How to Plan a Luxury Kitchen

The kitchen costs more per square metre than any other room in the house, and it’s the one you use most. It’s also where a small planning mistake shows up every single day: the drawer that hits the island, the fridge door that won’t open past 90 degrees, the bin on the wrong side of the sink.

In 2018 we won Ultimate Luxury Kitchen Design of the Year at the Designer Kitchen & Bathroom Awards. The award was lovely. What actually makes our kitchens work is less glamorous: a set of sign-off checklists our designers go through before anything is ordered, written from mistakes we’ve made over 18 years. This is how we approach luxury kitchen design, and what’s on those lists.

Luxury kitchen design starts with how you cook

Before any drawings, we ask a lot of questions. Who cooks, and how often? Is it weeknight pasta or Saturday dinner for twelve? Do you want people around the island while you cook, or out of the way? Where do the shopping bags land? Where does the post go?

The answers decide the layout. We also ask how tidy you are. Messy households get far more out of closed storage. Organised ones can live happily with open shelving or glazed doors.

Planning a luxury kitchen layout: zones, not just triangles

The classic work triangle between oven, fridge and sink is still worth checking, and it’s on our list. In a larger kitchen, though, we think in zones: preparing, cooking, washing up, storing, and somewhere for drinks and coffee that keeps guests out of the cook’s way.

One rule we hold to on almost every project: the dishwasher, sink and bins go together. You scrape, rinse and load in one movement. Split them up and you’ll notice every evening.

Islands are wonderful if there’s room to walk round them. On every plan we check you can stand in front of a unit and open it, especially between the island and the wall run. Drawers and dishwasher doors need more room than people expect. If the space isn’t there, a peninsula or a long run with a table often works better.

Choose appliances before the joinery is drawn

Appliance sizes decide cabinet sizes, so we choose appliances first. Changing an oven late can mean redrawing a whole wall. Our appliance sign-off covers things that sound small and aren’t:

• Does the fridge, freezer or wine fridge door open fully in the space? On many models you can reverse the door swing, but the logo may then sit upside down.
• On integrated fridges and freezers, does the door split line up with the cabinet fronts?
• Will the sink fit its base unit? A one-and-a-half bowl sink needs a base unit of at least 600mm.
• What worktop thickness does the hob need?
• A boiling water tap has a tank under the sink, so cleaning products will need to live somewhere else.
• A freestanding microwave needs ventilation. An integrated one needs its exact dimensions checked against the unit.

The top of the range isn’t always the best choice. On one recent project we compared a premium integrated freezer with the model below it. The cheaper one was only 30 litres smaller, still far roomier than a typical integrated larder freezer at around 200 litres, and it saved the client well over a thousand pounds.

The appliances clients thank us for most are rarely the flashiest. A boiling water tap. A proper wine fridge. A warming drawer if you entertain. Two dishwashers if you host often. Our guide to the essential appliances for a luxury kitchen goes into more detail.

Extraction: decide it early

Extraction is the item most often left too late. There are two kinds. A recirculating extractor cleans the air through charcoal filters and sends it back into the room, and those filters need replacing. A ducted extractor takes the air outside, which works better but needs a route for the duct. In a flat or a listed building, that route may not exist.

The height above the hob matters too, and it differs between gas and electric hobs, so check the manufacturer’s figures before the wall units are drawn. Where a long hood can’t sit centrally over the hob, have it tested once installed so you know it’s doing its job.

Storage designed around what you own

Good kitchen storage starts with an inventory. How many pans, plates, glasses and bottles? As a minimum we check a plan can hold a full dinner service for six, and we always aim to give clients more storage than they have now. Then we design around it: deep pan drawers instead of low cupboards, a coffee drawer, adjustable shelves as standard, and a sensible ratio of drawers to cupboards.

In a large house we’d rather have a proper larder fridge and a separate larder freezer than one combined unit, plus a tall larder cupboard for dry food. We’ve also used a tall larder unit to hide a boiler’s expansion vessel and consumer unit, so awkward services become storage.

Worktops: marble, quartz or natural stone

Marble is beautiful, and it’s a living material. Lemon juice and red wine will mark it, however well it’s sealed. Some clients love the patina that builds up over the years. Others would hate it, and some ask for natural stone only, no quartz. If you’re in the second group, a good quartz, quartzite, sintered stone or porcelain will cope better, and quartz or granite can be kinder to the budget. Save the marble for a splashback. There’s more in our post on using marble in a kitchen.

Decide thickness and edges early. 20mm and 30mm are standard, and the hob may decide which. Where stone meets brass, expect to top up the sealant joint now and then.

Proportion matters more than size

In a small cottage kitchen in Hampstead, we used a Shaker door with a much thinner frame than usual. It still felt like a cottage, but sleeker, and the room felt bigger. A deep blue range cooker became the anchor for an awkward, angled room. The Hampstead cottage renovation shows the finished space.

Work from the floor up: plinth, carcass, doors, pelmet, then the ceiling height. Line base units up with wall units wherever you can, and where they don’t, make it deliberate.

Light it in layers

You need bright light over the worktops, ideally under the wall cabinets, softer light for eating, and something decorative over the island or table. Put them on separate circuits, with dimmers. LED strips are standard in our kitchens, so we plan where they go before the joinery is drawn. Add plenty of sockets above the worktop for appliances that live out, at a safe distance from the sink.

Sign it off, then order early

No kitchen company gets a confirmation or a deposit from us until the floor plans, elevations, order list and appliance list have been signed off internally by a senior designer. We check the supplier’s parts list line by line against our drawings: carcass and door colours, back panels on integrated units, cutlery inserts, and handles big enough to open a heavy larder door.

A bespoke kitchen is usually one of the longest-lead items in a project, so order it early or it will hold up everything else. Our project timeline guide explains how we plan around it, and our bathroom design ideas cover the other room that needs planning first. More finished kitchens are in our portfolio.

A good kitchen is mostly decisions made early and checked twice. The beautiful part comes more easily after that.