Compact Kitchen Planning Questions Checklist

Walk your current kitchen and note where you can actually put a chopping board down without moving something first.

The number of genuinely clear stretches, not the total run, is what makes a small kitchen workable.

Mark on a sketch where the sink, hob and any built in appliance would sit, then note what continuous surface is left between them.

Owners are often surprised how little uninterrupted surface remains once the fixed items are placed.

Ask the designer and the appliance supplier what surface they expect either side of the hob and the sink in a kitchen of this size.

These requirements come from the products and the installer rather than from the plan, so they have to be asked for.

Space needed around appliances is set by the manufacturer and the installer, and must be confirmed for each product.

Note any corner of worktop that sits behind a tap, a kettle or a toaster, since that area is usually lost in practice.

Every compact kitchen has a corner that is technically surface and functionally storage for small appliances.

Consider whether a board over the sink, a pull out surface or a nearby table could provide extra surface, and note who would set it up each time.

Borrowed surface only helps if the effort of deploying it is acceptable during ordinary cooking.

List the appliances you genuinely use in ordinary cooking, and mark the ones that have not been switched on for a long time.

The gap between the appliances people own and those they use is where a small kitchen finds its space.

Decide for each large appliance whether a smaller version would genuinely serve the household, and note what would be given up.

Smaller appliances release cupboard space, but only if the compromise is accepted honestly rather than regretted later.

Note where the kettle, toaster and any coffee equipment would live, and whether they stay out on the surface or are put away.

Small appliances left out permanently consume the very worktop a compact kitchen cannot spare.

Weigh built in against freestanding appliances and record what each would mean for replacing an item later.

Built in appliances look tidier and tie a future replacement to whatever will fit the same opening.

Ask what services each appliance needs where it is proposed to stand, and note which of them require a qualified trade to connect.

Appliance positions are often moved during design without anyone revisiting what has to reach them.

Connections for gas, water, waste and electrical supply must be arranged and carried out by the relevant qualified trades.

Note the highest shelf everyone in the household can reach without standing on something, and record who cannot reach it.

A cupboard nobody in the household can reach is storage on the drawing and nothing in daily use.

Decide whether wall units should run to the ceiling or stop short, and note what would happen to the gap if they stop.

The gap above wall units becomes either dust or display, and both are choices worth making deliberately.

Consider how far wall units would project over the worktop and whether anyone would be working underneath them.

Deep upper storage can make a narrow kitchen feel closed in at exactly the point where people stand.

Note where a tall unit or larder could stand without blocking daylight or the route through, since in small rooms it rarely has more than one possible position.

Tall storage is often the most useful thing in a compact kitchen and usually the hardest to place.

Ask what a tall door or a wide drawer would sweep when opened, and whether anyone could still pass behind it.

Door swing collisions are the usual reason a compact layout that works on paper irritates in use.

Ask where a hot pan or a tray coming out of the oven is meant to be set down, and confirm what that surface would need to withstand.

This moment is often the one nobody plans for in a small kitchen, and it is where surfaces tend to suffer.

Ask whoever makes or supplies the worktop what it is intended to take, since only they can speak for their own product.

Note where washed dishes drain and dry, and whether that place also has to be used for preparing food.

Draining space is routinely omitted from small kitchen plans and then improvised permanently.

Record how food waste and packaging are dealt with while cooking, and where the bin stands when the cupboard door is open.

In a small kitchen the bin position affects the whole working sequence rather than being a detail.

Record how many bags arrive at once on a full shop, and whether any surface is free at that moment or has to be cleared first.

Unloading demands surface at precisely the point a compact kitchen has least of it, and it happens regularly.

Decide where cleaning materials, cloths and a mop would be kept, since in small kitchens they often end up under the sink with the plumbing.

Naming this early prevents the space under the sink being counted twice in a storage plan.

Ask a qualified professional what extraction arrangement suits this room and where it could realistically go.

Extraction options depend on the building rather than the kitchen design, so the answer shapes the layout.

Where extraction can run in this property is for qualified trades to work out, and the requirements have to be confirmed locally for the address.

Follow where cooking smells settle once the room is in use, and name any room that still holds them well after the cooking has stopped.

In compact homes this often matters more to daily comfort than any decision about cupboard fronts.

Record where condensation currently appears in or near the kitchen, and treat that as information for a professional rather than a conclusion.

Patterns of condensation tell a professional something useful, and only the occupant can observe them over time.

What lies behind condensation or damp in a kitchen is for a qualified professional who can inspect the room to establish.

Note how warm the kitchen becomes while cooking and whether opening a window is a practical way of dealing with it here.

Small kitchens heat up quickly, which affects where a fridge and any seating can sensibly go.

Ask how loud the proposed extraction would be in a room this size, and consider whether it would be used if it is intrusive.

Extraction that is too noisy tends to be switched off, which returns the moisture problem to the room.

List the items you reach for every day and note where each would be stored in the proposed arrangement.

This list is short and specific, and it is usually among the most useful storage information a designer receives.

Decide which occasionally used items could live outside the kitchen entirely, and note where that would be.

Moving rarely used equipment out is often the only way a small kitchen holds what it needs daily.

Name the awkward pieces of equipment you own, such as tall bottles, baking trays or a large pan, and say where each one sits at the moment.

A tray that fits nowhere is what turns a tidy storage plan into a cupboard with a permanent overflow beside it.

Record how much food you keep at home and whether the proposed cupboards would hold a full shop.

Food storage is routinely underestimated in small kitchen plans and cannot be improvised afterwards.

Consider whether drawers or doors suit each part of the run, and note who has to bend down to reach the lowest storage.

Access at low level matters more in a small kitchen because there are fewer alternative places to put things.

Stand where you would prepare food and note what you can reach without moving your feet, and what requires a step.

The reachable set is what makes a small kitchen feel efficient, and it can be tested in the room you already have.

Note whether two people ever need to be in the kitchen together, and where the second person currently stands.

Even in a one person kitchen there is usually a moment when someone else needs the tap or the fridge.

Record whether anyone has to pass through the kitchen to reach somewhere else, and whether that happens while cooking.

A kitchen that is also a route needs a strip of floor kept clear that furniture and open doors cannot have.

Note the heights and reach of everyone who uses the kitchen, including children, without turning that into a specification.

A designer can respond to who uses the room, but only if the range is described rather than assumed.

Note where food is carried to once it is cooked and what has to be passed or opened on the way.

In compact homes the journey from hob to table is short and often obstructed by the very doors just opened.

Photograph every wall of the kitchen including the ceiling junction and the floor, and keep the images together in one place.

Photographs record the awkward details that a sketch leaves out and that a designer would otherwise have to ask about.

Mark the position of the water supply, waste, any gas point, the meter and the electrical points on your sketch.

These points constrain a small kitchen more than the walls do, and they are the first thing a designer looks for.

Whether a supply, waste or gas point can be moved at all is for the qualified trade responsible for it to say.

List any appliance you intend to keep, noting its rough size and copying down whatever the information plate on it says.

Retained appliances are fixed dimensions in a compact layout and are often mentioned too late to be accommodated.

Say plainly that your figures are for discussion only, and ask who will take the survey the order is actually based on.

In a small kitchen a modest measuring error removes a whole cupboard, so it should be clear whose figures the order relies on.

Keep one written list of the questions this exercise raised that you cannot answer, and bring it to the design meeting.

Written questions get answered, whereas remembered ones tend to surface only after the drawings are settled.