Planning a Corporate Office Kitchen

Start with what the kitchen needs to support

A corporate office kitchen brief should start with the activities you expect it to support, not a standard equipment list. A place to make tea and coffee, a shared-meal kitchen and a space that also hosts guests or meetings serve different purposes. Name the intended use first; then decide what the plan needs to accommodate.

A tea kitchen is described as a workplace place where colleagues prepare hot drinks. SieMatic distinguishes that functional use from a larger office kitchen where people may cook and eat together, with appliances, dishes and utensils. A small tea kitchen is usually functional and has no seating. The distinction gives you a useful starting point: are you planning a quick-stop drinks and reheating point, or a place to spend time over food?

Before discussing the layout, write a short purpose statement. Keep it specific enough to guide choices, but do not treat it as a technical specification. For example, your statement might say that the kitchen is intended for drinks and reheating, or that it should support shared lunches and occasional meetings. If it should also serve guests, receptions or evening events, name those uses rather than assuming they are covered by the word kitchen.

A practical first pass is to answer three questions:

• What will you and your colleagues do in the space on an ordinary office day?
• Which activities are occasional but still need to be supported, such as a team meal or guest gathering?
• Which uses are outside the brief, so they do not quietly add requirements later?

This separates essential functions from optional ones. It also gives you a way to discuss trade-offs: if space is limited, you can decide whether seating, shared meals or guest use matters more than keeping the room focused on drinks and meal reheating. The purpose statement becomes the reference point for demand, facilities, storage and layout.

Choose between a tea point and a shared-meal kitchen

A tea point and a shared-meal kitchen call for different briefs, so choose the use you need before listing facilities. SieMatic describes a tea kitchen as a place for hot drinks; it usually includes a stove or microwave for heating a brought-in meal, and a dishwasher is part of its basic equipment. A small version is usually functional, without seating. A modern office kitchen can instead support cooking and eating together, with appliances, dishes and other utensils; it may also include seating or be used for guests and events.

If your plan is limited to drinks and reheating, state that scope and decide whether seating is genuinely needed. Do not add a dining area by default. If shared meals are part of the intended use, record that clearly, then identify the cooking, eating and seating needs to discuss. If you expect meetings or guest activity, include those uses separately; the fact that some companies use kitchens this way does not make them a requirement for every office.

These are use cases, not fixed room types or universal equipment packages. Your design discussion can test whether one space should cover several activities, or whether the brief should keep the kitchen focused. The useful decision is the one that reflects your actual intended use.

Estimate the demand the space must handle

Kitchen demand depends on when your team is in the office and what it does there, so describe attendance patterns before fixing the brief. Vanguard recommends allowing room for comfortable use without congestion and considering future team growth. Interaction describes office planning as considering both current and future organisational needs. That makes a single headcount an incomplete picture for planning: consider how the team’s presence changes across a normal week and during busier periods.

Matterport identifies headcount changes, hybrid schedules, seasonal spikes, project-based surges, recurring events and team-specific behaviours as factors that can affect office occupancy or space needs. Use those factors as prompts to describe demand, not as a formula that produces a required kitchen size. A London office with different attendance across the week may have a different pattern of kitchen use on a quieter day, a busy day or an event day; record the pattern you expect rather than guessing at a universal peak.

Build a short demand note from what you know about your operation:

• Describe ordinary attendance patterns, including days when more of your team is usually present.
• Note planned growth or other headcount changes that could affect use during the period your office plan needs to serve.
• Identify recurring events, project periods or seasonal peaks that could bring more people into the workplace at once.
• Record whether different teams use the office in different ways, such as regularly gathering for shared meals or meetings.
• Mark assumptions that still need discussion, rather than presenting them as confirmed attendance figures.

Then connect each pattern to a question about the kitchen. Would a busy day bring more people making drinks at once, more meals to heat, or more colleagues wanting to sit together? Would an event introduce guest use? These are prompts for your own brief, not claims about what every team will do.

You do not need to turn this exercise into a numerical capacity specification. Its purpose is to explain what ordinary and less frequent demand looks like, so the design discussion can consider space for comfortable use and possible future changes. Where you have only estimates, label them as assumptions and revisit them as the office plan develops.

Match facilities and storage to everyday tasks

Kitchen facilities and storage should follow the tasks you have named, rather than a generic checklist. Those descriptions can help you frame questions, but they do not prescribe the same equipment for every office.

Start by listing the tasks your intended use requires. Do you need to make hot drinks, reheat meals, prepare food, wash up or serve shared meals? For each task, note the appliance or everyday item you expect to use. Where the brief is not settled, write down the question instead of choosing equipment prematurely.

Storage belongs in the same conversation. Vanguard recommends planning storage for appliances, cups and everyday essentials, and using vertical space to help keep worktops and floors clear. Translate that into the items your team expects to keep in the kitchen: cups, dishes, utensils, appliances and other essentials. Note which items need to be close to the task they serve and where you expect them to be stored. This gives the design discussion something more useful than a vague request for ample storage.

A practical facilities note can use three columns: task, items or facilities to discuss, and what remains undecided. Keep it tied to the purpose statement. Avoid treating a longer equipment list as automatically better; each item should answer a stated use.

Include work surfaces and storage in the conversation together. If food preparation is part of the intended use, record that task; if it is not, do not imply it through a general request for counter space. Likewise, note whether your cups and everyday items need dedicated storage, without inventing quantities or dimensions. The resulting list can guide a fit-out discussion while leaving detailed specifications to the design process.

Plan the layout around movement and usability

A useful kitchen layout accounts for how you move between tasks, not only where appliances appear on a drawing. Vanguard recommends considering surface heights, appliance positioning and general usability. It also notes that separating food preparation, drink-making and washing-up areas can reduce congestion and help people move through the kitchen efficiently. Where those tasks are part of your brief, show how you expect them to relate to one another.

A linear arrangement of appliances and worktops can make efficient use of narrower spaces and may suit a smaller office kitchen, according to Vanguard. Treat that as an option to discuss when the space is narrow, not as a default layout. Your brief can ask whether a linear arrangement suits the intended tasks and circulation, without trying to prescribe a final plan.

Movement is also a usability question. Vanguard recommends accessible routes and consideration of different mobility requirements. Include both in your discussion: ask how your intended layout supports people approaching and using the facilities, and flag any mobility needs that should be considered. Keep the point at the level of your requirements; do not turn it into a claim about technical compliance or a specification.

A proposed position can look convenient on a plan but still need practical discussion. In a fit-out guide published on 7 July 2026, Barry Turner & Son noted that a kitchen location may become costly if water and waste routes are difficult. Put the location and those routes on the list of questions to resolve before settling on a layout. A drawing alone does not establish that the routes will be straightforward.

Use these prompts to test the arrangement:

• Which tasks happen in the space, and where do you expect each to take place?
• Could drink-making, food preparation and washing-up overlap during a busy period?
• Does the proposed arrangement allow comfortable movement and accessible routes?
• Could a linear plan suit the available shape and the tasks you have named?
• What needs to be discussed about water and waste routes at the proposed location?

Keep answers linked to the intended use and demand note. If the design conversation suggests moving the kitchen, revisit its relationship to the workplace and its routes rather than treating a visually neat plan as a complete answer.

Account for cleaning and everyday organisation

Cleaning and everyday organisation belong in the kitchen brief because they affect how the space is expected to be used and maintained. Vanguard recommends hard-wearing, easy-to-clean finishes suited to the wider office aesthetic and regular everyday use. Ben Johnson Interiors recommends keeping the kitchen fresh, clean and tidy for storing, preparing and eating food and drinks. Together, these points give you practical topics to raise without specifying a material or a cleaning regime.

Describe the level of everyday use you expect, then ask the design or fit-out team to discuss finishes in that context. Keep the request grounded in regular use and ease of cleaning; do not name a material unless you have a specific reason and suitable advice. The finish should also be considered alongside the wider office aesthetic, rather than as an isolated choice.

Plan for waste and recycling as part of the room’s routine. Vanguard recommends providing storage for waste and recycling. In your brief, note that both need a place and identify any sorting arrangements your organisation already expects. Do not assume a particular number or type of containers without an agreed requirement.

Keep this operational section separate from the facilities list. The facilities list describes the tasks and items the kitchen supports; this part describes the finish, waste and recycling arrangements that need discussion alongside those tasks. If the intended use expands from a drinks point to shared meals, revisit the cleaning and organisation questions too, because the brief now covers different activities. That is a prompt to review the requirements, not a prediction about how the kitchen will perform.

A concise note might read: finishes should be discussed for regular everyday use and ease of cleaning; waste and recycling need planned storage; expectations for keeping the space tidy should be considered in the operating brief. Keep these as planning requirements and leave any detailed material or maintenance specification to the appropriate design discussion.

Decide how the kitchen connects to the workplace

The kitchen’s relationship to the wider workplace depends on whether you want it to function only as a food-and-drink facility or also as a place to sit and spend time. SieMatic describes modern office kitchens as potentially including dining tables with chairs, seating counters or high tables. Vanguard notes that combining kitchen facilities with comfortable seating and flexible furniture can provide space for breaks, informal meetings and collaboration. Those are possible uses to choose deliberately, not benefits to assume from adding seats.

Some companies also use their office kitchens for guests, meetings, receptions or evening events, according to SieMatic. If any of these belong in your brief, name them and say how often you expect them. A kitchen planned for staff meals alone should not silently acquire a guest or event role; equally, occasional events should not be left out if they matter to your workplace.

Think about the connection in terms of the activities you have already selected. Will the space be used for quick preparation and then left, or should it include a place to eat? Should it also support informal meetings or collaboration? Is guest use part of the intended function? Each answer changes what you need to discuss about seating and how the kitchen relates to nearby work areas. Avoid asserting that the kitchen will improve collaboration or become a social hub; the useful brief simply states whether those activities are intended.

Record the boundary as well as the ambition. If the kitchen is not meant to host meetings, say so. If it is meant to serve both daily meals and occasional gatherings, distinguish the ordinary use from the additional one. This keeps your space discussion anchored to activities and gives the design team a clear basis for considering how the kitchen fits alongside the rest of the office.

Bring the decisions into a design discussion brief

A useful kitchen brief turns your chosen activities and demand patterns into questions a design or fit-out discussion can work through. Flexiform recommends assessing goals and seeking input from department heads and staff feedback when creating a design brief. Interaction describes office planning as organising layouts around current and future organisational needs. Bring those perspectives together: set out what the kitchen must support, what you expect from the space and which decisions are still open.

You can organise the brief under these headings:

• Purpose: State whether the kitchen is for drinks and reheating, shared meals, or those activities plus meetings, guest use or events. Identify uses that are out of scope.
• Expected demand: Describe ordinary attendance patterns, likely busy periods, recurring events and any expected team changes. Mark estimates or assumptions clearly.
• Facilities and tasks: List the activities to support and the appliances, utensils and everyday items to discuss. Keep undecided choices as questions.
• Storage and work surfaces: Note which items need storage and whether food preparation is part of the agreed use. Avoid inserting quantities or dimensions you have not established.
• Layout and movement: Describe how the tasks may relate to one another, whether a linear arrangement merits discussion, and what accessibility or mobility needs to raise.
• Cleaning and organisation: Include easy-to-clean, hard-wearing finishes as a discussion point, along with waste and recycling storage.
• Workplace connection: State whether the kitchen is for food and drink only or should also include seating, informal meetings, guests or events.
• Open questions: List unresolved points about the proposed location, water and waste routes, or any other matter that needs a design discussion.

Keep each item concrete. Instead of writing that the kitchen should be spacious, describe the activities and demand you want the plan to account for. Instead of asking for a fully equipped kitchen, list the tasks and items that make the phrase meaningful for your team. If attendance is uncertain, name the uncertainty rather than converting it into a fixed capacity requirement.

Ask department heads for requirements connected to their teams’ activities, then gather staff feedback on everyday use. You do not need to give every preference equal weight: record who raised each point and whether it is an essential use, a preference or an unresolved question. That distinction helps keep the brief readable and makes competing requests visible for discussion.

Before sharing it, check that each proposed facility connects to a stated use, each use has been considered against expected demand, and the layout questions reflect movement as well as appearance. The brief is a planning aid, not a completed design. It gives you a clear record of what to discuss and where a decision still needs to be made.

Carry a clear brief into the next planning discussion

A clear office-kitchen brief records intended use, expected demand, facilities, storage, movement, everyday organisation and the kitchen’s relationship to the workplace. Add staff and department-head input, then mark the questions that still need a design or fit-out discussion. Use it as a planning brief, not as architectural, building-regulations or health-and-safety advice; leave those professional decisions to the relevant qualified people.

Carry forward the decisions you have made and keep assumptions visible. Any estimates are indicative, not a quote or confirmed booking.

What should the kitchen brief leave open for professional review?

Do office kitchens have specific ventilation or building regulation requirements?

This guide does not establish specific requirements. Ask the relevant qualified professionals to assess the proposed kitchen and confirm applicable requirements for the building and fit-out before decisions are finalised.

How do I decide how much space an office kitchen needs?

There is no fixed capacity or room-size specification established here. Describe ordinary attendance, busy periods, planned growth and the activities the kitchen must support, then use those requirements in a design discussion rather than guessing at dimensions.

Should a corporate office kitchen include seating?

Include seating when eating in the space, informal meetings or gatherings are intended uses. If the brief is limited to making drinks and reheating meals, treat seating as an open choice rather than an automatic requirement.