It depends on your room's proportions, whether it's open to another space, and how your household actually cooks — a galley, L-shape, U-shape, or island layout can all be "ideal" depending on those factors, which is exactly why we assess the space before recommending one.

It's still a useful starting reference, especially for a single-cook kitchen, but modern layouts — particularly open-concept kitchens or those with multiple cooks — increasingly plan around activity zones (prep, cook, clean, landing space) rather than strictly around the triangle alone.

Industry planning guidelines call for at least 36 inches of clear walkway, and 42 to 48 inches in active work aisles depending on whether one or two people cook at once — we check your proposed island placement against these clearances before finalizing the design.

We generally recommend confirming load-bearing status and structural feasibility early in the design process specifically so the layout isn't built around an assumption that turns out to be wrong — it affects both the plan and the permit path.

Yes — we produce a 3D rendering of the finalized layout and material selections before cabinets are ordered or countertops templated, specifically to catch fit and sightline issues while they're still free to fix.

We document existing supply, drain, and vent stack locations during the site assessment, then design the layout to work with those locations where moving them isn't practical or cost-effective — particularly important in condos, where stack locations are often restricted by building rules.

Sometimes — if the cabinet boxes are sound and the issue is genuinely the layout (poor traffic flow, wasted space, awkward appliance placement), a redesign paired with refacing or partial cabinet reconfiguration can solve real problems without a full gut renovation.

A straightforward layout within an existing footprint can typically be finalized in a few weeks. Layouts involving a load-bearing wall evaluation, condo association approval, or extensive custom cabinetry design take longer, since those steps need to happen before construction permitting can proceed.