Kitchen Design questions answered in plain English

A compact or galley fitted kitchen on the same layout costs €4,500 to €10,000 supplied and fitted. Most mid-range family kitchens (12 to 18 units in painted Shaker or handleless J-pull) cost €9,000 to €20,000, with the typical spend between €10,000 and €15,000. High-spec bespoke or in-frame painted kitchens with an island and stone worktops run from €13,500 to €35,000.

Plan for a clear walkway of 1,000mm to 1,200mm on every working side of the island so oven, dishwasher and opposite drawer units can open while someone walks past. With a standard 600mm wall run and a 900mm deep island, your room needs to be at least 3.6m to 3.9m wide.

A high-pressure laminate worktop costs €50 to €100 per linear metre (€800 to €2,000 supplied and fitted in 1 day). Laser-templated 20mm or 30mm quartz or Dekton sintered stone costs €2,200 to €4,800 fitted and takes 5 to 10 working days from templating after the base cabinets are levelled.

Once you approve the 3D CAD plan and finishes, cabinet manufacturing takes 3 to 6 weeks (or 4 to 8 weeks for bespoke painted in-frame doors). On-site fitting takes 3 to 5 days for cabinetry and laminate tops, or 2 to 3 weeks altogether if walls, plumbing, electrics, plastering and stone templating are involved.

Internal wall removals are exempt from planning permission in Ireland unless the house is a Protected Structure. However, if the wall between the kitchen and dining room is load-bearing, a structural engineer must size an RSJ steel beam and concrete padstones (€2,000 to €4,000 supplied and fitted) so Building Regulations Part A are met and an Opinion on Compliance can be issued when you sell.

A standard fitted kitchen quote covers the home survey, 3D CAD drawings, rigid 18mm cabinets, doors, end panels, plinths, soft-close hinges and drawers, worktops and cabinet installation. Always check whether ripping out the old kitchen, skip hire, plumbing, electrical certification and tiling are itemised.

Cabinet rip-out, first-fix electrics/plumbing and fitting the new carcasses take 3 to 5 days. If you choose quartz or Dekton stone worktops, the templater measures on the day the cabinets are levelled and fits the stone 5 to 8 working days later — many installers fit a temporary plywood top and connect your sink and hob for that week so you are never left without a kitchen.

Floor tiles or engineered wood can be laid wall-to-wall before the cabinets (or up to the adjustable cabinet legs under the kickboard plinth), while heavy stone islands should sit directly on a solid screed or tiled floor before floating LVT/laminate planks are clicked around them.

Allow at least 950mm to 1,050mm of clear walkway on the appliance side and 900mm on the back/side wall — meaning a room usually needs at least 3.6m to 3.8m of width to fit a wall run (600mm) + walkway (1,000mm) + island (900mm) + rear clearance.

Many high-end Irish kitchen makers use a solid ash or tulipwood outer stile-and-rail frame (or high-density moisture-resistant MDF) with a stable veneered/MDF centre panel so central heating and underfloor heating never cause hairline paint cracks at the joints.

Yes — ordering your utility room tall laundry housing, dog-wash sink unit and hallway bootroom bench in the same production run saves 20%–30% compared with booking a separate carpenter later.

No — you can either buy your ovens, induction hob, fridge-freezer and dishwasher through your kitchen supplier or buy them yourself and simply send the model codes so the housings and extractor ducting are machined to fit.

Detached and rural one-off houses (over 65% of homes in Galway Co., Mayo, Donegal, Roscommon and Kerry) usually have the 3.7m+ room width needed for a central island and separate utility room. In urban counties with more semi-detached and terraced homes (such as Dublin, Kildare and Cork City), galley upgrades, peninsulas and rear wall knock-throughs are far more common.

Core cabinet and stone worktop material costs are similar nationwide (€4,500 to €10,000 for a small kitchen, €9,000 to €20,000 for mid-range), though fitting labour and building knock-through rates tend to sit toward the upper half of the range in Dublin and commuter counties.

Allow at least 1,000mm for a one-cook galley kitchen, or 1,200mm so two people can work back-to-back and open the oven and opposite dishwasher safely. See galley, l-shaped and u-shaped kitchen layouts →

Directly left or right of the sink cabinet (never tucked tightly around a 90-degree corner next to the sink), so you can stand at the sink, scrape plates into the bin and load the open dishwasher door without stepping over it. See galley, l-shaped and u-shaped kitchen layouts →

Building Regulations and manufacturer rules advise against putting a gas hob under an opening window where draughts can blow out the flame or catch blinds, though an induction hob with a downdraft extractor can be placed under a fixed window if there is no wall space. See galley, l-shaped and u-shaped kitchen layouts →

Most Irish households replacing a family kitchen in a 3-bed or 4-bed semi-detached or detached house spend between €10,000 and €16,000 within our mid-range bracket of €9,000 to €20,000, including rigid cabinets, painted Shaker or handleless doors, worktops and fitting. See kitchen design cost in ireland →

Most independent Irish kitchen designers and fitters carry out the initial measure-up and 3D CAD design presentation free of charge as part of quoting the job. See kitchen design cost in ireland →

A typical schedule is a 30% to 50% deposit when you sign off the final CAD plan to put the cabinets and doors into manufacture, around 40% when the cabinetry arrives on site, and the final 10% balance upon snag-free completion. See kitchen design cost in ireland →

With a 600mm wall cabinet run, a 1,050mm–1,200mm walkway, a 900mm deep island and 1,000mm clearance on the far side, your room needs to be at least 3.55m to 3.7m wide for a freestanding island. See kitchen island designs in ireland →

Building Regulations disallow trailing flexes across the floor, so an electrician chases a shallow channel in the concrete floor (or runs cable between timber joists) before the final flooring is laid, bringing a supply up inside the island carcass to end-panel sockets or a pop-up tower. See kitchen island designs in ireland →

Most 20mm and 30mm quartz and sintered stone manufacturers allow an unsupported overhang of up to 300mm when two-thirds of the slab depth is supported on rigid cabinets. Overhangs above 300mm require concealed flat steel support bars routed into the top of the carcass. See kitchen island designs in ireland →

No — always use a trivet or chopping board on engineered quartz. Quartz contains 7% to 10% polymer resin binder, which can discolour or crack from sudden thermal shock above 150°C. If you want to put roasting tins straight on the counter, choose Dekton/sintered stone or natural granite. See quartz, dekton, granite and laminate worktops compared →

Not with standard chipboard-core laminate, because water will soak into the exposed raw chipboard around the cut-out and swell it. If you want an undermount sink without paying for stone, use 12mm solid-core compact laminate, which is 100% waterproof right through. See quartz, dekton, granite and laminate worktops compared →

If itemised separately, allow €100 to €200 for laser templating, €80 to €150 for a polished undermount sink cut-out and tap hole, €50 to €100 for a hob cut-out, and €75 to €150 per linear metre for 100mm matching stone upstands. See quartz, dekton, granite and laminate worktops compared →

An in-frame kitchen typically adds 25% to 40% (€3,000 to €7,500 on a medium-to-large room) over a standard lay-on Shaker kitchen because every cabinet requires a bespoke outer timber frame and precision scribing. See shaker, in-frame and handleless kitchens compared →

A 20% to 30% satin 2-pack lacquered painted Shaker (with a subtle woodgrain that hides marks) or an anti-fingerprint super-matte laminate slab door. High-gloss dark doors show every fingerprint and smear under downlights. See shaker, in-frame and handleless kitchens compared →

Yes — a popular Irish extension design pairs floor-to-ceiling flat handleless tall units along the back wall (so they blend in like panelling) with a contrasting painted Shaker island in the centre of the room. See shaker, in-frame and handleless kitchens compared →

A small single-wall, apartment or galley kitchen of 6 to 10 units typically costs €4,500 to €10,000 supplied and fitted with high-pressure laminate worktops, or €6,500 to €12,500 if upgraded to painted Shaker doors and 20mm quartz stone. See small kitchen design ideas for irish homes →