U-Shaped Kitchens in London
Cabinetry for a U-shape from £7,500, fitted, including VAT; worktops and appliances are quoted separately. Book a free design visit for a fixed quote made to your measurements, finishes and colours →
How a U-shape worksSee the layout ↓
Clapham Shaker KitchenView this design →
Hampstead Shaker KitchenView this design →
Shoreditch Oak Handleless KitchenView this design →
Maida Vale Handleless KitchenView this design →
Marylebone Slab KitchenView this design →
Chiswick Gloss KitchenView this design →
St John's Wood Shaker Island KitchenView this design →
Blackheath Slab Island KitchenView this design →
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U-Shaped Kitchens in London
Cabinetry on three walls, with the sink on the end wall under the window, cooking on one side and cold storage on the other. The most worktop and the most storage of any layout, in a room wide enough to stand in the middle of.
The U-shaped kitchen, in plan
Three runs of 600mm-deep units line three walls and meet in two corners; the fourth wall is the door. The sink takes the end wall under the window with the dishwasher beside it, the hob sits on one side wall with the oven tower at its open end, and the fridge stands at the open end of the other. Between the two side runs there must be 2.4 metres, or the U becomes a corridor, so the room needs to be 3.6 metres wide. Its depth sets how long the side runs are.
Between the side runs 2.4m minimum · Room width 3.6m (600 + 2400 + 600) · Room depth from 3.0m · Corners two, each with a pull-out · Tall units at the open ends of the side runs
Getting a U-shaped kitchen right
Six things a designer checks before a U-shaped kitchen is drawn.
Two corners, both solved
A U loses 600mm behind each corner unless both are worked. Pull-outs in both, or a carousel in one and a corner drawer in the other, decided before the runs are divided.
Width between the sides
Twenty-four hundred millimetres is the least. Two people, two open doors and a route to the sink all happen in that space. Less, and it is a galley with an end wall.
The end wall
The run you face from the door. It takes the sink and the window, and it is the view of the kitchen, so it is where the splashback and the tap are chosen most carefully.
Cooking one side, cold the other
The hob and the ovens on one side wall, the fridge and the larder on the other, so the triangle runs across the U and the cook stands in its centre.
Tall units at the open ends
The oven tower and the fridge stand at the door end of each side run, framing the entrance and leaving the three worktops continuous around the corners.
Nothing in the middle
A U works because its centre is clear. If the room is wide enough for an island as well, 3.6 metres between the sides, it is an island layout with a U around it.
Room sizes for a U-shaped kitchen
What each size of room holds, and the clear floor it leaves. Your designer measures the room and adapts the layout to it.
| Room | What fits | Clear space |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum · 3.6m × 3.0m | A 3.6m end run and two 2.4m sides: sink, hob with the oven under it, fridge, two corner pull-outs | 2.4m between the sides |
| Comfortable · 3.6m × 3.4m Most rooms | Three runs with the dishwasher, a 900 hob, drawers throughout, and the oven tower and fridge at the open ends | 2.4m, with a table beyond the door |
| Generous · 4.8m × 4.0m or more | Three long runs, two tall units, a second sink, and an island in the middle with 1.0m all round | 3.6m between the sides, 1.0m round the island |
Three runs, unfolded
Opened out flat, the U is one long worktop with two corners in it. The end wall does the washing: sink under the window, dishwasher to one side, drawers to the other. One side wall does the cooking: the hob with worktop either side and the oven tower at its open end. The other side does the cold storage and the dry goods, with the fridge at its open end. Each corner takes a pull-out, so the 600mm behind each is used rather than lost.
End wall sink, dishwasher, drawers · Cooking side hob, drawers, oven tower · Storage side drawers, cupboard, fridge · Corners two pull-outs · Worktop the longest continuous run of any layout
Planning a U-shaped kitchen
Five decisions, in the order your designer makes them.
The U-shape, built
The Chiswick is a U in cream high gloss: handleless units on three walls, a marble splashback across the end wall and the sink under the window, with the washing machine tucked into the run. The Clapham is a compact U in white shaker on three walls of a smaller room, with a black fridge-freezer at one open end and bar handles throughout.
Both show why the U is the cook's layout for a room that is not a corridor: three worktops, two corners worked, and the cook in the middle of it all. When the room is wider than 4.8 metres, the middle takes an island; when one side is a return rather than a wall, the U is really a peninsula; and when the room is narrower than 3.6 metres, a galley holds nearly as much.
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Questions about the U-Shape layout.
About 3.6 metres wide at the least: 600mm of units on each side wall and 2.4 metres between them. The depth of the room sets the length of the side runs, and 3.0 metres is enough for a hob, an oven tower and a fridge. Below 3.6 metres wide, the side runs pinch the middle and an L-shape or a galley holds nearly as much.
Twenty-four hundred millimetres between the fronts of the units. That allows two people to work, an oven door and a dishwasher door to open opposite each other, and a clear route to the sink on the end wall. It is more than the 1.2 to 1.5 metres a galley needs because a U is entered from one end only and everything happens in its centre.
Pull-outs. A U has two corners, each hiding a 600 by 600mm space reached from one side, and a door onto a void wastes both. We fit a pull-out that brings the shelves out into the room, a carousel, or a corner drawer that opens diagonally through the angle. The wall units above meet with a corner post and are planned around the window on the end wall.
Sink on the end wall under the window, hob on one side wall, fridge on the other. That makes the work triangle cross the U with the cook standing in the middle of it, and puts water, heat and cold on three different runs. The oven tower stands with the hob at the open end of its run, and the fridge at the open end of the other, so the two tall units frame the door.
Yes. Three runs give roughly half as much worktop and storage again as an L in the same room, and the worktop is continuous around two corners, which is the longest single run any layout offers. The cost is width: an L works in a room 3.0 metres wide, a U needs 3.6. In a room that has the width, the U is the most kitchen the room can hold.
When the room is about 4.8 metres wide or more. An island in the middle of a U needs a metre of clear floor on every side, so with 600mm of units on each side wall the room needs 600 + 1000 + island + 1000 + 600. Below that width the middle of the U stays clear, which is what makes the layout work, and a table beyond the door end does the social job.
Only where one of its three sides is a return rather than a wall, at which point it is a peninsula layout with the room beyond the return. A true U with three walls is a room in itself, and it suits a separate kitchen, an Edwardian back room or a broken-plan house better than a single open space. Where the walls are there, nothing else stores or works as well.
Three walls. Two corners. One design visit.
Our senior designer measures all three walls, solves both corners and plans the end wall, free, at your home, with the door samples.