A Guide to Kitchen Layouts

“The shape and location of the kitchen are challenging in that traffic needs to move through to access other spaces,” says designer Tammy Randall.

From a modern galley kitchen to a U-shaped plan, explore dozens of kitchen design styles and layout options to spark ideas for your next kitchen remodel and find the best layout to suit your needs.

Once four small rooms with a staircase jutting through the middle, this revamped kitchen/living space is now open and airy. By laying out the kitchen prep and dining areas as a long efficient galley, designers Kathy Hoffman and Susan Fredman of the Susan Fredman Design Group made the space functional without crowding the living space.

"Creating visual impact and maintaining functionality in this narrow space was my biggest challenge with this project," says Vita Buffa, CKD, CBD, NCIDQ. To meet the challenge and give her client a gorgeous, green galley, Buffa moved an antique table that was beautiful but impeded traffic flow, and relocated the refrigerator and microwave to the opposite wall in order to create a more aesthetically pleasing view when sitting in the adjacent room.

This 8-foot-wide kitchen by Aimee Nemeckay and Terri Crittenden for the Susan Fredman Design Group hangs a turn into the adjacent dining room. To make it appear larger, the designers continue the horizontal lines down the long kitchen both in the kerf, or incised line, of the cabinets and the flooring. The cabinets reaching the ceiling draw the eye up as well.