Small Kitchen Renovation in Dublin — Design Ideas, Layouts & Cost Guide

If you live in Dublin, there’s a good chance your kitchen is on the small side. Not “cosy” small — properly small. Six or seven square metres, one window, maybe a door to the garden if you’re lucky. It’s the reality of Victorian terraces in Portobello, 1960s apartments in Rathmines, and pretty much every semi-detached built before the open-plan era took over.

Here’s what we’ve learned after working on hundreds of small Dublin kitchens: you don’t need more space. You need a better plan for the space you’ve got. A well-designed small kitchen — with the right layout, smart storage, and a few visual tricks — works harder than a badly-designed big one. Here’s how to get it right.

What Counts as a “Small Kitchen” in Dublin?

A typical small Dublin kitchen falls into one of these:

• Victorian terrace galley: 2.5m × 2.2m, roughly 5.5m². Long and narrow, usually with a window at one end and the back door somewhere along one wall. The classic “corridor with cabinets” setup.
• Apartment kitchen: 2m × 3m, roughly 6m². Often open to the living area on one side, which helps visually but doesn’t give you more cabinet space.
• Semi-detached box kitchen: 3m × 2.5m, roughly 7.5m². Square-ish, one window, often in the original 1970s or 80s layout that’s never been touched.
• Galley in an extension: A narrow kitchen added as part of a rear extension. Longer than it is wide, but usually with better natural light than older kitchens.

The smallest kitchens we work on are roughly 4m². Below that, you’re into kitchenette territory, and the approach changes — we’ll touch on that.

The Best Layouts for Small Kitchens

1. Galley Kitchen

A galley has cabinets on two parallel walls with a walkway down the middle. It’s the most space-efficient layout there is — every centimetre of wall works for its living. There’s no wasted corner, no dead zone.

What makes it work: Keep the walkway at least 1000mm wide. Any narrower and you’ll be squeezing past open dishwasher doors. Put the sink and hob on the same side if you can — it keeps the plumbing and gas runs shorter and cheaper. Use the opposite wall for storage and prep space.

Dublin reality check: Most Dublin galley kitchens have a window at one end and a door halfway down one wall. That door breaks the run of cabinets and creates an awkward corner. The solution is usually to put tall units on the wall opposite the door, where they won’t block the walkway, and keep the door-wall side to base units only.

2. Single-Wall Kitchen

All the cabinets on one wall, nothing on the other side. It’s the default for studio apartments and open-plan living spaces where the kitchen faces the living area.

What makes it work: Tall units at each end, base units in the middle, wall units above. This gives you decent storage without the room feeling like a corridor. An island or peninsula on castors can add prep space and be moved when you need the floor space back.

The compromise: You get less storage than a galley because you’re only using one wall. Make up for it with deeper-than-standard wall units if your ceiling height allows, and consider open shelving above the worktop — it keeps things accessible without the visual weight of wall cabinets.

3. Compact L-Shape

Cabinets along two adjacent walls, with the corner between them. This works well in square-ish rooms and gives you a natural work triangle between sink, hob, and prep area.

What makes it work: The corner unit needs a carousel or pull-out system inside — without it, the corner becomes a dead zone where Tupperware goes to die. An L-shape also leaves room for a small table or breakfast bar on the opposite wall, which makes the kitchen feel more like a room and less like a service corridor.

Space-Saving Ideas That Actually Work

Some of these are obvious. Some aren’t. All of them have been tested in real Dublin kitchens.

1. Pull-out everything. A pull-out larder unit — essentially a tall, narrow cabinet where the shelves slide out on runners — stores as much as three or four standard wall cabinets in a footprint that’s just 300-400mm wide. If you can fit one pull-out larder, do it. It’ll transform your storage.
2. Under-sink storage. The space under the sink is normally a write-off — pipes, trap, bin. A pull-out bin system that fits around the plumbing turns wasted space into something useful. Browse Under-sink Storage →
3. Handleless doors. This is a visual trick, but it works. Handleless cabinets — whether J-pull or push-to-open — make a small kitchen feel less busy. No protruding handles means no visual clutter and no hip-checking a handle as you squeeze past. It’s a small thing that makes a noticeable difference in a tight galley. View Handleless Kitchen Cabinets →
4. Go light on wall cabinets. Lots of wall cabinets in a small kitchen make the room feel like it’s closing in on you. Consider open shelving instead for everyday items, with wall cabinets reserved for the stuff you don’t want on display. Or use wall cabinets on one wall only and leave the other wall open.
5. Integrated appliances. Freestanding appliances break up the visual line of a kitchen. Integrated ones — where the appliance sits behind a cabinet door — create a continuous run that makes the room feel longer and less cluttered. It costs a bit more, but in a small kitchen the visual payoff is worth it.
6. Mirror splashbacks. A mirrored splashback behind the hob reflects light and makes the kitchen feel twice as deep. It’s a classic trick from restaurant kitchens, and it works just as well at home. Glass splashbacks in a light colour achieve a similar effect without the full mirror commitment.
7. Tall units to the ceiling. If your ceiling height allows it, run tall units all the way up. The top shelf might only be accessible with a step stool, but that’s fine for Christmas platters and the fondue set you use once a year. Better to have the storage than to leave the gap above the cabinets collecting dust.
8. Corners must work. A dead corner in a small kitchen is a crime. Corner carousel units, Le Mans pull-outs, or simply designing the corner so it’s accessible from both sides — whatever it takes, make the corner earn its keep. Explore corner storage →

What It Costs: Small Kitchen Renovation in Dublin

Small doesn’t necessarily mean cheap, but it helps. Here’s what we typically see:

A small kitchen actually costs less per square metre to renovate than a large one — fewer cabinets, less worktop, less labour. But the cost per cabinet is the same. You’re not getting a discount on quality; you’re just buying fewer units.

One bit of good news: small kitchens rarely need major structural work. You’re usually working within the existing footprint, so there’s no wall removal, no RSJ, no planning permission. That keeps the budget predictable.

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Real Dublin Kitchen Transformations

We’ve done a lot of small kitchen renovations across Dublin. Here are a couple that show what’s possible in a compact space:

Light Grey Shaker U-Shaped Kitchen Renovation, Sandycove — An existing U-shaped layout refreshed without any plumbing or electrical changes. New cabinetry, lighter worktops, and a rethought storage plan made the same footprint feel twice as usable.

Compact Linen Slab Kitchen Renovation, Dalkey — A compact kitchen where dated units were replaced with clean linen slab doors, warm oak-effect worktops and better storage. The layout stayed practical, but the room now feels brighter and more modern.

Browse more projects on our kitchen projects page →

Frequently Asked Questions

Let Us Design Your Small Kitchen in 3D

The best way to understand what’s possible in your small Dublin kitchen is to see it. We do free 3D designs as part of our consultation — we’ll measure your space, create a model showing exactly how everything fits, and give you a clear quote. No obligation, no hard sell.

📅 Book a Free Design Consultation →

📍 Visit Our Dublin Showroom →

Planning a bigger project? Read our full kitchen renovation cost guide → or kitchen layout planning guide →