How to Plan a Flat Pack Kitchen: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Whether you're fitting it yourself or bringing in a professional, good planning is the difference between a kitchen that works beautifully and one that causes headaches. This guide walks you through everything — from taking your first measurements to placing your order with confidence.

Step 1: Measure Your Kitchen Accurately

Before you look at a single door style or cabinet size, get your measurements right. Mistakes here are costly, so take your time and measure twice.

What to measure:

Wall to wall — measure every wall at floor level, mid-height, and worktop height. Older UK homes especially can have walls that aren't perfectly straight or square.
Floor to ceiling — this determines whether you can fit full-height units or how much space you'll have above wall cabinets.
Windows and doors — measure the width of each frame, plus the distance from the floor and from each corner of the wall. Note which way doors swing, as this affects unit placement.
Fixed points — mark the exact positions of your boiler, soil pipes, gas supply, electrical sockets, and radiators. These are expensive or impossible to move, so your layout needs to work around them.
Plumbing — note where your existing sink waste and water supply are. Moving them is possible but adds cost.

Always work in millimetres. All cabinet sizes are quoted in mm, and it avoids confusion between imperial and metric.

Draw a rough sketch of each wall as a flat elevation — you don't need to be an architect, just accurate. Mark every measurement on it.

Step 2: Choose Your Kitchen Layout

Once you know your space, you can choose the layout that suits it. There are five common layouts for UK homes:

Galley Kitchen

Two parallel runs of units facing each other. Excellent for narrow or long rooms — common in terraced houses and flats. Highly efficient if the two runs are between 1,000mm and 1,500mm apart.

Best for: narrow rooms, flats, high-efficiency cooking

Single Wall / In-line Kitchen

All units on one wall. Works well in open-plan spaces where you don't want to divide the room, or in studio flats.

Best for: open-plan layouts, smaller spaces

L-Shape Kitchen

Units running along two adjoining walls, forming an L. One of the most popular layouts in the UK — flexible, spacious, and works well with a dining table in the corner space.

Best for: medium-sized rooms, everyday family kitchens

U-Shape Kitchen

Units on three walls. Maximises storage and worktop space. Requires enough room — ideally at least 2,400mm between opposite units to move freely.

Best for: larger kitchens, serious cooks who want maximum workspace

Island Kitchen

An L or U-shape with a freestanding island unit in the centre. The island can include a hob, sink, seating, or additional storage. Requires significant floor space — at least 1,000mm clearance around all sides of the island.

Best for: large open-plan kitchens

Step 3: Plan Around the Kitchen Work Triangle

The kitchen work triangle connects your three most-used points: the sink, the hob, and the fridge. Keeping these close together — but not too close — makes everyday cooking feel effortless.

As a general rule, each side of the triangle should be between 1,200mm and 2,700mm. If any side is shorter or longer than this, you'll either feel cramped or be doing unnecessary walking while you cook.

When planning your unit positions, always check where your sink, hob, and fridge will sit relative to each other.

Step 4: Decide What Units You Need

This is where your sketch becomes a shopping list. Go wall by wall and work out what cabinets fit and where.

Base units sit on the floor and support the worktop. Standard depth is 570mm (600mm with doors). Standard heights are 720mm (to bring worktop to 900mm with legs and worktop combined).

Wall units are mounted above the worktop, typically 300mm–400mm deep and 600mm–900mm tall. Leave a minimum of 450mm between the worktop surface and the bottom of the wall cabinet — 500mm–600mm is more comfortable to work in.

Tall units run floor to ceiling or close to it — ideal for a larder, a fridge-freezer housing, or an oven tower.

Things to account for in your unit plan:

A 600mm base unit for your sink (or 1,000mm if you want a wider sink)
A 600mm base unit for your hob, with a gap or suitable housing unit either side
An end panel wherever a cabinet side will be visible
Corner units if you have an L or U-shape — consider a carousel or pull-out for accessibility
Plinth to run along the bottom of all base units
Cornice or pelmet if you want a finished top to your wall units

At Flat Pack Kitchens, our complete units come with cabinets, pre-drilled doors, hinges, and soft-close drawers included — so you're not hunting for individual components.

Step 5: Think About Storage Early

It's easy to get distracted by door styles and finish colours. Before you do, think about how you actually use your kitchen.

Drawers give far better access than doors for pots, pans, and dry goods — consider more drawers than you think you need
Pull-out larder units make the most of tall spaces
Corner carousels prevent the dead space in L and U-shape corners
Wall cabinets above the fridge are often forgotten and add useful storage
Pan drawers under the hob keep your most-used items close to hand

Step 6: Choose Your Door Style and Cabinet Colour

With your layout confirmed and units planned, now's the time to choose how your kitchen will look.

At Flat Pack Kitchens, our cabinets are available in White, Grey, and Urban Oak — and in most cases the cabinet colour isn't visible once installed, so this choice mainly affects open shelving or glass-door units.

Your door style, however, makes the biggest impact:

Gloss doors — sleek, reflective, easy to wipe clean. Suit contemporary and minimalist kitchens.
Matt doors — popular right now, softer look, fingerprint-resistant. Work across modern and transitional styles.
Shaker doors — classic framed style. Suits traditional, farmhouse, and contemporary settings equally well.
Handleless / J-profile doors — push-to-open or integrated grip. Very clean look for modern open-plan kitchens.
Timber frame doors — warm and natural. Suits country, rustic, and Scandi styles.

Order door samples before committing — colours on screen vary from room to room depending on light.

Step 7: Don't Forget the Finishing Details

These are easy to overlook until it's too late:

Handles — not included with units, so factor these into your budget and style choices
Worktops — not supplied by us, but your unit plan determines the lengths you need to order
Legs and plinths — included with our base units; confirm lengths needed
Appliances — confirm cutout sizes for your oven, hob, and integrated fridge before ordering housing units
Lighting — under-cabinet LED strips are easiest to install before fitting wall units
Electrical sockets — plan where you want them on the backsplash before tiling

Step 8: Place Your Order

Once your plan is finalised, ordering is straightforward. At Flat Pack Kitchens:

All cabinets are dispatched within 2-3 working days. Check the product page for details.
Delivery to mainland UK is typically within a week
Our cabinets use cam and dowel joints — no specialist tools required, and they assemble quickly whether you're fitting yourself or having a professional in
Every unit comes with a 6-year manufacturer's warranty
We're FIRA Gold certified — the industry's standard for structural performance in kitchen furniture

If you have any questions about your plan before ordering, call us on 02920 007 948 or email info@flatpackkitchens.co.uk — we're happy to look over your measurements and make sure you've got everything you need.

Summary: Kitchen Planning Checklist

Ready to get started? Browse our complete kitchen units or view our full range of kitchen doors.

Only £15 delivery

6 Year Guarantee

Discounts Applied Automatically