Small kitchen counter space has to cover four tasks: mixing, the sink, the range and the refrigerator. So a small kitchen remodel starts with a tally: add up the counter each task needs, compare that total with the wall length the room gives you, and decide which tasks will share a stretch. Choose cabinets after that, not before.
Pick the cabinets and the appliances first and two tasks can end up competing for one stretch of counter. The conflict shows only when the plan is drawn, which means redrawing it. A tally on paper is quicker.
Small Kitchen Counter Space Is Shared by Four Tasks
A kitchen does its work in centers. One guide to kitchen planning, from a university extension service, lists the basic ones: mixing, cook and serve, sink or sink and dishwasher, and refrigerator. A work center is the counter, the storage and the equipment gathered where one task happens. Each of the four wants a piece of the counter run.
The figures in this article come from that source, one university extension guide last reviewed in September 2017. It describes a small kitchen as 8 by 10 feet to 10 by 10 feet, and it gives a counter figure for each work center. Those are that one guide’s minimums, not a code. They aren’t a rule from Lang’s, and they aren’t the only set of figures a designer can work from. Your designer may plan to others.
Picture the problem. Four tasks each want counter. A small kitchen has only so much wall to give. Add it up on paper and it takes a few minutes. Find the clash after the plan is drawn and it takes a redraw.
How Much Counter Does Each Task Need?
That guide gives a figure for each center. Mixing gets a minimum of 36 inches. Beside the range or cooktop, 15 inches is its minimum. An 18-inch counter belongs beside the refrigerator door handle. To the right of the sink it asks for 24 to 36 inches.
The sink has two sides. That guide puts 18 to 30 inches on the left side of the sink, and it says 24 inches is adequate where a dishwasher sits to the left. Those two sides can do different work. As a general rule, one side may hold what’s waiting to be washed and the other what’s draining.
Why does counter beside a task matter? Because that’s where things land. The grocery bag. The hot pot. The cutting board with the onion on it. As a general rule, a task with no counter beside it slows the cook down, because whatever is in your hands has no place to go. That’s the reason to count the counter task by task instead of counting it in one lump.
What Do Those Minimums Add Up To?
The four lowest figures are 36, 15, 18 and 24 inches. Together they come to 93 inches of counter, about 7 feet 9 inches. That sum is this article’s own arithmetic, not a total from that guide. It leaves out the left side of the sink and any corner, so a real room may need more.
Hold that number next to a wall. At the lower end of that guide’s size line, 8 by 10 feet, one wall runs 8 feet. That’s 96 inches. The tally nearly fills that wall on its own — and the refrigerator, the range and the sink base still need their own widths. Counter spreads around the room, of course, not along one wall. So the point isn’t the wall. It’s the size of the tally.
Doorways and windows take wall as well. Measure each wall and write its length down. Then look at what’s left and divide it among the tasks. As a general rule, the room will tell you what it can hold before a single cabinet gets picked. And if the tally runs past the walls, that’s a decision worth making before the drawings start.
Which Tasks Can Share a Stretch of Counter?
Neighboring tasks sometimes can, and a designer weighs which pairs work on your plan. That guide puts the mixing center between the refrigerator and the sink, and it says to place closely related centers together. So mixing, the refrigerator and the sink are the natural neighbors in a plan like that.
In a small kitchen remodel, sharing comes with a tradeoff. When one stretch of counter serves two tasks, the two can’t happen at once. Someone waits, or something gets moved. So ask the household a few plain questions. Who cooks? Who preps? Who puts the groceries away? And if one task has to give up counter, which one is it?
Measuring comes next. Lang’s post on where a free kitchen planner stops and the tape measure starts covers cabinet widths and what a screen drawing can’t see, and why a measured plan is the step after a sketch. Use it when you take the tape to the walls.
Where Else Can a Small Kitchen Find Counter?
A small kitchen can find counter by changing what sits on it, not by adding length. As a general rule, tall cabinets and drawers can hold what would otherwise live on the counter. A designer can plan a home for the things you use every day, so they stop taking space from the four tasks.
Design, cabinetry and countertops are Lang’s work. So ask the designer to show you on the plan where each task’s counter lands, and what gets stored above it and below it. If a mixer and a coffee maker already live out on the counter, say so. Each one is taking space that a task needs. A plan that names the task at each stretch can be checked against your own tally.
Lengths aren’t the end of it. A counter run still has to be cut and joined, and Lang’s post on planning countertop seams before the slab is cut covers that step.
What Should You Bring to the First Design Meeting?
The tally and the wall lengths are what a designer can work from. Write down how long each wall is. Mark where the doorway and the window sit, and where the refrigerator and the range sit in the room as it stands. Then note which task you do at which spot. That list is enough to start the conversation.
A designer can start from that list. The jobsite visit later checks it against the real room, so your sketch doesn’t have to be pretty. It has to say which task happens where, and how long each wall is. Note what already sits on each wall, too. The list doesn’t need to be long. It needs to be true to the room.
That’s the start of kitchen remodeling with Lang’s designers: the team talks with you, visits your home and finds out your must-haves. Lang’s designs for compact kitchens and for large open-plan spaces alike.
Frequently Asked Questions About Small Kitchen Planning
How big is a small kitchen?
That one extension guide puts a small kitchen at 8 by 10 feet to 10 by 10 feet, and calls those the sizes kitchen planners work with. Other sources draw the line elsewhere. Lang’s designs compact kitchens as well as large open-plan spaces, and sets no size line of its own. So treat that range as one guide’s figure, not as a definition.
Is there one minimum counter length for a small kitchen?
Not in that guide. It gives a figure for each work center and no total for the kitchen as a whole. The 93 inches in this article is its own sum of the four lowest figures, and it can’t stand in for a requirement. A designer may plan to other figures, and may land on a different split between the tasks.
How much does a small kitchen remodel cost?
No layout article can give you an honest figure, because it depends on what the design includes. Nothing in a counter tally changes that. Lang’s 12-step process puts a computerized floor plan and pricing analysis at step 3, and a final floor plan and quote at step 5, after the in-home analysis. So bring the tally and ask at that stage.
What if the counter tally is longer than my walls?
Then something has to give. Two tasks can share a stretch. One task can take the lower end of its figure. Or the plan can change in some other way. A designer can weigh those against your walls and say what each one gives up in daily use. The walls are the fixed part here. The tally is the part you can adjust.
Will Lang’s help me work out the counter for my kitchen?
The team talks with you, visits your home and finds out your must-haves. In Lang’s 12-step process, its designers make a jobsite visit for a complete in-home analysis. Design consultations are available in the showroom and online by appointment. Bring the tally, the wall lengths and the figures you landed on, and ask what the room can hold.
Bring the Tally to a Design Consultation
In Lang’s 12-step remodeling process, designers visit the jobsite for a complete in-home analysis before the design team finalizes all dimensions, floor plans and mechanical specifications.
A tally can be adjusted while the drawings are still open. So it helps to bring it to the first meeting, before the dimensions get set.
If you want to see where that falls in the order of things, Lang’s 12-step remodeling process lays out the steps from the first appointment through the final plans.
If you’re planning small kitchen counter space for a remodel, bring your tally and your wall lengths and talk with Lang’s design team before the plan is set. Lang’s design showroom is in Newtown.