Check your work triangle
Measure centre to centre, in a straight line, ignoring the counter shape.
How this calculator works
- Each leg is tested against 4–9 ft. Below 4 ft it returns Too short, above 9 ft Too long, otherwise In range.
- The total is tested against 13–26 ft. Below 13 the kitchen is cramped; above 26 it is a walk.
- The verdict is deterministic. Any short leg or a total under 13 ft returns Too tight. Any long leg or a total over 26 ft returns Too spread out. Everything else returns Efficient. The same inputs always give the same answer.
- Layout advice is looked up, not generated. Each of the five layouts carries one published note about how the triangle behaves in that shape.
- Walkway is banded separately: under 3 ft too narrow, 3–4 ft single cook, 4–5 ft two cooks, over 5 ft too far apart.
| Leg | Too short | Workable | Too long | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sink to hob | under 4 ft | 4 – 9 ft | over 9 ft | The busiest leg — pans move wet and hot |
| Hob to fridge | under 4 ft | 4 – 9 ft | over 9 ft | Fridge doors need swing clearance away from the flame |
| Fridge to sink | under 4 ft | 4 – 9 ft | over 9 ft | The prep leg — carrying vegetables to wash |
| Total | under 13 ft | 13 – 26 ft | over 26 ft | Sum of all three |
Source: NKBA kitchen planning guidelines, cross-checked against measured drawings from Greenbox kitchen projects delivered in Mumbai between 2023 and 2026.
Design and build under one accountable roof
Worked example — the default L-shaped kitchen
The tool opens on a common Mumbai L-shape: sink to hob 5 ft, hob to fridge 6 ft, fridge to sink 5.5 ft, walkway 3.5 ft.
| Leg | Distance | Test | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sink to hob | 5 ft | 4 ≤ 5 ≤ 9 | In range |
| Hob to fridge | 6 ft | 4 ≤ 6 ≤ 9 | In range |
| Fridge to sink | 5.5 ft | 4 ≤ 5.5 ≤ 9 | In range |
| Total | 16.5 ft | 13 ≤ 16.5 ≤ 26 | In range |
| Verdict | — | no failures | Efficient |
Why the triangle still matters in a small Indian kitchen
The triangle was devised for a large American kitchen and it is fashionable to say it no longer applies. In a Mumbai flat the opposite is true: the constraint is tighter, so getting it wrong hurts more. A 7 ft × 8 ft kitchen has exactly one sensible arrangement, and the fastest way to find it is to check the three distances before the carcass drawings are signed off.
Two Indian-specific adjustments are worth making. First, the sink carries more load here than in a western kitchen — washing rice, dal and vegetables happens constantly — so the sink-to-hob leg deserves to be the shortest of the three. Second, the fridge is often the tallest unit and the one visitors open, so pushing it toward the kitchen entrance keeps people out of the cooking zone entirely. Both of those are free to do at drawing stage and impossible to do after fabrication.
Nobody complains about a kitchen's colour after six months. They complain about walking to the fridge with a hot pan in one hand.
Greenbox design & build team
Every constant on this page comes from Greenbox site records — measured drawings, signed BOQs and completion certificates from projects delivered between 2023 and 2026 — rounded to the figures an estimator would actually write down. We publish them so the arithmetic can be audited rather than trusted. Treat the output as a planning figure: accurate enough to brief a landlord, a bank or a family, and not accurate enough to sign a contract against.
What this tool does not cover
- Plumbing constraints. In an apartment the sink position is fixed by the waste stack, and moving it more than about 4 ft needs a floor-level gradient that most Mumbai kitchens cannot give.
- Gas line position, which is fixed by the society's piped-gas riser or the cylinder location.
- Chimney ducting. A hob more than 3 m from an external wall makes the duct run long enough to lose suction.
- Second cooks, servant access and utility-balcony doors — all real in Indian kitchens and none of them modelled here.
- Counter height and storage reach, which the cabinet dimensions calculator handles.
- Cost. For pricing, use the modular kitchen cost calculator.
Selected work by Greenbox Design Studio. Tap any image to enlarge.
Frequently asked questions
What is the ideal kitchen work triangle distance?+
Each leg between 4 and 9 feet, with all three totalling 13 to 26 feet. A 16 to 18 foot total is the comfortable middle for a family kitchen.
Does the work triangle apply to a single-wall kitchen?+
Not really — a single-wall kitchen is a line, not a triangle. Judge it on total counter run instead. Ten to twelve feet of continuous counter with the sink in the middle and the hob and fridge at either end works well; under 8 ft it becomes cramped.
Can a doorway pass through the work triangle?+
It should not. A traffic route crossing the sink-to-hob leg means someone walks between the cook and the hot pan. If the plan forces it, put the doorway across the fridge-to-sink leg instead, which is the least used of the three.
How wide should the gap be between two kitchen runs?+
Three and a half to four feet. Below three feet an open oven or dishwasher door blocks the kitchen. Above five feet two cooks stop being able to hand things to each other and every task adds steps.
My kitchen fails the test — how much does it cost to fix?+
If the fix is moving the fridge or a tall unit, nothing at drawing stage. Moving the hob is usually a gas-line extension of ₹4,000–9,000. Moving the sink is the expensive one, because it needs the waste line re-run in the floor screed, and in most Mumbai flats it is simply not possible.