Residential space
Modular Kitchen Design
Before the dimensions
Five layouts,
and what each one needs
S SinkH HobF FridgeWork triangle
Specification
Dimensions and
what goes in
Key dimensions
- Counter height
- 850 – 900 mm
- Counter depth
- 600 – 650 mm
- Base unit depth
- 560 – 600 mm
- Upper unit depth
- 300 – 350 mm
- Counter to upper unit
- 450 – 600 mm
- Galley aisle width
- 1050 – 1200 mm
- Work triangle, total
- 4000 – 8000 mm
Layout principles
- Work triangle planned before any cabinetry is drawn
- Wet, cook and store zones kept separate
- Services and points located to the appliance, not the wall
- Dry balcony or utility access kept clear
- Loft storage above, reachable with a two-step
- Chimney ducted out, not recirculating, wherever the shaft allows
Base units
- Height, incl. plinth
- 850 – 900 mm
- Depth
- 560 – 600 mm
- Plinth height
- 100 – 150 mm
- Shutter thickness
- 18 mm
- Carcass
- BWP plywood / HDHMR / marine ply
- Shutter finish
- Laminate / acrylic / PU / veneer / membrane
- Opening
- Handled / handleless J-groove / gola profile
Countertop / platform
- Thickness
- 18 – 40 mm
- Overhang past shutter
- 20 – 30 mm
- Backsplash height
- 500 – 600 mm
- Material
- Quartz / granite / solid surface / sintered stone
- Edge profile
- Straight / bevel / bullnose / mitred
- Finish
- Polished / honed / leathered
Sink and tap
- Single bowl
- 450 × 400 mm
- Double bowl
- 800 – 1000 mm (W)
- Bowl depth
- 200 – 250 mm
- Tap height
- 250 – 350 mm
- Mounting
- Undermount / top mount / integrated
- Material
- SS 304 / quartz composite
- Tap
- Pillar / swan neck / pull-out spray
Hob and chimney
- Hob width
- 600 / 750 / 900 mm
- Chimney width
- 600 / 900 mm
- Chimney above hob
- 650 – 750 mm
- Clearance, hob to side wall
- 300 mm min
- Hob
- Gas / induction / hybrid
- Chimney
- Ducted / recirculating (ducted preferred)
- Suction
- 1000 – 1400 m³/hr
Drawers and hardware
- Cutlery drawer
- 100 – 150 mm (H)
- Utensil drawer
- 200 – 250 mm (H)
- Pan drawer
- 250 – 300 mm (H)
- Load rating
- 30 – 50 kg
- Runners
- Soft-close tandem / full extension
- Inserts
- Cutlery tray / plate holder / bottle pull-out
- Hinges
- Concealed, soft-close, 110° / 165°
Tall and pantry unit
- Height
- 2100 – 2400 mm
- Depth
- 560 – 600 mm
- Width
- 450 – 600 mm
- Internals
- Fixed shelves / pull-out larder / wicker baskets
- Appliance housing
- Oven / microwave / built-in fridge
Lighting and points
- Under-cabinet strip
- Directly above the front edge
- Socket height
- 1050 – 1150 mm
- Colour temperature
- 3000 – 4000 K
- Task light
- LED strip / spot / profile-recessed
- Points
- Counted per appliance, not per wall
What a project here covers
- Measured survey, and a layout worked around the existing plumbing and gas line
- Two or three layout options, with the trade-offs of each written down
- Cabinet and drawer planning, including corner and tall-unit solutions
- Counter, splashback and sink specification
- Task and under-cabinet lighting, and a power plan for every appliance
- Chimney and ventilation placement, and utility or dry-balcony integration
What this room has to solve
The working triangle is wrong
Sink, hob and fridge are the three points you move between constantly. When they are strung along a single wall, or separated by a doorway people walk through, you feel it at every meal. This is fixed on paper, before a single module is ordered.
There is nowhere to put anything down
Most Mumbai kitchens have enough storage and almost no counter. You need landing space beside the hob, beside the sink and beside the fridge, plus somewhere for the mixer, the toaster and the induction plate to live that is not permanently on the counter.
The storage is the wrong shape
Deep shelves lose the back third. Tall cabinets need a stool above the second shelf. Bottle pull-outs, drawer stacks instead of shutters under the counter, and corner units that actually open change how much of your storage you can reach without thinking about it.
Materials and finishes
- Carcass
- Boiling-water-resistant or marine ply below the counter, where a leak eventually happens. Anything cheaper here is a false economy in a coastal city.
- Shutters
- Laminate, acrylic, membrane and veneer each behave differently against heat, oil and daily wiping. We will show you all four and say what each looks like after three years, not just on day one.
- Counter
- Quartz, granite and sintered stone differ on stain resistance, joint visibility and price. Granite remains the sensible default for a kitchen that does heavy Indian cooking.
- Hardware
- Hinges and channels are the parts you touch a thousand times a year and the first thing to fail. Soft-close, a tested load rating, and a brand whose spares you can actually buy in Mumbai.
What we will ask you
- How many people cook here at once, and does anyone else pass through while they do?
- How much dry storage do you keep at a time, a month or a week?
- Is the cooking mostly high heat and oil, or light and quick?
- Is there a utility area or dry balcony we can plan into this, or does everything have to fit in the kitchen?
- Is a dishwasher, built-in oven or water purifier going in now or later? Either is fine, but the plumbing and power differ.
In more detail
Layout first, finishes last
Almost every kitchen enquiry starts with a finish. Someone has seen an acrylic shutter or a handleless profile and wants that. It is the wrong end to start from: the finish is perhaps a tenth of what makes a kitchen good to use, and it is the only part you can change later without breaking anything.
We start with the plan. Where the water and the gas already are, which wall the window is on, how many people are in the room at once, and how much has to be stored. From that come two or three real layout options, usually an L, a parallel, or an L with a short peninsula, and each is presented with what it costs you as well as what it gives you.
What a Mumbai flat changes
Space is the obvious constraint but not the only one. Humidity makes the carcass material matter more here than it would inland. Most flats have the kitchen sharing a wall with a utility or dry balcony, and that is where the washing machine, the bulk storage and the bins belong. Planning them into the kitchen instead is how a kitchen ends up permanently cluttered. Society rules on shaft access and chimney ducting are worth checking before the chimney is bought rather than after.
Working around what is already there
Moving a gas line or a drain point is possible, but it is rarely the cheapest way to solve a layout problem and in many buildings it needs permission. Where the existing services are awkward we will say so early and design around them. Where moving one genuinely unlocks a much better kitchen, we will show you the difference with the cost attached and let you decide.
Talk about your
kitchen
Projects involving this room
Rooms this one usually comes with
Draft wording.This page was written by us from your brief rather than by you. Read it, change anything that is not how you work, and we will set it exactly as you want it.
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Your space
starts here
Tell us about the property and what you want from it. We will come back with a plan and a detailed estimate.