What is the minimum width for a galley kitchen?

Two 600 mm deep runs and a 1000 mm aisle need a room 2200 mm wide, wall face to wall face; 2400 mm gives the 1200 mm aisle that lets two people pass and two facing doors open. Below about 2100 mm one run has to go, and the room becomes a single-wall kitchen. The planner warns below 1000 mm and flags a conflict below 900 mm.

Which side should the sink and hob be on?

Put the sink and the hob on the same run, with the dishwasher beside the sink, and the fridge and tall storage on the other. That keeps the wet and hot work on one side, the work triangle short, and stops two appliance doors from opening into each other across the aisle. If the plumbing forces the sink across from the hob, offset them so the dishwasher and oven doors do not face.

Can a galley kitchen have a door at both ends?

Yes, and then it is a corridor as well as a kitchen. Keep the aisle at 1200 mm so someone can walk through while a door is open, keep the hob away from the through-route, and put the fridge at the end nearest the dining side so nobody crosses the cooking zone for a drink.

Is a galley kitchen bad for resale or for two cooks?

A galley with a 1200 mm aisle is one of the most efficient layouts there is: everything is within a step. It only feels cramped when the aisle is squeezed under 1000 mm or when both runs are tall units. Keep one run low, with wall cabinets or open shelves above, and the room reads as wider.

Galley Kitchen Layout With Dimensions: Aisle Width & Example

When a galley suits the room

A galley is the answer to a room between about 2200 and 3000 mm wide and longer than it is wide, with the door at one end or both. Wider than 3000 mm and the aisle becomes a gap you shout across; the room wants an L or an island instead. Narrower than 2200 mm and only one run fits, which is a single-wall kitchen.

The aisle

Galley aisle widths and the room they need
Aisle	Millimetres	Room width with two 600 runs	Notes
Tight, one cook	900–1000	2100–2200	Facing doors touch when both are open
Guideline, one cook	1000–1070	2200–2270	NKBA 42 inches
Two cooks, or a through-route	1200	2400	NKBA 48 inches; the comfortable galley
Planner warning / conflict	1000 / 900	2200 / 2100	Measured worktop edge to worktop edge

Measure the aisle between worktop edges, not cabinet fronts: the worktop overhangs by 20 mm each side. And remember that a dishwasher door drops 600 mm into the aisle and an oven door about 450 mm, so in a 1000 mm aisle they must not face each other.

Which side gets what

The usual division is wet and hot on one side, cold and dry on the other. Sink, dishwasher and hob share a run, which keeps the plumbing on one wall and the two landing zones next to each other; fridge, larder and the oven housing take the other run, with the fridge at the end nearest the door so nobody walks through the cooking zone to get to it. The work triangle then crosses the aisle once, fridge to sink, and stays short.

The starter layout

The planner's galley starter is deliberately generous: a 4600 × 3200 mm room, which leaves a 2000 mm aisle, so that everything fits before you shrink it to your own room. The back wall carries a filler, drawers, the oven housing, the sink, the dishwasher, more drawers and the fridge; the front wall carries drawers, the hob with its hood, a base cabinet and a tall larder, with the door at its far end.

Dimensioned floor plan of a galley kitchen, 4600 by 3200 mm: drawers, oven housing, 900 mm sink cabinet, dishwasher, drawers and refrigerator along the back wall; drawers, hob with hood, base cabinet and tall larder along the front wall; a door at the right end of the front wall; a 2000 mm aisle between the runs — The galley starter's floor plan as the planner exports it. Shrink the room's depth to 2400 mm and the walkway check reports the new aisle.

Elevation of the galley kitchen's back wall: drawer unit, oven housing, sink cabinet with tap, dishwasher, drawers and refrigerator, with the tiled band above the worktop and level markers at 870 and 2800 mm — The back wall of the same galley, showing the heights: worktop at 870 mm, tiles to 1470 mm, and the fridge standing past the run.

A compact 2400 mm version

The same idea in a 2400 × 3000 mm room, which is a common size for a galley in an apartment. Everything below is a standard module.

A 2400 × 3000 mm galley
Run	Units, in order	Length
Wet and cooking run (back wall)	Sink 900 · dishwasher 600 · drawers 600 · hob 600 · cabinet 300	3000
Storage run (front wall)	Fridge 700 · tall larder 600 · drawers 600 · cabinet 600	2500, leaving 500 at the door end
Aisle	2400 − 600 − 600	1200: two cooks pass

Wall cabinets over the wet run only, 330 mm deep, keep the room feeling wider. The 500 mm at the door end of the storage run is the door's swing.

The work triangle: sink to hob 1500 mm along the run, hob to fridge about 1400 mm across the aisle, fridge to sink about 1400 mm. About 4.3 m in total, at the tight end of the 4–7.9 m guideline, which is the galley's whole advantage.

Adapting it

Doors at both ends. Keep 1200 mm of aisle and put the tall units at the far end from the through-route, so the corridor stays clear of open doors.
A window on one long wall. Put the sink under it; the hob goes on the same run away from the sash, or across the aisle if the run is short.
Room for a table. Stop one run short and let the other continue; a 750 mm deep table at the end of the shorter run turns the galley into a two-sided room.

Questions

How this page was made

The floor plan is an unedited export of the planner's galley starter on 18 September 2026. The compact version is a worked arrangement of standard module widths in a 2400 × 3000 mm room, checked against the planner's walkway, loading-space and triangle rules; it has not been built. Aisle guidelines are from the NKBA Kitchen Planning Guidelines.

Sources

NKBA Kitchen Planning Guidelines · work aisle widths
Kitchen layout dimensions and clearances

Written by the person who builds the planner, who is not a kitchen designer or an electrician: the guides say where a professional or a local code decides. Found a mistake? Write to us and it will be corrected with a note on this page.

Keep reading

Try it on your room

Enter your measurements, start from a layout and let the layout checks find what will not fit. Planning is free for 1 month, and the dimensioned plan is yours to download.

Start designing free