Most kitchen design conversations begin in the wrong place. Someone opens a brochure, picks a door style and a colour, and the layout gets arranged around the units that were chosen first.It should run the other way. The look of a kitchen is decided in an afternoon and changed with a can of paint. The layout is decided once and lived with for twenty years. A beautiful kitchen where the bin is on the wrong side of the room will irritate you every day. A plain one that works will not.
This guide covers the decisions that come before appearance. How you actually cook, where things need to be, how people move through the room, and the design choices people most often regret. Written from over 20 years of designing and building kitchens across Jersey.
Start with how you cook, not what you want
Before any layout discussion, answer these honestly. Not how you aspire to cook, but how you did last Tuesday.
About the cooking:
- How often do you cook from scratch, and how often is it something quick?
- Do you cook alone or does someone else join in?
- Do you batch cook, bake, preserve, or mostly assemble?
- Are you a tidy-as-you-go cook or a spread-everything-out cook?
- How much do you actually use the oven compared with the hob?
About the room:
- Does anyone eat in the kitchen, and at what kind of surface?
- Do children do homework there? Does anyone work there?
- Is it a route to the garden, the utility, the back door?
- Do guests congregate there when you entertain?
- Does the dog sleep there? Where do the coats end up?
About what annoys you now:
This is the single most productive question. Walk into your current kitchen and list what frustrates you. Not what is ugly, what is inconvenient. The bin you have to walk around. The cupboard you cannot reach. The fact that there is nowhere to put a hot pan down near the oven.Those frustrations are the brief. A good designer will ask for them before showing you anything.
The working triangle, and its limits
The oldest principle in kitchen design says the sink, hob and fridge should form a triangle, each within easy reach of the others and none of the legs too long or too short.
It remains useful, because those three points are where most movement happens. If your sink is at one end of a long run and your hob at the other, you will notice every day.
But it was devised for a different kind of kitchen. It assumes one cook, one oven, a small fridge, no dishwasher and no island. Modern kitchens routinely have two ovens, a separate microwave, a dishwasher, a large fridge freezer and more than one person working at once.
The better modern approach is zones. Think about the tasks rather than the appliances, and give each task a place.
Thinking in zones
Five zones cover almost everything that happens in a kitchen.
| Zone | What happens there | What belongs there |
| Storage | Food kept, groceries put away | Fridge, freezer, larder, dry goods |
| Preparation | Chopping, mixing, assembling | Clear worktop, knives, boards, bowls, bins |
| Cooking | Hob, oven, everything hot | Pans, utensils, oils, seasonings, trays |
| Cleaning | Washing, draining, disposal | Sink, dishwasher, bins, cloths, detergents |
| Serving | Plating, carrying out, eating | Plates, glasses, cutlery, serving dishes |
Two rules make this work:
1. Store things where they are first used, not where they logically belong. Saucepans near the hob, not in a cupboard by the door. Plates near the dishwasher, so unloading is one movement. Chopping boards and knives next to the prep space. Foil and baking trays near the oven. Mugs near the kettle, and the kettle near the tap.
This sounds obvious and is routinely got wrong, usually because storage is planned as “where there is space” rather than “where the thing gets used.”
2. Keep the zones from fighting each other. The prep zone and the cleaning zone both need worktop, and they cannot be the same piece of worktop if two people are working. The cooking zone needs somewhere to put hot things down, immediately, on both sides ideally.
Layout types and who they suit
| Layout | Works well when | Struggles when |
| Single run | The room is narrow or part of a larger space | You cook a lot and need worktop on both sides of things |
| Galley | Two parallel runs, efficient, everything close | It is a thoroughfare, since people walk through your working space |
| L-shape | Corner rooms, opens into dining or living space | Runs get long and the far end becomes storage you rarely visit |
| U-shape | You cook seriously and want everything within reach | The room is small, since three walls of units can feel enclosing |
| L-shape with island | The room is wide enough and you want a social kitchen | Circulation is tight, since an island needs space all round |
| Peninsula | You want the island effect without the space for one | It blocks a natural route through the room |
Choosing between them is mostly about the room rather than preference. The shape of the space, where the windows and doors are, and where services already run will narrow the options quickly. A good designer will present two or three workable layouts rather than one.
Islands: the honest assessment
Islands are the most requested feature and the most frequently regretted.
When an island works:
- The room is genuinely wide enough for comfortable circulation on all sides
- It has a defined purpose: prep, seating, storage, or a hob or sink
- It does not block the natural route between the door and the rest of the room
- You have somewhere else for the things an island tends to accumulate
When an island is a mistake:
- It is squeezed in and the gaps around it are tight, which makes the whole kitchen feel cramped
- It exists because islands are fashionable rather than because it does a job
- It blocks the route people naturally take through the room
- It forces the layout into an awkward shape to accommodate it
A peninsula is often the better answer in a room that is not quite big enough. It gives you the extra worktop, the seating and the sense of division, without needing clear space on all four sides.
If you do have an island, decide early whether it carries a sink or hob. That decision drives plumbing, electrics, extraction and sometimes the floor structure, and it is expensive to change later.
Traffic and circulation
Where people walk through the room shapes the design more than most people expect.
Map the routes before deciding anything:
- The door to the fridge
- The door to the kettle
- The route to the back door or garden
- The route to the utility room
- The path someone takes carrying plates to the table
The key principle: through-routes should not cross working zones. If the path from the back door to the hallway goes straight past the hob, someone will walk into a cook holding a hot pan. If the route to the fridge cuts across where you chop, you will be interrupted constantly.
In an open-plan room this matters more, because there are usually more routes and more people using them.
Door swings catch people out. An oven door, a dishwasher door, a fridge door and a bin all swing or pull into the room, and two of them can conflict. Opening the dishwasher should not block the oven. The fridge door should open the way you approach it.
Storage: what you actually own
Most kitchens are planned around a generic idea of storage rather than the specific things a household owns.
Do the inventory before the design:
- How many pans, and what size is the largest?
- How much crockery, and do you have a separate dinner service?
- Do you own a stand mixer, a food processor, an air fryer, a slow cooker? Where do they live when not in use?
- How much dry food do you keep? Are you a weekly shopper or a bulk buyer?
- Recycling: how many streams does your collection require, and where do the bins go?
- Cleaning products, cloths, bin bags, foil, spare bulbs, batteries, the vase you use twice a year
- Cookbooks, if you use them
- Wine, if you keep it
The two most common storage failures:
Appliance homelessness. The stand mixer, the air fryer and the food processor end up permanently on the worktop because nowhere was designed for them. They then occupy the prep space you need most. A dedicated appliance cupboard, with a socket inside it, solves this and is rarely asked for.
Nowhere for the awkward things. Trays, chopping boards, oven shelves and baking sheets are flat and tall, and standard cupboards store them badly. Narrow vertical dividers deal with this and cost very little.
Drawers beat cupboards for base units. You can see everything and reach the back without kneeling. They cost more than doors, and on a limited budget they are worth prioritising in the prep and cooking zones over the storage zone.
Corners need deciding. Every L or U-shaped kitchen has at least one corner where reach becomes a problem. The options are a corner carousel, a pull-out mechanism, a diagonal unit, or accepting it as deep storage for things you rarely need. All are valid. What is not valid is ignoring it until installation.
Worktop: where you need it, not how much
The useful question is not how many metres of worktop you have, but whether you have clear worktop in the right places.
The three places clear worktop matters most:
- Beside the hob, on both sides if possible, so there is somewhere to put a hot pan down without turning
- Beside the oven, for the same reason, and a tray coming out of an oven needs a landing place immediately
- Between the sink and the hob, which is where most preparation naturally happens
Worktop that is not really worktop:
- The strip behind the sink taps
- The corner where two runs meet, which becomes a dumping ground
- Anywhere permanently occupied by a kettle, toaster and coffee machine
- The end of a run against a wall, which fills with post and keys
Count the usable clear worktop rather than the total, and you will get a much more honest picture of whether the design works.
Lighting
Routinely left until last and routinely regretted, because the wiring has to happen during first fix.Three layers, all of which need planning before the electrician arrives:
Task lighting is light on the work surface. Under-cabinet lighting is the standard answer, because ceiling lights put your own shadow onto the worktop when you stand at it. This is the layer that most affects whether the kitchen is pleasant to cook in.
Ambient lighting is the general illumination of the room. Ceiling lights, ideally on a dimmer, since a kitchen used for breakfast, cooking and eating needs different levels at different times.
Accent lighting is optional, picking out an island, open shelving or a glazed cabinet.
Practical points:
- Decide switch positions early, and think about which switch you reach for walking in from which door
- Under-cabinet lighting needs the wiring run before plastering
- If there is an island with a hob or seating, it needs its own light and its own switch
- Natural light changes through the day, and a kitchen used mostly in the evening has different needs to one used at breakfast
Extraction
Under-specified more often than any other element.
An extractor needs to remove steam and cooking smells from the room, not merely stir them around. The main decision is whether it vents outside or recirculates through a filter. Venting outside is more effective and needs ducting planned into the design. Recirculating is easier to fit and less effective, particularly if you fry or use a wok.
If you cook seriously, plan the ducting. It affects where the hob can go and sometimes where the island can go, so it belongs in the early design conversation rather than the appliance conversation.
Seating, if you want it
Kitchen seating is popular and frequently uncomfortable, because it gets added at the end rather than designed in.
Questions worth answering:
- Is this for a quick breakfast or a proper meal?
- How many people, realistically and regularly, rather than at Christmas?
- Is there a dining table elsewhere, or is this the only eating space?
- Will anyone sit there for long, working or doing homework?
Bar-height seating suits perching and conversation. Table-height suits longer sitting and is more comfortable for children and older family members. Each person needs enough width to sit without knocking elbows, and enough depth beneath the surface for their knees.
A common mistake is seating on the same side of an island as the cooking, which means guests sit in the working zone.
Where the building constrains the design
Some things cannot be moved cheaply, and a design that ignores them costs money.
- Windows and doors. Fixed, unless you are prepared to alter the structure, and they determine where runs can go and where wall units cannot.
- The soil stack and main drain. Moving a sink means a waste run with a consistent fall to the drain, which in a solid floor can mean lifting concrete.
- The consumer unit and meter. Frequently in the kitchen and frequently in the way. They can be enclosed within cabinetry, but they must stay accessible.
- The boiler. Can often be boxed in, subject to access and ventilation requirements.
- Radiators. Movable, but it costs, and a radiator behind a unit is wasted.
- Load-bearing walls. Removable, with an engineer, a beam and building control, but this is the single most expensive design decision available.
- Ceiling height. Determines whether wall units reach the ceiling or leave a gap, and whether a bulkhead is needed.
The general rule: keep services where they are unless there is a strong reason to move them. Moving the sink is usually the most expensive layout change, and a good design can often achieve what you want without it.
Designing for an older property
Jersey’s housing stock adds considerations that generic kitchen advice does not cover.
- Walls that lean and bow. Granite cottages, farmhouses and converted outbuildings have rubble walls that are rarely straight. Standard units against them leave tapering gaps unless the end panels are scribed to follow the wall.
- Floors that fall. A noticeable slope means each unit levelled independently, with the difference absorbed in the plinth so the worktop reads level.
- Deep window reveals. Often a feature worth designing around rather than blocking, and sometimes deep enough for a seat or shelving.
- Non-standard ceiling heights. Low ceilings limit wall units. High ones leave a gap above them unless a bulkhead is formed or the units are made taller.
- Thick solid walls. Harder to chase for services, which sometimes means surface runs boxed in and plastered.
- Higher humidity. Coastal conditions and solid walls mean moisture-resistant materials and thoroughly sealed edges are a practical requirement rather than an upgrade.
- Period features. Beams, fireplaces and stone walls that the design should work with rather than cover.
The practical consequence: in these buildings, the design has to follow the survey rather than the other way round. Measuring properly, at multiple points, before drawing anything, is what prevents a design that looks right on paper and does not fit the room.
The mistakes people regret
Drawn from what clients say when they are replacing a kitchen someone else designed.
- Bin in the wrong place. It should be in the prep zone, right where waste is generated, not across the room.
- No landing space beside the oven. Nowhere to put a hot tray means putting it on the hob or carrying it across the room.
- Choosing the look before the layout. The most expensive way round.
- Ignoring the corner. Every L-shaped kitchen has one, and it needs a decision.
- Too few sockets. Kitchens accumulate appliances, and you will want more than you planned.
- Under-specified extraction, which becomes obvious the first time you fry something.
- Lighting left to the electrician. It needs planning before first fix, and afterwards it is too late.
- An island that is too tight. Better to have no island than a cramped one.
- Designing for entertaining rather than for Tuesday. Most kitchens are used by one or two people cooking ordinary meals. Design for that and the entertaining looks after itself.
- Not planning where small appliances live, so the prep worktop becomes an appliance shelf.
- Open shelving everywhere, which demands a tidiness most households do not maintain.
- Forgetting the door swings, so two doors conflict.
Three kitchens and what the design solved
Composite examples of design decisions doing real work.
A galley kitchen that was also a corridor. A narrow room with the back door at one end and the hallway at the other, so everyone walked through the cooking zone. Moving the hob was not affordable because of the extraction run, so instead the prep zone was relocated to the far end away from the through-route, and the fridge moved to the hallway end so the most frequent interruption never entered the working space. The layout looked similar on paper. In use it was a different room.
A granite cottage where the design followed the walls. Rubble walls varying by a noticeable amount along a single run, a floor falling toward an old external door, and a ceiling too low for standard wall units. Rather than fighting any of it, the design used a shallow run along the narrowest wall that standard units could not occupy at all, turning dead space into a pantry. Wall units were made shorter to suit the ceiling, and the plinth was scribed to follow the floor so the worktop reads level. The design came out of the survey rather than a catalogue.
A client who wanted an island and got a peninsula. A room that was wide enough for an island on paper but would have left tight circulation on two sides, and would have blocked the natural route from the garden door. A peninsula off the end of the existing run gave the same extra worktop, the same seating for three and the same sense of separation from the dining area, while keeping the route clear and the working space open. The client had arrived certain they wanted an island and left happier without one.
Frequently asked questions
What should I decide first when designing a kitchen?
How you cook and what currently frustrates you. Layout follows from that, and appearance follows from the layout. Choosing a door style first is the most common and most expensive way round.
Is the kitchen work triangle still relevant?
Partly. The principle that the sink, hob and fridge should be conveniently related still holds, but it assumes one cook and few appliances. Thinking in zones, with each task given a place and storage located where the task happens, is a better fit for modern kitchens.
Do I need an island?
Only if the room is genuinely wide enough for comfortable circulation all round and the island has a defined job. A cramped island makes a kitchen worse. A peninsula often delivers the same benefits in a room that is not quite big enough.
What is the most commonly regretted kitchen design mistake?
Bin placement, followed closely by no landing space beside the oven and hob. Both are free to get right at the design stage and irritating every day if you get them wrong.
How do I plan storage properly?
Inventory what you actually own before the design, including the small appliances, and then locate storage where each thing is first used. Pans near the hob, plates near the dishwasher, boards and knives at the prep space.
Does an old property limit what I can do?
It shapes the design rather than limiting it. Uneven walls, sloping floors and non-standard ceiling heights all need designing around, which usually means made-to-fit elements where standard units would leave gaps. Done properly, the constraints often produce a more interesting kitchen.
Getting started
The most useful first conversation is about how you use the room, not what you want it to look like. What you cook, who else is in there, what annoys you now and what you own that needs storing shapes the layout far more than any brochure. A survey then establishes what the walls, floors and services are actually doing, which is where a design stops being a drawing and starts being buildable.
Davision Interiors Ltd has designed, built, finished and installed kitchens across all parishes of Jersey for over 20 years, handling full renovations from strip-out to snagging, with spray finishing and French polishing carried out in house. We start every design with the survey and with how you cook, then work outward. Every project begins with a free design and survey visit, all work is covered by our workmanship guarantee, and we are fully insured. Get in touch to arrange a visit and a no-obligation quote.