An optimal kitchen layout ensures efficient workflows and guarantees the perfect cooking experience.
The focus is on five areas of work. In this guide, we explain what these are, what to bear in mind when planning your kitchen layout, and how to keep the distances you walk in your kitchen to a minimum.
New kitchen, new beginning: When planning your new kitchen area, the kitchen layout is a key factor in terms of convenience. Experts divide the workflow in the kitchen into five zones:
Tip: Cupboards with pull-out shelves make them particularly easy to access. Pharmacy cupboards, which can be accessed from both sides, are ideal for storing supplies.
The more carefully you plan and coordinate the five kitchen zones, the quicker you’ll have essential utensils to hand – and the more you can look forward to carefree cooking. If, for example, the dishwasher is situated right next to the storage area, you’ll save yourself a few steps when loading and unloading it. A cupboard near the hob makes it quicker to find spices and ingredients.
The right kitchen layout depends on the shape of your kitchen unit. So
The individual work areas should be close enough together to ensure short distances between them, whilst still providing sufficient space.
Tip: The correct working height depends on your height. Ideally, the worktop should be 10 to 15 centimetres below your elbows.
The perfect kitchen layout takes into account whether the main users are right- or left-handed. Kitchens are typically designed for right-handers.
Left-handers should therefore make sure they open doors with their right hand so that they can reach for crockery, pots and the like with their left. Also, the drainboard by the sink is on the right and the bin is placed to the left of the sink.
Important: Right-handers plan the layout of their kitchen in a clockwise direction, whilst left-handers plan it in an anti-clockwise direction.
Ideally, there should be at least 90, preferably 120 centimetres of continuous work surface in the kitchen.
The kitchen triangle, also known as the work triangle, describes the efficient arrangement of three work areas in the kitchen: The cooking zone with hob and oven, the washing-up area and the storage zone with fridge and/or larder unit are positioned in a triangle.
The work triangle in the kitchen keeps the distances between the individual stations short and there is enough space between the elements for two or more people to work comfortably.
