guideline, which is written in inches and converted here. Default means what the planner draws unless you change it. Confirm means a manufacturer's manual or a local code decides, and the figure given is only what to expect.

Heights

A hood is the one height on this list where the manual wins outright: gas hobs usually need more clearance than induction, and 650 mm is the lower end of what manufacturers allow. The planner flags anything under 650 mm and lets you set the hood higher.

Depths and widths

Walkways and aisles

The gap between two facing runs, or between a run and an island, is the dimension that most often gets squeezed to fit one more cabinet. It should not be. Two open doors, a dishwasher and an oven, facing each other across a 900 mm aisle touch.

Landing and preparation space

Landing space is worktop you can put something down on: the pan coming off the hob, the shopping coming out of the fridge, the plate coming out of the sink. It is measured from the edge of the appliance, at worktop height, on the same run or across an aisle no wider than 1200 mm.

The planner is stricter than the guideline beside a hob and a little looser beside a sink, because the catalogue's 600 mm modules make 500 mm of landing the natural result of one unit either side. Where it disagrees with your designer, the designer wins.

The work triangle

Draw a line from the centre of the sink to the centre of the hob to the centre of the fridge and back. Each leg should be between 1.2 and 2.7 m (4 to 9 feet), the three together between 4 and 7.9 m (13 to 26 feet), no leg should cross an island by more than 300 mm, and the main route through the room should not cut through it. In a measured L-shaped example the three legs come to 7.6 m, comfortably inside the range; in a small galley they come to about 4.3 m.

Doors, swings and loading space

Every door and drawer needs room to open and a person needs room to stand in front of it. The planner reserves 600 mm beyond an open front, 50 mm between a cabinet and a return wall for the handle (150 mm for a fridge, whose door usually needs to swing past 90° to get the drawers out), and keeps a room door's swing clear of every unit. A dishwasher should sit within 900 mm of the sink it shares a waste with (the guideline says 914 mm), and never directly opposite the oven across a narrow aisle.

Sockets and service points

This is where local rules matter most, so the figures below are what to expect, not what to build to. In the United States the National Electrical Code asks for countertop receptacles spaced so that no point along the counter is more than 600 mm (24 inches) from one, on GFCI-protected circuits. Many countries and most installers also keep a socket at least 300 mm from the edge of a sink or hob, which is what the planner checks, and put small-appliance sockets around 1100–1150 mm from the floor so they sit clear of the worktop and its splashback.

The appliances page lists a suggested height for each point a working kitchen needs, from the hood socket at 2050 mm to the purifier drain within 600 mm of its tap. Enter them on the plan and they appear on the elevations and the Setout Sheet for the electrician and plumber to confirm.

What the planner checks

Every dimension above that the planner can measure, it does, while you drag things. The full list of sixteen checks with their exact thresholds is on the appliances and checklist page. A design with no warnings has passed those checks and nothing more: it has not been checked against your appliance manuals, your electrician or your local code.