How much space do you need between kitchen counters
Published planning guidelines put a work aisle, the space between two working faces, at 42 inches (1067 mm) for a kitchen with one cook and 48 inches (1219 mm) where more than one person cooks. A walkway, a route through the room that nobody works in, is a different figure at 36 inches (914 mm). Both are measured between the finished faces, which means counter edges, handles and any appliance standing proud of the run, not the line the cabinets are drawn on.
Updated 2026-09-24. General planning information, not professional advice. Every figure on this page names the document it came from.
A work aisle and a walkway are not the same thing
A work aisle is the space between two faces that are both worked at. Counter to counter, counter to island, counter to a range on the opposite wall. Somebody stands in it, turns around in it, opens a door into it and puts a hot pan down at the end of it.
A walkway is a route through the room. You pass along it to get to the back door or the table. Nobody works in it, nobody opens an oven into it, and it is allowed to be narrower.
Collapsing the two into one number is the most expensive confusion in kitchen planning, because it happens on paper, it looks fine on paper, and it is discovered by two people trying to pass each other with the dishwasher open. A plan that gives every gap 36 inches has not been planned, it has been averaged.
Published planning guideline. Every figure in the table below is a published planning guideline. It is not a code requirement, nobody inspects it, and no building department enforces it. It is the figure the profession works to, which makes it the figure to argue from when a layout is being drawn.
The published figures, in one table
| The space | Guideline | What it is measuring |
|---|---|---|
| Work aisle, one cook | 42 in (1067 mm) | Between two faces that are both worked at |
| Work aisle, more than one cook | 48 in (1219 mm) | The same gap, sized for two people at once |
| Walkway | 36 in (914 mm) | A route through the room with no work face on it |
| Two walkways crossing | 42 in (1067 mm) | Where two routes meet and people turn |
| Behind a seated diner, nobody passing | 32 in (813 mm) | From the counter edge to the wall or obstacle behind |
| Behind a seated diner, edging past | 36 in (914 mm) | Enough to squeeze by sideways |
| Behind a seated diner, walking past | 44 in (1118 mm) | Enough to walk past facing forward |
All seven figures come from the same published set of planning guidelines. They are recommendations, not code.
Read the three seating figures as a question rather than a number: is the space behind that stool somewhere people will walk, or is it a dead end? A run of stools against a wall in a corner needs 32 inches. The same run on the main route between the kitchen and the table needs 44, and 12 inches is a whole cabinet depth.
Where exactly the measurement is taken
Between the finished faces. Not between the cabinet lines drawn on the plan, and not between the walls.
The difference is not academic. A counter usually overhangs the cabinet below it. Handles project. A range or a refrigerator often stands proud of the run it sits in. Add a 1 inch overhang on each side and a handle on one of them and a 42 inch aisle on the drawing is a 39 inch aisle in the room.
Ask for the aisle to be dimensioned on the drawing between finished faces, including overhangs and handles. It is one sentence, it costs nothing, and it is the single most useful thing a homeowner can say while a plan is still on a screen.
A good designer will already have done it. Asking tells you which kind you have, which is worth knowing early.
The aisle is the first thing an island eats
Islands are almost always drawn the wrong way round. The island is set at the size that looks right in the room, and the aisles become whatever is left over. Then the aisles are 38 inches and nobody notices until the cabinets are in.
Fix the aisles first. The island is whatever the room can still give you.
The reason this ordering matters is that the two mistakes are not symmetrical. An island 6 inches narrower is a line changed on a cabinet order at plan stage, and it costs a conversation. An aisle 6 inches narrower is two people who cannot pass each other in their own kitchen for the next twenty years, and fixing it later means moving cabinets, counters and probably plumbing.
If the room genuinely cannot hold an island with proper aisles on all sides, that is useful information and it arrived at the only moment it was cheap. A peninsula, a narrower island, or a table instead are all decisions. Finding out in week nine is not a decision, it is a bill.
The work triangle, and what it does not decide
The work triangle measures how far you walk between the sink, the cooking surface and the refrigerator. Published planning guidelines keep each leg within a range and cap the total, and they ask that no leg cuts through an island by more than a small amount.
It is worth measuring once. It is not worth losing a layout you like over. The triangle assumes one cook, one sink and one oven, and it stops describing the room as soon as there is a second sink, a second oven, a prep zone or two people who cook together. It gets more attention online than it earns, usually because it is easy to draw.
Aisles are the figure to defend. The triangle is the figure to check.
The appliance door that closes the aisle you just approved
The aisle on the plan is the aisle with everything shut. It is not the aisle you live in.
A refrigerator door swings into it. A dishwasher door drops into it and takes the floor in front of it too. An oven door is the worst of the three, because it arrives at the same moment as something heavy and hot.
Manufacturer document. Depth with the doors open is a number each manufacturer publishes for each model. One manufacturer publishes 43-1/4 inches of total depth for one of its French door refrigerators with the doors open at 90 degrees. That is that model, from that document. Look up the figure for the exact model you are buying rather than assuming a class of appliance behaves the same way.
The practical check takes two minutes on the plan. Draw each door open. Then look at what is left of the aisle, and whether anyone can still get past the person standing at the open door.
If someone in the household may use a wheelchair
The four figures below come from an accessibility standard quoted by the planning guidelines. That standard was written for certain public and commercial buildings, it does not normally apply to a private home, and following it does not make a room accessible. They are here because they are the only published starting point, and because the decision is easy at plan stage and very hard later.
| The space | Figure | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Behind a seated diner, wheelchair passing | 60 in (1524 mm) | A chair passing behind somebody at the counter |
| Turning space | 60 in (1524 mm) | Turning a chair through 180 degrees |
| Clear floor space at each appliance | 30 by 48 in (762 by 1219 mm) | Approaching and using an appliance from a chair |
| Between opposing arms of a U shaped kitchen | 60 in (1524 mm) | Working in the U without reversing out of it |
If this is a live question in your household, the person to ask is an occupational therapist or a designer who works in this area, and the moment to ask is now, before the plan is fixed. This page cannot tell you what your household needs.
What to ask for on the drawing
- Every aisle dimensioned between finished faces, with overhangs and handles included.
- Work aisles and walkways labeled as different things, with the figure each one is held to.
- Every appliance door drawn open, at least once, on a copy of the plan.
- The clearance behind each run of seating, with a note saying whether people walk there.
- The exact model of each appliance named, so the published open depth can be checked against the aisle.
None of this is unusual to ask for and none of it slows a project down. All of it is cheap while the plan is a file and expensive once it is a room.
Common questions
How far apart should kitchen counters be?
Published planning guidelines put the gap between two working faces at 42 inches (1067 mm) for a kitchen with one cook, and 48 inches (1219 mm) where more than one person cooks. Measure between the finished faces, including counter overhangs and handles, not between the cabinet lines on the plan.
What is the difference between a work aisle and a walkway?
A work aisle has a working face on at least one side, somebody stands and turns in it, and published planning guidelines put it at 42 or 48 inches depending on how many people cook. A walkway is a route through the room that nobody works in, and the guideline for it is 36 inches (914 mm). Treating both as one number is what produces an island nobody can get around.
Is 36 inches enough between an island and a counter?
Not if both faces are worked at. Published planning guidelines ask for 42 inches (1067 mm) between two working faces with one cook, and 48 inches (1219 mm) with more than one. The 36 inch figure is the guideline for a walkway, which is a route with no work face on it.
How much space do you need behind a kitchen bar stool?
Published planning guidelines give three figures, measured from the counter edge to whatever is behind it: 32 inches (813 mm) where nobody passes, 36 inches (914 mm) to edge past sideways, and 44 inches (1118 mm) to walk past facing forward. Which one applies depends on whether that space is a route through the room.
Where is a kitchen aisle measured from?
Between the finished faces, which means counter edges, handles and any appliance standing proud of the run. Cabinet lines on a plan sit behind the counter overhang, so an aisle dimensioned to them reads larger than the space you actually get to stand in.
Does the work triangle still matter?
It is worth checking once and it is not worth losing a layout over. The work triangle measures the walk between sink, cooking surface and refrigerator, it assumes one cook, and it stops describing the room as soon as there is a second sink, a second oven or two people cooking together. Aisle clearances are the figures to defend.