Getting the layout right before you order a single cabinet is the single biggest factor in whether a kitchen ends up feeling spacious and easy to work in, or cramped and awkward no matter how good the doors look. A beautiful door style, a premium worktop, or striking handles can't fix a layout that puts the bin behind the door swing or leaves a wall cabinet you can't actually reach into. This guide walks through the real planning steps in order, from first measurements through to final cabinet positioning, so you're working from a genuinely sound plan before anything gets ordered.
Step 1: Measure the kitchen properly before you think about cabinets
It's tempting to start by browsing cabinet styles and colours, but that's the wrong place to begin. Start with the kitchen itself. Measure every wall length at floor level and at worktop height, since older properties in particular are rarely perfectly square, and a wall that measures 3400mm at the skirting might be 3380mm at 900mm up. Record the ceiling height in more than one spot too, especially in period properties or anywhere a sloped ceiling or loft conversion is involved.
Note the position of anything fixed that will affect the layout: windows and their sill heights, doors and which way they swing, radiators, boiler cupboards, and any structural features like a chimney breast, exposed beam, or stud wall that can't easily be moved. Mark where existing plumbing and electrical points sit too, even if you're planning to move some of them, since knowing the starting point makes it far easier to judge how much a change will cost and disrupt.
Get all of this down on paper or a simple scale drawing before you look at a single cabinet size. A rough 1:20 or 1:50 scale sketch, even hand-drawn, gives you something real to test ideas against, rather than trying to hold the whole kitchen in your head.
Step 2: Decide where the sink, hob, and fridge should go
This is where the classic kitchen work triangle comes in, an established design principle that positions your sink, hob, and fridge so the distance between each pair falls roughly between 1.2 and 2.7 metres, with the three distances adding up to somewhere between 4 and 8 metres in total. The idea is straightforward: these are the three points you move between most while cooking, so keeping them within a sensible, uncluttered distance of each other reduces wasted steps and awkward crossovers, particularly useful in a busy household kitchen.
If your plumbing and gas connections are staying in their current positions, a fair amount of this step is already decided for you, and your layout plan should work around those fixed points rather than fighting them. Moving a sink or a gas supply is rarely just a case of cabinet planning, it usually means engaging a plumber or gas engineer, adding real cost and time to the project. Unless there's a strong functional reason to move them (a badly placed original layout, or a genuine improvement to workflow), it's often smarter to design the rest of the kitchen around what's already there.
In smaller kitchens, the work triangle can get squeezed into something closer to a work zone along one or two walls rather than a literal triangle, and that's fine. The underlying goal, minimising unnecessary movement between your three main work points, still applies even when the kitchen's shape doesn't allow a textbook triangle.
Step 3: Plan base units before wall units
Base units should always be planned first, since they set the working height and footprint of the entire kitchen and are considerably harder to reposition once fitted (worktops, plumbing, and often flooring get fitted around them). Standard base cabinet widths commonly run in 300mm, 400mm, 500mm, 600mm, 800mm, and 1000mm increments, so plan your run using these sizes as building blocks rather than assuming every gap needs a fully custom width. Filler panels can take up small leftover gaps neatly, but relying on them for large sections of a run usually signals the base plan needs revisiting.
Think about what each base unit will actually store as you plan, not just its width. A run intended for pan storage benefits from wider drawer units near the hob, while a run closer to the sink might prioritise a dedicated space for bins or cleaning supplies. Our guide to choosing base units for your kitchen covers sizing, build quality, and how to judge whether existing base units are worth keeping if you're not doing a full replacement, worth reading once you're ready to select specific units for your plan.
Step 4: Handle corners early, not as an afterthought
Corners are where most layout plans lose usable space if they're not thought through properly, and they're often left until last, which is exactly the wrong order. Decide early whether a corner needs a true diagonal unit, an L-shaped blind corner, or a mechanism-based solution like a carousel or a pull-out system, since the right choice depends heavily on what you're storing there and how the corner connects to the runs either side of it, not just the available footprint on a floor plan.
A 900mm corner base can look perfectly generous drawn on paper, but the usable space inside depends entirely on the mechanism and construction, a true diagonal corner behaves very differently to an L-shaped blind corner, even at the same nominal size. If the corner sits next to the hob, a pull-out pan system is often far more practical day to day than a deep static shelf you have to kneel and reach into. If it's near the sink, it may be better reserved for cleaning items rather than everyday cookware. Our guide to the best kitchen corner units for smarter storage walks through this decision in more detail, including how much genuinely usable space each option delivers once fitted.
Step 5: Position wall units with real clearance in mind
Wall units follow the base layout, but they need proper clearance beneath them to stay usable. A standard gap of around 450mm between the worktop and the underside of a wall cabinet keeps the space workable for food preparation and for taller countertop appliances like a stand mixer or a kettle, without them catching on the cabinet above every time they're used.
Avoid positioning a wall unit directly above the hob unless it includes proper extraction integrated into the design, both for practical ventilation reasons and because reaching into a cabinet directly above an active hob is a genuine safety concern. Keep frequently used items in wall cabinets within comfortable reach, roughly shoulder height and below for most adults, and reserve the very top shelves for things used occasionally, seasonal items, large serving dishes, and similar.
If your kitchen has a run of wall units broken up by a window, plan the cabinet widths either side to stay visually balanced rather than defaulting to whatever fits, an obviously mismatched pair either side of a window is one of the most common layout mistakes in an otherwise well-planned kitchen.
Step 6: Think about traffic flow, not just storage
A layout can tick every storage box and still feel wrong to actually use if the traffic flow through the kitchen hasn't been considered. Avoid routing the main walkway through your work triangle wherever possible, and leave at least 900mm to 1200mm of clear floor space in front of cabinets and appliances for doors and drawers to open fully without someone needing to squeeze past. In a kitchen used by more than one person at once, consider whether two people can genuinely work at the sink and hob simultaneously without colliding, particularly in a galley-style layout where space is already tight.
If the kitchen opens into a dining or living area, think about how the layout reads from that side too. A run of tall units or a fridge freezer facing directly into a sightline from the sofa can dominate a room in a way that's easy to miss when you're only looking at the kitchen in isolation.
Step 7: Build the cabinets you've planned without losing a weekend to it
Once your layout is finalised on paper, actually building it out shouldn't undo all that careful planning by turning into a slow, frustrating assembly job. QuickCab kitchen units arrive with the sides, base, and back already joined into a rigid frame, so you stand the frame, clip in the internal components, and attach the front rail, assembling in around two minutes each rather than the hour or more a traditional flat pack cabinet can take. This matters more than it might sound once you're fitting a full layout of ten or more units in a single project, and it means less of your planning time gets eaten up by the build itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What's the first thing I should do before planning my kitchen cabinet layout?
Measure the kitchen itself first, every wall length, the ceiling height, and the position of anything fixed like windows, doors, and plumbing points, before looking at cabinet sizes or styles.
2. How far apart should my sink, hob, and fridge be in the layout?
The classic kitchen work triangle guideline puts each pair between 1.2 and 2.7 metres apart, with all three distances adding up to somewhere between 4 and 8 metres in total.
3. Should I plan my base units or wall units first?
Base units first, they set the working height and footprint for the whole kitchen and are far harder to reposition once fitted, wall units are then planned around that base layout.
4. What's the standard gap between a worktop and the wall units above it?
Around 450mm is the typical clearance, enough to keep the workspace usable for food prep and standard countertop appliances without feeling cramped.
5. How do I know which type of corner unit to choose for my layout?
It depends on what you're storing there, a true diagonal unit or L-shaped blind corner suits everyday cookware or food storage, while a mechanism-based option like a carousel works better for deep, hard-to-reach items.
6. Can I keep my existing sink and hob position to simplify the layout?
Yes, keeping plumbing and gas connections in their current position avoids the cost and disruption of moving them, and it also removes one major variable from the planning process, since your layout works around those fixed points.
