An 8x12 is the best galley footprint in the American house, and the numbers are the reason: 96 inches of width leaves a 46-inch aisle between two 25-inch runs, and 144 inches of length gives each run a full 12 linear feet. That is enough for a 36-inch sink base, a dishwasher, a 30-inch range, a 36-inch refrigerator and still 13 linear feet of clear counter left over - more working surface than most 12-foot-square kitchens with an island in the middle. What the room will not do is seat anyone or hold a second cook, because the aisle is a one-person number.
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Works
Does not fit
Each one is drawn to the room’s real proportions.
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Furniture covers 55% of the floor. 45% stays clear for walking, doors and pulling out drawers.
Best for A serious single cook who wants the most counter per square foot in the house
Wet on the left, hot and cold on the right. The left run is an 18-inch counter, a 36-inch sink base, the dishwasher and then 66 inches of unbroken counter - five and a half feet of clear surface, which is where the actual cooking happens. The right run runs 30 inches of counter, the range, 18 inches of landing, the refrigerator and 30 more inches of counter. Legs measure 6.0 ft sink to range, 4.3 ft range to fridge and 7.4 ft fridge to sink, for a 17.7 ft triangle sitting in the middle of the acceptable band. Door swings are the thing to check on paper: the dishwasher drops into the aisle at 24 inches and the fridge door sweeps from the opposite side, so stagger them along the length rather than facing each other, which is exactly what this plan does.
Strengths
Tradeoffs
Check a piece against these before ordering it, not after.
| Between | Minimum | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Galley aisle, one cook | 42 in minimum, 46 in here | A body plus one open appliance door. At 46 inches you can stand at the sink with the dishwasher open and still close it. |
| Galley aisle, two cooks | 48 in, and 60 in to pass behind someone | An 8 ft wide room is 2 inches short of the two-cook number, which is why this footprint is a single-cook kitchen no matter how it is fitted out. |
| Landing beside the range | 15 in one side, 12 in the other | A hot pan needs a landing spot within a quarter turn. The galley plan gives 30 in on one side and 18 on the other. |
| Landing beside the refrigerator | 15 in on the handle side | Groceries come out in armfuls. Eighteen inches of counter beside the fridge here covers a full paper bag with room to spare. |
| Facing appliance doors across an aisle | Stagger them at least 24 in apart along the run | An open dishwasher door projects 24 in and a fridge door sweeps further. Directly opposite each other in a 46 in aisle, they touch. |
| Behind a seated stool at a shallow counter | 32 to 36 in | A 15 in deep counter puts the stool closer to the wall, which is how you keep 35 in of aisle in a 96 in room. |
Each one is filtered to the measurements above.
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Folded 16–20 in deep, opens to 36–40 in
A studio needs a dining surface for two without giving up floor space six days a week.
Shop this spec24–36 in long, mounted 16–20 in apart
Storage that costs zero floor area, which is the only kind a small room can spare.
Shop this spec2700–3000K warm white, 200–400 lumens per foot
Overhead kitchen lights put your own shadow on the counter you are cutting on.
Shop this specExpand 12–20 in; measure drawer interior depth first
A drawer without dividers holds roughly half of what the same drawer holds with them.
Shop this specIt is close to ideal. Ninety-six inches of width leaves a 46-inch aisle, four inches over the working minimum, and 144 inches of length gives each run a full 12 linear feet - about 24 linear feet of base cabinet and 13 feet of clear counter after the appliances.
42 inches for one cook, 48 for two, and 60 to pass behind someone working at the range. An 8-foot-wide room gives 46 inches after two 25-inch counter runs, which makes it a single-cook kitchen by two inches.
No. The minimum island arrangement is 42 inches of aisle, a 24-inch island and another 42 inches of aisle - 108 inches - and that is before any counter run. The room is 96 inches wide.
Directly beside the sink, on your non-dominant side, and never directly opposite the refrigerator. Both doors open into the same aisle; staggered along the run they coexist, facing each other in 46 inches they collide.
About 17.7 feet in the plan on this page - 6.0 feet sink to range, 4.3 range to fridge and 7.4 fridge to sink. Every leg needs to sit between 4 and 9 feet and the total between 13 and 26, and a two-run galley of this length hits it naturally.
Not at the same time, comfortably. Two cooks need a 48-inch aisle and this room has 46, and passing behind someone at the range wants 60. One cook with someone fetching a drink is the realistic version.
Enter your own measurements and get the layout drawn for your room instead.
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