Designing Your Kitchen:
The Work Triangle
By William Martin, Certified Kitchen Designer®
No matter how large or small your kitchen space or budget, an efficient layout of appliances, work and storage areas is the most important consideration for a comfortable working kitchen.
Today's kitchen is a combination of science, art and tradition. At the center is a design layout concept called the work triangle. Cooks spend most of their time inside the triangle for meal preparation and cleanup. The primary sink, refrigerator and cooktop make up the points of the triangle and are connected by the "legs."
Illustration by William Martin
The length of a triangle leg should be a comfortable two-to-four steps (four to nine feet). The more equal the legs are in length, the more comfortable the work space will be. Cooks use different legs at different times during meal preparation. The leg between the sink and refrigerator is used most during early meal preparation and later for cleanup.
The cooktop is often used at the climax of the meal. If steaks are on the menu, when they come off the cooktop you're ready to eat.
Triangle legs should be straight with no obstructions or encroachments. A sink located on the opposite side of an island from the refrigerator forces the user to walk around the island, adding extra steps to this leg of the triangle.
Analyze your cooking style. Where do you do most of your prep work? In which direction do you prefer to work? Many cooks prefer a continuous countertop connecting the sink and refrigerator that serves as the main prep area. Another favorite prep area is between the cooktop and sink.
If you have the space, try to create comfortable prep areas in both legs.
The cabinetry below these two legs is the best place to store items most frequently used in daily meal preparation.
There are several basic kitchen layouts. Your room shape will determine which layout works the best: galley, railroad (single line), L shaped, L shaped with an island or peninsula, U shaped, and U shaped with an island or peninsula are most common. While some are theoretically more desirable than others, most will facilitate an efficient work triangle when creatively designed. The galley and railroad layouts pose some basic design conflicts with traffic patterns and inefficient or non-existent triangles.
Courtesy of Kitchen Perfection
Locating Appliances
Kitchen surveys reveal that cooks working in the kitchen spend about 70% of their time doing a function associated with the sink. About 98% of the kitchens in the United States have the sink located at an exterior window. Placing the sink in an island or peninsula may allow the user to interact more with people in adjacent countertop seating. Conversely, if the primary sink is located in an island, you will not have the advantage of a continuous countertop main prep area connecting with the refrigerator.
Often a cooktop is located in an island or peninsula with casual guest seating facing the cook. There is a sensual excitement to cooking. Restaurants recognize this and have created focal points around their grills. Residential kitchen designers develop cooktop focal points using enclaves and large decorative hoods to add artistic and functional appeal. If the cooktop is located in a generously-sized island, adding a secondary sink can create an additional prep area.
Many kitchen designers place the refrigerator first. It is monolithic and usually not a desirable focal point, but it should not be isolated. Continuity and proximity to the main prep area are important. A good location is at the end of a cabinet run with a countertop connected to the sink. Placing another tall, deep cabinet on the opposite end of the cabinet run from the refrigerator will create a visual balance and direct the eye to the middle, creating a focal point opportunity.
Most side-by-side refrigerator/freezers are manufactured with the refrigerator on the right side of the unit. People tend to use the refrigerator about ten times more frequently than the freezer. A thoughtful layout will have the sink on the left side of the unit, allowing the easiest access to the refrigerator and avoiding reaching around the open refrigerator door to use the countertop landing area (main prep area) between the sink and refrigerator.
Landing Area
The refrigerator, cooktop, sink and other appliances require a landing area, dedicated countertop space on either side of the appliance for tasks associated with that appliance. When you access the refrigerator, the landing area is where you place food when you load or unload. The landing area should be on the handle side of the refrigerator for easiest use.
Avoid isolating the refrigerator with no countertop landing area next to it. An island facing the refrigerator is not a desirable substitute for landing area as it requires a 180 degree turn to access. Side-by-side refrigerators should have landing areas on both sides if possible.
A cooktop located in an island or peninsula requires either an upper countertop behind it or additional countertop landing space behind. Pots and pans on the cooktop with handles extending past the countertop edge pose a hazard to children and others passing by. A cooktop located near the edge or end of an island or peninsula should have at least fifteen inches of countertop landing area from the edge of the cooktop to the end of the countertop.
Traffic Patterns
There are two basic types of traffic walkways. Primary is from one room to another, and secondary is from one area of a room to another area in the same room. There should be no primary walkways through the work triangle to conflict with or interrupt the cook's working efforts. If you want to eat, stay out of the cook's way.
Secondary walkways along a triangle leg should be no less than four feet in width so that one person may pass another working at the counter without crowding. Additionally, this allows comfortable room to pass an open dishwasher or oven door. Secondary walkways outside of the work triangle should no less than three feet wide.
Premium Space
The area inside the work triangle between your knees and shoulders is premium space in your kitchen and should be dedicated to storing items used most frequently. Keep countertops free of clutter, providing dedicated space for easy meal preparation and cleanup.
Store utensils, pots and pans, dry goods and supplies used daily in cabinetry that is inside the triangle in premium space. Areas below your knees are difficult to access just as cabinetry and shelving above your shoulders are hard to see and reach. Store less frequently used items in these areas. Countertop areas outside the work triangle are the place for conveniences like coffee centers, blenders, toaster ovens, etc.
Many people use their cooktop once or twice a day while they may use the oven only a few times a week. If you're considering a range (cooktop and oven combined) the oven is located in premium space that you may use more effectively for storage. Consider a cooktop with drawers located below for the pots and pans used in daily meal preparation.
A good location for the oven is outside of the work triangle in a wall unit. Frequently wall ovens are combined with a built-in microwave. A word of caution: most microwave doors are hinged on the left side. Try to place the microwave so the door swings away from the work triangle so you won't have to move around the open door.
Social Seating
Modern kitchens have evolved as the social center of the home. Many kitchens are open to other living areas where families spend much of their time together and entertain friends.
Casual seating is easily integrated into an island or peninsula countertop. Countertop heights for seating may vary from thirty to forty-two inches. Seating at the thirty-six-inch height is often accommodated by extending an existing peninsula or island countertop. The advantage here is that the whole countertop is available for cooking and prep. The disadvantage is some difficulty finding chairs to fit that height. Countertops at the thirty and forty-two inch heights are dedicated to eating or buffet uses and are not convenient as a work area.
A forty-two inch countertop, when combined with a lower thirty-six inch high countertop, hides the lower working countertop from the view of an adjacent living area. The backsplash in between countertops is a great location for outlets and light switches.
Try to avoid straight line seating at a peninsula or island where seated guests must turn to face each other. You can create more design interest and conversational seating by simply having angled or curved countertops where guests face each other. Make sure to locate integrated countertop seating so that chairs won't interfere with a primary walkway when pulled out.
Lighting
The work triangle area must be well lit with a pleasing combination of natural and artificial lighting. General purpose or ambient lighting illuminates the overall room and walkways, while task lighting highlights work areas without casting shadows. The next “Designing Your Kitchen” article will feature creative kitchen lighting ideas and explore the concept of layered lighting.
Go Ahead
No two kitchens are alike. User preferences, design themes, cooking style, room shape and budget are only a few of the variables. No perfect layout encompasses all kitchen design theories. Like life, kitchen design is a series of choices and trade-offs.
Creating a new kitchen needn't be an intimidating experience. Have fun with your new kitchen design-use your imagination. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Friends and most kitchen experts are eager to offer suggestions and ideas. 
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