How to Plan a Kitchen Remodel in South Florida

Kitchen planning

The short answer

Step 1

Start with three work centres: sink, cooktop, refrigerator

The National Kitchen & Bath Association publishes Kitchen Planning Guidelines that designers use as a checklist. They are recommendations, not law (the document itself says state and local codes govern), but they are the most useful numbers a homeowner can bring to a first design meeting. The first is the work triangle: the path between the cooktop, the cleanup sink and the refrigerator should total no more than 26 feet, with no single leg shorter than 4 feet or longer than 9 feet, measured from the centre-front of each. No leg should cut through an island by more than 12 inches, no tall pantry or oven tower should sit between two of the three, and the main traffic route through the house should not cross the triangle.

Moving a work centre is the biggest decision in the project. A sink that moves needs new drain and vent piping; a cooktop that moves needs new gas or a new circuit, and its hood duct moves with it. Our kitchen cost guide explains how that choice changes the code level and the budget. Three common layouts built around an island:

Cook at the island

Cooktop in the island

The cook faces the room. It needs a hood above the island with a duct route through the ceiling, and counter on both sides and behind the burners.

Photo: a six-burner range set into an island under a stainless island hood.

Clean at the island

Sink in the island

The cleanup centre faces the room and the cooking stays on the wall, under a wall hood. The island needs a drain and vent path through the floor.

Photo: an island with a farmhouse sink and dishwasher drawers, facing a wall with double ovens.

Two heights

Split the island

A working counter and a table-height seating end in one piece of furniture. Each height needs its own knee space and clearance.

Photo: a two-level island in blue-grey quartzite: a lower seating table joined to a working island.

Step 2

Aisles, seating and the counter beside each appliance

With the work centres placed, check the space around them. The NKBA numbers most often missed in remodels:

• Aisles. Measure between counter fronts, tall cabinets and appliances, not between walls. An island that leaves 36 inches looks generous on paper and is tight with the dishwasher open.
• Stools. Allow a knee space 24 inches wide for each person, 15 inches deep at a 36-inch counter, 12 inches at a 42-inch bar and 18 inches at a 30-inch table (guideline 9). Four stools need about 8 feet of overhang.
• The dishwasher sits within 36 inches of the sink edge, with 21 inches of standing room beside it (guideline 13).

Add a clear prep counter at least 36 inches wide and 24 inches deep next to the sink (guideline 12), and on an island or peninsula keep at least 9 inches of counter behind the cooktop at the same height (guideline 17). NKBA puts the whole kitchen’s working counter at about 158 inches of frontage, 24 inches deep (guideline 25), a useful check when a large range, a tall oven tower and a column refrigerator all compete for the same wall.

Step 3

Choose the appliances before the cabinets

Cabinets are built around appliances, so the appliance list has to be final, with model numbers, before cabinets are ordered. Four rules decide what can go where:

• Household-rated only. Cooking appliances must be listed and labeled for household use and installed to the manufacturer’s instructions (FBC-Residential M1901.2), and the fuel-gas chapter does not allow commercial cooking appliances in a dwelling unless they are listed for residential use (G2447.2). A restaurant range is not a residential range, however it looks.
• Clearance above the burners. A range needs at least 30 inches of vertical clearance above the cooking top to unprotected combustible material (M1901.1). The code allows less only with specified protection or a listed hood or appliance above, following its installation instructions (G2447.5 for gas). That line fixes the height of the wall cabinet or shelf over the range.
• The hood and its duct. A range hood discharges outdoors through a duct (M1503.1), and a large hood can require makeup air (M1503.4). Choose the range and hood together and draw the duct route before the ceiling and cabinets are fixed; the cost guide covers the makeup-air thresholds.
• Not under an opening window. NKBA advises against a cooktop under an operable window and recommends a fire extinguisher by the kitchen exit (guideline 20). In Miami-Dade and Broward, a window that is replaced must also meet the hurricane impact rules.

The electrical plan follows the appliances: dedicated circuits, the 20-amp countertop circuits and GFCI protection the 2020 National Electrical Code requires in Florida, and outlets within reach along every counter. The cost guide lists them. Add task lighting over every work surface (NKBA guideline 31) on the same drawing, because under-cabinet lights need wiring before the cabinets go up.

Step 4

Storage: how much, and where

NKBA sizes storage as total shelf and drawer frontage (cabinet width × number of shelves or drawers × depth in feet). Its targets are about 1,400 inches for a kitchen under 150 square feet, 1,700 for 151 to 350 square feet and 2,000 above that (guideline 27), with a good share of it, 400 to 560 inches, within 72 inches of the sink (guideline 28), and at least one corner cabinet fitted with a pull-out or rotating device (guideline 29). Storage above 84 inches counts only as miscellaneous.

The practical point for a remodel: when an island adds seating or a wall comes out for an open plan, count the storage that disappears with the old wall cabinets. Deep drawers in the island, a pantry wall or taller uppers usually put it back. Our custom cabinetry and open-concept kitchen pages show the options.

The order of decisions

What belongs on the drawings, and what can wait for the showroom

The left column is what the permit drawings, the rough-in inspections and the cabinet order depend on; changing it after the walls close or the cabinets ship means rework. The right column changes only what you see. The most common late change is an appliance: a wider range or a panel-ready refrigerator swapped in after the cabinets are ordered alters the cabinet boxes, the hood and sometimes the circuit.

The paperwork

Permits, inspections and the order of work

A kitchen remodel that moves or adds plumbing, gas or circuits, or changes a wall or window, needs permits for that work. Florida’s HB 803 (in force since July 1, 2026) lets a single-family owner request an exemption for small jobs, but it excludes electrical, plumbing, structural, mechanical and gas work and homes in a flood hazard area, so it rarely covers a real kitchen remodel. Inspections happen before anything is covered (Miami-Dade County), so the schedule has to leave room for them:

1. DesignLayout, appliances, drawingsWork centres, aisles, appliance list and electrical plan drawn together.
2. PermitPlumbing, gas, electrical, structureFiled with the drawings; in a condo, after the association approves.
3. Rough-inInspected before walls closeNew drain, vent, gas, wiring and hood duct are inspected open.
4. CabinetsBoxes set and levelledStone counters are usually measured from the installed base cabinets.
5. FinishCounters, backsplash, trim-out, finalAppliances connected, fixtures set, final inspection.

Condos add a layer: the association decides what may change, when work can happen and what it must approve first, often including plumbing and venting through common walls. Our condo renovation guide walks through it.

Interactive checklist

Before the first showroom visit: a kitchen planning checklist

Our process

How we plan a kitchen remodel

We plan a kitchen remodel from the floor plan up: we measure the room, find the drain, vent, gas and duct routes, set the work centres and aisles, and fix the appliance list and electrical plan on the drawings before cabinets and finishes. Our kitchen layout and design page shows how we work through the options, and small rooms have their own trade-offs on our galley kitchen page. On a design-build project the drawings the building department reviews are the drawings we build.

For finished examples, see our two-tone kitchen with a professional range and island and our white shaker kitchen with a waterfall quartz island. Send us photos or a plan of your kitchen and we will tell you which of these decisions your room forces first.