The Work Triangle, and When to Ignore It

A sixty-year-old rule that still holds — except in the two cases where it does not. None of what follows depends on style or budget tier; it applies whether the room is being done on a tight number or a generous one. What changes with budget is the material, not the sequence of decisions. This is written from projects rather than from a general principle, which is why it names specific dimensions and specific failure modes rather than staying at the level of advice. Where your own room differs from the assumption behind a point, the point still applies — just adjust the number. Nothing here requires taking our word for it; each point is the kind of thing you can verify yourself on a site visit or ask a contractor to confirm in writing. That verification is usually the difference between advice that gets followed and advice that gets nodded at and ignored. A few of these points contradict what gets repeated as conventional wisdom. Where that happens we say so directly and explain why, because the conventional version is usually true in general and wrong for the specific case it gets applied to.

This matters more than it looks like it should, because the cost of getting it wrong is rarely visible until much later — usually at the point where fixing it means undoing finished work rather than changing a line on a drawing. Where any of this does carry a cost, it is usually smaller before installation than after. A change raised at the drawing stage is a line on a plan; the same change raised after the trades that depend on it have moved past it is a demolition and a delay. The right moment to act on any of this is whichever comes first: the design drawing that fixes it, or the trade on site that executes past it. After either, changing course gets progressively more expensive.

What the triangle actually measures

The three legs between sink, hob and fridge should total between 4m and 8m, with no single leg under 1.2m. Under 4m the kitchen is cramped; over 8m you are walking rather than pivoting. Measure it on the drawing before anything is ordered.

Nothing should cut through it

An island, a dining table or a doorway crossing a triangle leg turns every cooking session into a negotiation. This is the most common reason a large kitchen works worse than a small one.

It breaks down in a galley

In a parallel kitchen under 3m long the triangle collapses into a line, and that is fine — the whole point of a galley is that everything is within a pivot. Judge it on reach, not on geometry.

Two cooks need zones, not a triangle

If two people cook together, plan separate prep and wash zones with their own counter run and bin. A single triangle puts two people in the same square metre.

Appliances have changed the rule

A dishwasher belongs beside the sink, an oven at eye level out of the traffic path, and the microwave wherever the person who uses it stands. These were not in the original model and they matter more than the diagram.