The kitchen is usually the most expensive room per square metre and the one in which planning mistakes hurt the longest. A badly placed socket annoys you for ten years. A worktop at the wrong height you feel in your back.
At the same time, it is the room most often planned in the kitchen showroom — by people who sell kitchens. That is not bad per se, but it systematically leads to kitchens that have lots of cupboards and take little account of the rest of the home.
Here are the decisions that make the difference.
Forget the work triangle. Think in zones.
The work triangle — fridge, sink, hob in the shortest possible triangle — dates from the 1940s and from a time when one person cooked alone.
Today we plan in five zones:
- Storing food — fridge, larder cupboard
- Storing equipment — crockery, glasses, pots
- Washing up — sink, dishwasher, waste
- Preparing — the main worktop
- Cooking — hob, oven, extractor
The order is no accident: it follows the path of the food. Anyone who takes ingredients from the fridge, washes them, chops them and then cooks shouldn’t have to walk through the kitchen three times.
The most important measurement: The preparation zone between sink and hob needs at least 90 cm of continuous worktop, better 120 cm. This is the surface where the actual work happens. It is the first thing sacrificed when saving money and the thing missed most afterwards.
Worktop height: the number nobody calculates
Standard kitchens have a worktop height of 90 to 92 cm. This height suits people around 1.70 m. For everyone else, it is wrong.
The rule of thumb: Elbow height minus 10 to 15 cm.
| Body height | Worktop height |
|---|---|
| 1.60 m | approx. 85 cm |
| 1.70 m | approx. 90 cm |
| 1.80 m | approx. 95 cm |
| 1.90 m | approx. 100 cm |
If two people of very different heights cook, a staggered heighthelps: the sink a little higher (you stand upright), the hob a little lower (you look into pots). Five centimetres of difference is enough and is hardly noticeable visually.
This costs nothing at the planning stage and cannot be changed afterwards.
The walk-through kitchen
A special case that occurs constantly in Munich terraced houses and period flats: the kitchen is also the connecting route between two rooms.
This is considered a disadvantage, but it can be solved — if you plan for it instead of ignoring it.
What works:
- Take the work zone out of the way. The passage runs along one wall, the worktop is opposite. Anyone walking through does not cross the zone where someone is standing with a knife.
- Passage width at least 90 cm, better 100 cm. With an open dishwasher door or someone bending down in front of the base unit, less is not enough.
- No cupboard doors swinging out into the passage. Drawers and pull-outs solve this, as do folding or sliding doors on tall units.
- The floor connects. A continuous floor covering across the kitchen and adjoining rooms makes the kitchen appear as part of the living area rather than a bottleneck.
A walk-through kitchen can even be an advantage: it prevents the kitchen from becoming a dead end where one person stands alone.
Open or closed?
The question is often treated as one of style. It is a question of use.
In favour of open: Whoever cooks is not alone. The room feels bigger, the light is distributed better, the dining area finds a place.
Against open: Smells, noise, visible mess. Anyone who likes elaborate cooking and produces chaos in the process doesn’t want to look at it while watching TV in the evening.
The middle way, which we often plan: open up partially. A wide opening instead of knocking through the entire length of the wall. A sliding door that stands open in everyday life and is closed when cooking. A counter that zones without separating.
And the point that decides between success and regret: ventilation. An open kitchen without a working extractor solution is a problem you smell every day. Recirculation with an activated carbon filter is often not enough — extraction to the outside is much more effective, but needs an opening in the wall and, in modern airtight buildings, a supply-air solution. This needs to be clarified before the wall comes down.
Materials: where quality pays off
The expensive route isn’t worth it everywhere. Our experience, sorted:
Worth it here:
Worktop. It is used daily, cut on, wet, hot. Ceramic and quartz composite are practically indestructible. Solid wood is beautiful and needs care. Natural stone is stain-sensitive depending on the type — marble in a kitchen looks lived-in after two years, which some people like and others don’t.
Hardware. Pull-outs and hinges make the difference between a kitchen that still feels good after ten years and one that sticks. Saving money here is something you notice every day.
Sink and tap. Used most often.
Standard is enough here:
Carcasses. A cabinet carcass is a cabinet carcass. What you see are the fronts.
Interior fittings, which can be retrofitted.
The ecological point: Because of the glued wood-based materials, kitchens are a relevant source of formaldehyde and other off-gassing. If you want to pay attention to this, look for E1-Plus or low-emission boards and ventilate thoroughly during the first weeks. With solid wood and linoleum surfaces the question doesn’t even arise.
Light in the kitchen
Three levels, as in every room — but with one particularity:
Task lighting under the wall units is a must. A ceiling light behind you casts your own shadow onto the chopping board. That is not a comfort problem but a safety one.
Colour rendering at least Ra 90. Under poor light you cannot judge whether meat is cooked through or vegetables are fresh.
Warm white, 2,700 to 3,000 kelvin. Cool-white kitchen lighting feels like a canteen.
Renovate or replace?
The question is worth asking more often than you might think. A kitchen consists of parts with very different lifespans.
Renovating is worthwhile if:
- The layout and connections are right
- The carcasses are fine (they usually are)
- Only the fronts, worktop and appliances are outdated
Swapping fronts, a new worktop, new appliances, perhaps a different handle type and different lighting — this changes the impression completely at a fraction of the cost.
Planning anew makes sense if:
- The layout doesn’t work
- Zones are in the wrong place or the worktop is too small
- The worktop height is wrong
- Work is being done on water, electrics or walls anyway
The honest rule of thumb: if you find the kitchen impractical every day, a new front won’t help. If it works and just looks old, a renovation is the more sensible decision.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a kitchen renovation take?
Replacing fronts only: a few days. Complete replanning with adaptation of electrics and plumbing: usually two to four weeks of construction — plus several weeks of delivery time that need to be planned in beforehand.
Can I stay in the flat during the renovation?
Yes, but with a makeshift cooking area. A kettle, microwave and a hotplate in another room are bearable for two to four weeks.
Do you need an interior architect for a kitchen if the kitchen showroom also plans?
Not necessarily. The difference: the kitchen showroom plans the kitchen, we plan the room. If the kitchen is being integrated into an open-plan living area, if walls are coming down, if light, floor and materials are meant to match the adjoining rooms — then it is about more than cupboards.
And a practical point: we don’t sell kitchens. Our recommendation doesn’t depend on which manufacturer gets the order.
What does the planning cost?
See our article What does an interior architect cost?