How to Design a Kitchen for a Terrace House

The galley layout places cabinets along two parallel walls, creating a corridor-style work zone. It is the most efficient use of space in a narrow room because it gives you two full runs of cabinets without requiring any floor space for an island. In a kitchen that is 8 to 10 feet wide, a galley layout leaves a 90cm to 120cm walking and working aisle between the two cabinet runs, which is the minimum comfortable working width for one person.

The galley layout works especially well in a dry kitchen that connects to a wet kitchen at the rear. The inner wall carries the upper and lower dry kitchen cabinets, while the outer wall facing the yard is kept clear for ventilation, the window, and access to the wet kitchen. For completed examples of galley kitchen designs in Malaysian terrace homes, browse the EverKitchen project portfolio.

• Maintain a width of 90cm for the aisle between opposing cabinet fronts. Any less will make the kitchen unusable and impossible to access the bottom drawers of the cabinets while standing at the opposite counter.
• Install the sink and preparation areas at one wall and the cooking area at the opposite wall, making use of the aisle naturally in forming the kitchen work triangle.
• Do not turn the galley kitchen into a through passage if it has an opening from both sides. The presence of foot traffic through the kitchen affects its safety and usability.

The L-shaped layout wraps cabinets along two adjacent walls that meet at a corner. It is the right choice when the kitchen opens to an adjacent dining or living space, because it keeps one side of the kitchen visually open rather than boxing the room in with cabinets on all sides. In a terrace house, this is common in open-plan renovations where the original wall between the kitchen and dining room has been removed.

The corner junction in an L-shaped layout is the most critical point to plan carefully. A blind corner base cabinet with a carousel or pull-out system recovers usable storage from a space that would otherwise be largely inaccessible. A fixed-shelf corner cabinet wastes the majority of its interior depth and should be avoided. For an overview of how different cabinet configurations compare, see our top kitchen cabinet designs guide.

• Specify a corner pull-out or carousel unit for the base cabinet at the junction. A lazy Susan carousel is the most cost-effective option. A full Le Mans pull-out system gives the best access.
• The sink should sit on one arm of the L and the hob on the other arm. This creates a natural work triangle and keeps the messy prep zone away from the open side of the kitchen.
• Upper cabinets on the open side of the L can be replaced with open shelving to keep the kitchen feeling connected to the dining area rather than walled off.

The single-wall layout runs all cabinets along one wall and is typically used when the kitchen is too narrow to fit a galley layout safely, or when the kitchen serves primarily as a dry kitchen with the heavy cooking done in a separate wet kitchen at the rear. It is common in older terrace houses that have been converted to open-plan layouts where the kitchen occupies one side of a combined kitchen-dining-living space.

The limitation of a single-wall layout is storage capacity. With only one run of base and wall cabinets, a standard 3-metre single-wall kitchen has significantly less storage than a galley or L-shaped kitchen of the same length. This makes tall pantry units at one or both ends of the run essential to compensate. Without a tall unit, a single-wall layout will feel undersupplied within the first year of use.

• Include at least one full height pantry unit (from floor to ceiling, 600mm depth) at the end of the kitchen cabinet run to make up for the lack of storage in a single wall design.
• Position the hob centrally within the run with preparation space on either side of it and the sink near one end so that the hob and the sink have a common plumbing wall.
• A breakfast bar/dining counter opposite the end of the run will give extra work surface and informal seating without using any additional room.

An island requires a minimum of 90cm of clear aisle space on all sides to be usable. In a standard terrace house kitchen, this means the room needs to be at least 14 feet wide to fit a modest island and still allow comfortable movement around it. The vast majority of Malaysian terrace houses do not meet this requirement. Fitting an island into a kitchen that is too narrow creates a space that is harder to use than the same kitchen without one.

If you have seen island kitchens in Malaysian terrace houses on social media or renovation platforms, they are almost always in extended or semi-detached homes, or in terraces where a rear extension has significantly widened the kitchen space. Do not use a narrow kitchen as the backdrop for a design decision that requires a wide one. A peninsula counter attached to one wall is a better alternative if you want an additional seating and prep surface without requiring the clearance of a freestanding island.

The wet kitchen is the functional cooking engine of a Malaysian home. It sits at the rear of the terrace house, typically extending to or opening onto the back yard. It handles high-heat wok cooking, deep frying, heavy washing, and food preparation that generates steam and grease. The design of the wet kitchen must reflect this reality at every level, from the tile finish on the walls to the type of cabinets used.

Wet kitchen cabinets must use moisture-resistant board with full PVC or aluminium frames rather than standard melamine-coated particleboard. The worktop should be stainless steel or solid surface rather than quartz, as heat and grease exposure is far more intense in this space. Ventilation is critical. A proper exhaust hood ducted to the exterior, not recirculating, is essential for a functional wet kitchen in a terrace house. For a complete breakdown of cabinet materials and their moisture resistance properties, see our kitchen cabinet materials guide.

• Full height wall tiles must be used in wet kitchen design as opposed to tiled splashback only. Steam and grease rise much higher than expected when cooking is performed in the wet kitchen.
• Moisture resistant (MR) board or aluminum framed cabinets must be used in wet kitchen design. Regular E1 melamine board will become ruined in the period of three to five years under daily operation of wet kitchen.
• Ventilation system must be ducted to the exterior in order to remove heat and moisture. Recirculation hood cleans air but does not vent heat and moisture out of the kitchen space.

Dry kitchen in a terraced house is the room that can be seen from the dining room and the living room. It performs the functions of preparing light meals, storing appliances, serving and arranging meals, and it serves as the main decorative element in an open-plan ground floor. Due to the fact that it is not exposed to the same level of heat and oiliness as the wet kitchen, it provides more freedom in the choice of materials and styling.

The most frequent mistake when designing a dry kitchen is treating this space solely as a decorative element without planning enough storage space. A beautifully designed dry kitchen without enough storage space for the rice cooker, air fryer, kettle, coffee machine, toaster and other small pantry products turns into a kitchen where everything will be left on the table, which contradicts the original purpose of creating this area.

• Design at least one tall appliance cabinet with a dedicated shelf and ventilation cutout for each major countertop appliance (rice cooker, microwave, oven). This keeps appliances accessible but off the counter.
• Use deep drawer base cabinets rather than door-and-shelf base cabinets for most storage. Drawers give full access to the cabinet interior without bending and reaching behind items.
• In case the dry kitchen is linked to an open plan dining room, choose handleless or recessed-handles for the kitchen cabinets in order to keep a continuous view from the dining room.

Almost every Malaysian terrace house has a service yard behind the wet kitchen. This is the area where the washing machine sits, where laundry is hung, where the gas tank or pipe inlet is located, and where the rear door opens to the lane or back garden. The service yard is part of the kitchen ecosystem, and a kitchen design that ignores it produces a layout that conflicts with daily use from day one.

The most common problem is a wet kitchen layout that blocks access to the service yard door. A base cabinet run placed too close to the rear door makes every trip to the washing machine or gas tank an obstacle. The second most common problem is a wet kitchen that has no dedicated space for the washing machine, forcing it into the service yard with no built-in housing or worktop above it. Plan the service yard alongside the wet kitchen, not as an afterthought after the kitchen is quoted.

• Keep a clear 80cm minimum path from the wet kitchen to the service yard door. This is the daily route for laundry, rubbish, and gas access. A cabinet that blocks this path will be opened around hundreds of times a year.
• If the washing machine lives in the service yard, plan a built-in housing unit with a solid surface top above it. This turns the machine into a working surface for folding and staging laundry rather than a freestanding appliance with dead space above it.
• Confirm the gas pipe inlet position before finalising the wet kitchen layout. In most terrace houses the gas inlet is on the service yard wall. The hob position in the wet kitchen must allow for the gas line to run without crossing cabinet runs or requiring a long exposed pipe route.

An intermediate terrace house has only one exterior wall in the kitchen: the back wall facing the service yard. This means the exhaust hood must be ducted through the back wall or up through the roof. A side-wall duct is not an option. The most practical approach is a rear-ducted hood that vents horizontally through the back wall directly above or beside the hob, with the duct running the shortest possible route to the exterior. A vertical duct running up through a cabinet to a roof vent works but adds cost and requires the duct to be boxed in, which reduces the usable cabinet space on that wall.

A corner terrace lot has an additional exposed side wall, which means the hob can be positioned against the side wall with a side-wall duct running directly to the exterior. This is the shortest and most effective ducting route. If you have a corner lot and your designer has not suggested this configuration, ask why. It is the most effective ventilation setup available in a terrace house kitchen and it is frequently missed.

In both cases, natural cross-ventilation through windows is not a substitute for a ducted exhaust system in a Malaysian wet kitchen. The volume and heat of daily wok cooking and deep frying in a Malaysian household exceeds what window ventilation can handle. A ducted exhaust hood is the minimum standard for a functional wet kitchen, not an optional upgrade.

• Specify the duct route before finalising cabinet layout. The duct must travel from the hood to an exterior wall opening. Once cabinets are fixed, rerouting a duct is a significant additional cost.
• For intermediate lots, keep the hob as close to the back wall as the layout allows. Every additional metre of duct run reduces extraction efficiency and increases the noise level of the hood motor.
• For corner lots, position the hob on the side wall with the duct exiting directly through it. This gives the shortest possible duct run and the most effective heat removal from the kitchen space.

Light cabinet colours in a narrow kitchen reflect more of the available light back into the room, making the space feel wider and taller than it actually is. White, off-white, warm grey, light beige, and light wood grain finishes are the most effective palette for a standard terrace house kitchen. They do not go out of style quickly, they photograph well, and they make the space more comfortable to work in during the day without artificial lighting.

The most popular approach in Malaysian terrace house kitchens right now is a two-tone combination with light upper cabinets and slightly darker or wood-toned lower cabinets. This adds visual depth and grounds the lower cabinets without making the space feel heavy. It also hides fingerprints and minor wear on the lower cabinets, which take more daily contact than the uppers. Avoid all-dark kitchens in terrace houses with limited window area. The space will feel noticeably smaller and will require artificial lighting during the day.

Cabinet handles that protrude into the kitchen aisle reduce the perceived width of the space and can be a physical obstruction in a narrow galley kitchen. In a kitchen where the aisle is already at the minimum comfortable width, a row of protruding handles on both sides creates a space that feels and functions narrower than it is. Handleless cabinet doors or integrated recessed J-pull profiles eliminate this problem entirely.

Handleless kitchens also read as cleaner and more contemporary from the adjacent dining or living area, which matters in an open-plan terrace house where the kitchen is always partially visible. The finger recess is typically moulded into the top or side of the door rather than applied as a separate component, making it more durable and easier to clean than a conventional bar handle. If you prefer the look of a hardware handle, choose a slim bar handle mounted horizontally at the top of lower cabinet doors to reduce how far it projects into the aisle.

Under-cabinet lighting is the single most cost-effective upgrade in a terrace house kitchen renovation. A standard overhead light in a narrow kitchen creates a shadow on the worktop directly in front of the upper cabinets, which is precisely where you are preparing food. This shadow is caused by the upper cabinets blocking the overhead light source, and it means that the primary work surface is the least-lit surface in the kitchen.

LED strip lights mounted under the upper cabinets illuminate the worktop directly with no shadow, make the kitchen safer to use, and create a warm ambient layer when the main light is off. They cost very little to run and can be wired into a separate switch from the main kitchen light. On a renovation budget, this is one of the first additions to include rather than one of the first to cut. For more ideas on how lighting transforms a kitchen space, see our kitchen lighting ideas guide.