Galley kitchens have a reputation for being tricky to get right, but in truth, they are among the most efficient and rewarding kitchen layouts to design. Named after the compact cooking quarters found on ships, a galley kitchen features two parallel runs of cabinetry with a walkway between them, and it is a layout that has stood the test of time for good reason. Everything you need is within arm's reach, there is no wasted space, and with the right design decisions, even the narrowest of rooms can feel considered, characterful and entirely your own.
Whether you are starting from scratch or rethinking an existing galley kitchen layout, the key lies in thoughtful planning – from how you arrange storage and appliances to the colours and finishes that will shape the feel of the room. 'A kitchen is a jigsaw puzzle,’ says Chloë, one of our kitchen design specialists. ‘Decide on appliance placement first, then plan storage around it.’
We share our galley kitchen ideas to help you make the most of a long, narrow space – covering layout, storage, colour, lighting and the small but meaningful design details that can make all the difference.
What is a galley kitchen?
A galley kitchen layout is defined by its long, narrow footprint, with cabinetry and worktops arranged along two facing walls and a central walkway running between them. It is a layout that prioritises efficiency above all else, and it is no coincidence that professional restaurant kitchens follow a very similar principle, with stations arranged in parallel rows so that everything a chef needs is close to hand.
There are two main variations to consider. A single galley kitchen places cabinetry along one wall only, leaving the opposite side open – a good option for particularly narrow rooms or spaces that double as a throughway. A double galley kitchen, the more traditional arrangement, makes use of both walls and offers significantly more storage and worktop space. The right choice will depend on the dimensions of your room and how you use it day to day.
Galley kitchens are especially common in British homes, and for good reason. The long, narrow footprints of Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses, period cottages with their low beams and awkward nooks, and compact city flats all lend themselves naturally to this layout. Rather than fighting the proportions of these spaces, a well-designed galley kitchen works with them – turning what might feel like a limitation into a room that is focused, functional and full of character.
Planning your galley kitchen layout
Fred Horlock, our design director, encourages a creative mindset before the practical planning begins: ‘Imagine your dream kitchen, regardless of your actual space. You can then identify what elements are important to you and work them into your plan while letting go of the less key aspects.’ It is a useful shift in perspective – and in a galley kitchen, where every decision carries more weight, it is often where the best ideas start.
With that ambition in mind, begin with the bones of the room. Start with what cannot move – windows, doors, soil pipes, boiler positions – and work outward from there. These fixed points will largely determine where your sink, hob and key appliances sit, and in a galley kitchen layout, getting this right from the outset makes everything else fall into place more naturally.
Fred also encourages an objective view of the structure itself: ‘An architect will consider the space in its entirety. They think outside the box and will be more inclined to move things like doors or even walls to improve the space.’ It is worth questioning assumptions – does a door need to open the way it does? Could a wall be removed to borrow light from an adjoining room? In period properties, especially, small structural changes can transform a narrow galley kitchen from feeling confined to feeling considered.
Walkway width is another practical consideration. As a guide, allow at least one metre between facing runs of cabinetry – enough to move comfortably, open drawers and doors without obstruction, and avoid that hemmed-in feeling. If your room is narrower than this, a single galley layout with cabinetry along one wall may be the more comfortable choice. It is also worth thinking about traffic flow, particularly if your galley kitchen sits between two rooms. Positioning the hob and sink away from the main route through the space will keep the cook undisturbed, even in a busy household.
When it comes to placing appliances, think about how you actually move through the room when cooking. Positioning the sink, hob and fridge so they relate to one another logically – without being too spread out or too tightly clustered – will make daily life in the kitchen feel effortless rather than awkward. ‘Working with our in-store kitchen designers makes a big difference,’ adds Fred. ‘It is your kitchen designer who will worry about the best access for the larder or where you'll sit to drink your mid-morning coffee.’
Storage ideas for galley kitchens
In a galley kitchen, storage is everything. With limited floor space, the goal is to make every cupboard, drawer and shelf work as hard as possible, and that starts with thinking carefully about what you need to store and where it should live.
‘Decide on appliance placement first, then plan storage around it – spice racks and utensils near the hob, for instance,’ advises Chloë, one of our kitchen design specialists. ‘Every kitchen needs at least one deep pan drawer. You can get so much more in them than cupboards, and you don't need to get down on your knees to reach the back. Maximise space with dividers inside.’
Deep drawers are particularly well-suited to galley kitchens, where reaching into the back of a low cupboard can feel awkward in a narrow space. Look for drawers that conceal smaller drawers within – useful for keeping cutlery organised alongside crockery in a single unit – and consider drawer inserts for spice jars, knife dividers and narrow niches for chopping boards and tea towels. These are small details, but in a compact kitchen, they make a noticeable difference to how the room functions day to day.
For wall and larder storage, it is worth thinking vertically. ‘Using the walls efficiently and effectively and adding a ladder rail to reach high cabinetry can look very dramatic,’ explains Jackie, kitchen designer at our Edgbaston store. If ceiling height is restricted, open shelves can work in place of wall cabinetry – they keep the room feeling lighter while still offering easy access to the things you reach for most often. Meanwhile, features like zig-zag shelf fittings allow you to position shelves at precisely calibrated levels so that none of the cupboard's height goes to waste, and shelf risers raise items towards the back of a cupboard, making everything visible and easier to reach.
A larder cupboard can be transformative in a galley kitchen, even where space is tight. A half-depth pantry cupboard, for instance, still leaves worktop space in front while providing floor-to-ceiling storage behind, an excellent way to house a pantry in a smaller room. Doors that swing open with shallow shelves on the back and racks inside add further capacity without taking up additional wall space.
Then there are the details that quietly elevate the everyday: hanging racks and pegs fitted underneath cupboards or on their sides, the Orford wet store tray that sits inside your sink cabinet to stop damp cloths cluttering the worktop, and Ashcroft utility baskets that fit inside other storage to keep smaller items in order. ‘Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective,’ says Chloë.
One homeowner who put many of these principles into practice is Nigel, who designed a galley kitchen, using our Suffolk collection, for his Cotswolds cottage. His long, nine-hundred millimetre drawers proved, in his words, ‘a god-send: they fit all the pans and crockery and work incredibly hard.’ An integrated bin helped to streamline the L-shaped layout, while an unused, low doorway to the garden was ingeniously repurposed as a coffee station – with a shallow wall cabinet at floor level and underlit shelves fitted into the nook created by the doorframe. It is a reminder that the best galley kitchen ideas often come from working with the quirks of a space rather than against them.
Colour ideas for a galley kitchen
Colour has a significant influence on how a galley kitchen feels, and there is a common assumption that narrow spaces demand pale, neutral schemes to keep things light and airy. That can certainly work well – but it is far from the only option.
‘Using a darker tone all over can make a room really cocooning,’ says Jackie. Bold colour can bring a sense of warmth and intimacy to a small galley kitchen that a lighter scheme might not achieve. Navy cabinetry paired with the softness of a dusty pink on the walls, for example, creates a space that feels smart and elegant with real longevity. Equally, a rich brown like Saddle combined with a cooler tone such as Flax Blue on the walls is a contemporary way to balance light and dark without the room feeling heavy.
If you do prefer stronger colours on cabinetry, Claire, kitchen designer at our Bath store, recommends ‘keeping work surfaces and flooring lighter, as they will bounce the light upwards.’ This balance, deeper tones at eye level grounded by lighter surfaces below and above, is a particularly effective approach in a galley kitchen, where the interplay between the two facing walls shapes the overall mood of the room.
For those drawn to a softer palette, consider building interest through tonal layering rather than relying on a single shade. A calm scheme of greens – Sage on cabinetry, Lily or Salt on the walls, with a darker accent like Cactus on a dresser or open shelving – creates depth without visual noise. Or try a warm yellow such as Saffron on cabinetry with quiet, neutral walls in Snow or Orkney, which brings energy to a compact space while keeping the overall feel balanced.
The key with small galley kitchen designs is that colour should work for the room and how it is used, not against it. A considered palette, whether bold or restrained, will always feel more intentional than simply defaulting to white.
Lighting a galley kitchen
In a galley kitchen, where natural light can be limited by the depth and proportions of the room, a well-considered lighting scheme makes a real difference, both to how the space feels and how comfortably you can work in it.
Start with natural light. If your galley kitchen has a window, try not to crowd it with wall cabinetry. Open shelving on either side of a window, or keeping that wall free of upper units altogether, allows daylight to travel further into the room. In period properties where windows tend to be smaller, this alone can shift the atmosphere of the space considerably.
Beyond natural light, the most effective approach is to layer different types of lighting rather than relying on a single overhead fitting. Task lighting – such as LED strips fitted beneath wall cabinets – illuminates worktops where you need it most, especially useful in a narrow layout where overhead light can cast shadows across the surface you are working on. Ambient lighting sets the broader mood of the room, whether through dimmable ceiling spots or discreet LEDs tucked behind cornicing. And accent lighting – a pendant above a dining nook, or underlit shelves like those in Nigel's Cotswolds galley kitchen – adds character and draws the eye to particular features.
The combination of all three is one of the simplest galley kitchen ideas to get right, and it makes the difference between a space that feels flat and one that feels warm, inviting and layered
How to make a galley kitchen feel bigger
Much of what makes a galley kitchen feel spacious has less to do with actual square footage and more to do with how the eye moves through the room. A few considered design choices can change the sense of space entirely.
Mixing open and closed storage is one of the most effective approaches. Glass-fronted wall cabinets or sections of open shelving break up long, uninterrupted runs of cabinetry and stop the room from feeling boxed in. Fred reinforces this point: ‘Too many heavy cabinets or too much busyness above the worktop can make a room feel oppressive, so mix in open shelving with glass-fronted wall cabinets, and embrace plain wall space as a spot to display art.’
At floor level, pedestal legs rather than solid plinths give cabinetry the appearance of freestanding furniture – lighter, less fitted, and better suited to the proportions of a narrow room. It was a deliberate choice in Nigel's Cotswolds galley kitchen: ‘They make the cabinets look like pieces of furniture rather than a sleek fitted kitchen, which works in a property of this age.’ Both sides of a galley kitchen need not mirror one another exactly, either. Grouping taller cabinetry on one wall and keeping the opposite side lower and more open avoids a corridor-like feel and introduces a natural sense of rhythm to the room.
Underfoot, consider the direction of your flooring. Boards or tiles laid lengthways along the room will naturally draw the eye toward the far wall and make the space feel longer, while a herringbone or diagonal pattern can add visual width. Keeping worktops as clear as possible also contributes – a dedicated breakfast larder to house the kettle, toaster and coffee machine, or an integrated chopping block below the counter, removes clutter without sacrificing convenience.
Where your room has architectural details – a chimney breast, exposed beams, or an alcove – Fred advises giving them room to breathe: ‘Don't butt cabinetry right up to a chimney breast; give it room to breathe. It will have a big impact on the room's sense of space.’ Working around these features rather than crowding them creates natural visual breaks that make even the smallest galley kitchen ideas feel more open and less uniform.
A galley kitchen in practice – Nigel's Suffolk kitchen
Nigel is something of a Neptune kitchen aficionado, having installed four other Neptune kitchens in previous homes. For his latest project – a bijoux Cotswolds cottage shared with his partner, David – the brief was a galley kitchen with character. ‘While this is a beamed country cottage, I didn't want it to feel predictably chintzy,’ Nigel explains. ‘Instead, I wanted to create an elevated, elegant space infused with rustic charm.’
He turned to our Suffolk collection to achieve his vision, ‘because it transitions very easily from a country look to a sophisticated vibe.’ The cottage is Grade II-listed, but Nigel was able to make a few structural changes that allowed for the best use of the long, narrow space. The original kitchen had a woodstore at one end, which was opened up and repurposed as a boot room, a move that also created space to house a full-sized fridge that was too large for the main kitchen.
Within the two-and-a-half by four-and-a-half metre room itself, a series of space-saving decisions brought the galley kitchen layout together. The rectangular Belfast sink was flipped sideways to fit the tight space, with taps positioned at the side rather than behind. An unused, low doorway to the garden, an original feature that could not be removed, was ingeniously turned into a coffee station, with a shallow Suffolk wall cabinet at floor level and underlit shelves fitted into the nook created by the doorframe.
When it came to decoration, Nigel chose finishes that would work with the heavily veined Arabescato marble work surface. The floor was a simple reclaimed pine from LASSCO with a light wash applied, and the cabinets, walls and timber cladding were painted in Zoffany's 'Faded Rose' – a soft, warm tone that sits comfortably against the beams and stonework of the cottage.
It is one of those galley kitchen designs that proves a narrow layout need not feel like a compromise. With thoughtful planning and a willingness to work with the quirks of the space, even the most compact room can become somewhere you genuinely enjoy spending time.
Designing your galley kitchen with Neptune
No matter how big or small your space, our designers can help you make the most of it. Each of our kitchen collections offers the flexibility to be tailored to the proportions and character of your room – galley kitchens included.
Our Kitchen Design Service is a good place to start. From initial ideas and spatial planning through to the final details, it is a collaborative, one-to-one process designed to bring your vision to life. Book your free consultation with one of our in-store kitchen designers.