Quick answer
A 3.0 m by 2.4 m L-shape kitchen gives you about 4.8 m of cabinetry once the corner overlap is deducted. That fits a sink under the window, a 600 mm cooker gap with bench both sides, a 900 mm fridge space at the open end and a bank of drawers, at roughly $8.5-13k supply or $12-18k installed in Auckland.
Key points
- A 3.0 m wall plus a 2.4 m return sounds like 5.4 m of kitchen. After the 600 mm corner overlap you are really working with about 4.8 m of cabinetry.
- The order that works: fridge at the open end of the long wall, cooker in a 600 mm gap with bench either side, sink under the window on the return, dishwasher beside it.
- The corner is one decision, made early: blank it, fit a blind unit with a pull-out, or fit a carousel. It sets both runs, so decide before you pick cabinet widths.
- Budget roughly $8.5-13k supply-only or $12-18k installed in Auckland for this footprint, plus GST, with fronts and benchtop doing most of the moving.
- The classic mistakes at this size: fridge hard against the cooker, a dead corner by accident, and appliance doors that clash in the internal angle.
Stand in the kitchen of a 1970s Papatoetoe three-bedder or a brick-and-tile in Glen Eden and the tape measure tells the same story: one wall right on 3.0 m, a return of roughly 2.4 m, a window over the spot where the sink wants to be. It might be the most common kitchen footprint in the country. Worked properly, it is also a genuinely good one.
The trouble is that most people plan it as two walls of cupboards and hope the appliances sort themselves out. At this size there is no slack for hoping. A fridge parked in the wrong place or a corner handled badly costs you half a metre of bench you cannot get back. So this piece works the footprint in millimetres: what the two walls actually give you, two arrangements that fit, the corner decision, and where the money lands.
What 3.0 m by 2.4 m actually gives you
Add the two walls and you get 5.4 m, which sounds generous. You do not get to keep it all. Where the runs meet, one run passes through the corner and the other butts into its 600 mm depth, so the corner is counted once, not twice. Deduct that overlap and the honest figure is about 4.8 m of cabinet frontage, with the 900 mm corner unit clawing back some storage inside the angle itself.
Everything sits on standard NZ bench anatomy: bases 600 mm deep, a 900 mm finished bench height built from a 150 mm toe kick, a 720 mm carcass and the benchtop, then a 600 mm splashback zone up to 720 mm tall uppers. In module terms, 4.8 m is eight 600 mm cabinets, which is why the 600 mm module is the default: the arithmetic keeps working all the way down the run. And because the benches only take 600 mm off each wall, the clear floor left in the middle is about 2,400 by 1,800 mm. Room for two people and an open dishwasher door. Not room for an island.
That puts this footprint firmly in L-shape territory rather than galley, and the L is the right call here because it keeps sink, cooker and fridge in a tight working triangle without a corridor. If you want the wider tour of shapes and when each earns its keep, the main kitchen layouts explained covers it.
Two arrangements that work
Both versions below assume the window sits on the 2.4 m return, which is where this era of house usually puts it. Every number is a cabinet width in millimetres, read along each wall from the internal corner outward.
Arrangement one: sink under the window, cooker mid-run
- Long wall, 3,000 mm: a 900 mm corner unit into the angle, a 600 mm gap for a freestanding cooker, a 600 mm drawer bank, then a 900 mm fridge space at the open end.
- Return, 2,400 mm: the long run's 600 mm depth fills the corner, then an 800 mm sink base under the window, a 600 mm dishwasher space beside it, and a 400 mm base at the end.
This is the arrangement we build most often at this size, and each piece is where it is for a reason. The cooker has bench on both sides, one of them the drawer bank that holds the pans. The fridge sits at the open end so its door swings into the room instead of into joinery. The dishwasher sits hard against the sink base and shares its plumbing. Nothing fights anything. The 600 mm cooker gap and its tolerances are a subject of their own; designing around a freestanding oven covers the 5 mm that matters.
One way to lay out 3.0 m by 2.4 m: sink under the window, cooker flanked by bench, fridge at the open end.
Arrangement two: sink on the long wall, cooker on the return
- Long wall, 3,000 mm: a 900 mm corner unit, an 800 mm sink base, a 600 mm dishwasher space, then a 700 mm fridge space at the open end.
- Return, 2,400 mm: 600 mm of corner depth, a 600 mm cooker gap, then two 600 mm bases running to the wall.
Use this version when your window sits on the long wall instead. It carries two compromises worth naming. The fridge space drops to 700 mm, which suits a slimmer 650 mm fridge and rules out a wide French-door unit. And the cooker sits one cabinet from the internal angle, so its left-hand landing is the corner run rather than open bench. Both are liveable. Neither should be a surprise on install day.
One more variant people ask about: swapping the drawer bank in arrangement one for a 600 mm tall pantry. It fits, but it strands the cooker with bench on one side only, and at 4.8 m of frontage that trade is rarely worth making. Most households at this size do better with drawers below and an extra 720 mm upper above.
The corner decision
Every L-shape kitchen has exactly one corner, and what you do with it sets the widths of both runs, so make the call before you pick cabinets. There are three honest options. Blank it off with a dead panel, which costs least and loses the storage. Fit a blind-corner unit with a pull-out, which recovers most of the space at a hardware price. Or fit a carousel, which is the easiest to live with and the dearest of the three. On a footprint this small the corner is a bigger fraction of your total storage than it would be in a 4 m run, so it deserves the thought. The full comparison, including what each option holds and where each one fails, is in corner cabinet solutions compared.
How much does a 3m x 2.4m L-shape kitchen cost?
This footprint sits at the lower half of the Auckland L-shape band: roughly $8.5-13k supply-only, or $12-18k supplied and installed, plus GST. Where you land inside that band is mostly fronts and benchtop. White melamine doors with a laminate top hold you near the bottom. Lacquered fronts, a stone top and a glass splashback walk you toward the top without adding a single cabinet. Appliances sit on top of all of it, because the fridge, cooker and dishwasher are never in the joinery number. The wider picture, including what other layouts cost, is in how much a kitchen costs in Auckland.
| What you buy | Roughly | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Supply-only joinery | $8.5-13k | Door fronts, benchtop material, corner hardware |
| Supply and install | $12-18k | Site access, splashback, how square the walls are |
| Appliances | Not in these numbers | Fridge, cooker and dishwasher are always on top |
The mistakes that shrink a small L
- Fridge hard against the cooker. The fridge works harder next to a hot appliance, the two doors clash, and the cook and the snack-hunter occupy the same 600 mm of floor. Keep a bench between them.
- A dead corner by accident. Blanking the corner is a fair budget call, but it should be a decision you made, not something you discover when the installer asks what goes in the angle.
- Appliance doors that clash. An oven door, a dishwasher door and a corner unit can only open into the same 1,800 mm of floor one at a time. Walk the door swings on the plan before you sign it.
- No landing beside the fridge. Groceries need 400 mm of bench within reach of the fridge door, which arrangement one gives you via the drawer bank.
- A cooker pushed to the open end. With bench on one side only, pot handles hang over the walkway at exactly toddler height.
Most of these are space discipline rather than design flair, and the same thinking that makes a small kitchen feel bigger applies here: long unbroken bench lines, uppers that stop at 720 mm, nothing standing proud of the 600 mm bench line.
Working it up from a sketch
Measure both walls at bench height, wall to wall, because skirting and plaster lie. Note the window, where the waste pipe exits under the sink, and which wall carries the cooker circuit. Photograph the room from the doorway. That is everything a quote needs and it takes fifteen minutes.
From there you have two good routes. Put the widths straight into the designer on our site and it prices the run live and draws a to-scale plan and elevation with every dimension in millimetres, which is a useful thing to argue with at the dinner table. Designing your kitchen online shows what the tool does with exactly the widths in this article. Or send MTN Kitchens the measurements and photos and a quote comes back inside 24 hours with a reference number, with a site measure to lock the final dimensions before anything is built. Either way, the 3.0 m x 2.4 m footprint rewards the half hour of planning more than almost any other kitchen shape, because at 4.8 m there is nowhere for a mistake to hide.
Frequently asked questions
How much cabinetry fits in a 3m x 2.4m L-shape kitchen?
About 4.8 m of cabinet frontage. The two walls total 5.4 m, but where the runs meet, one passes through the corner and the other butts into its 600 mm depth, so the corner is only counted once. In practice that is eight 600 mm modules, or a mix like a 900 mm corner unit, a cooker gap, a drawer bank, a fridge space, a sink base and a dishwasher.
How much does an L-shape kitchen this size cost in NZ?
In Auckland, roughly $8.5-13k supply-only or $12-18k supplied and installed, plus GST. Door fronts and benchtop material do most of the moving inside that band, and appliances are always on top of the joinery number. Keeping the sink and cooker in their existing positions keeps you near the bottom of the range.
Where should the fridge go in a small L-shape kitchen?
At the open end of the long run, so its door swings into the room instead of into joinery, with about 900 mm of width allowed. Never hard against the cooker: the fridge works harder beside a hot appliance, the doors clash, and you lose the landing bench that groceries and hot pans both need.
What is the standard gap for a freestanding cooker?
600 mm is the NZ standard, matching the 600 mm cabinet module, with 540 mm and 900 mm appliances as the common variants. Most 600 mm stoves are actually about 595 mm wide, so a true 600 mm gap gives you roughly 5 mm of forgiveness in total. Set the gap accurately when the cabinets are fitted, not when the stove arrives.
Can I fit a dishwasher in a 3m x 2.4m kitchen?
Yes. A standard dishwasher takes one 600 mm space, and the right place for it is directly beside the sink base so it shares the plumbing and the unloading happens over the bench. What it costs you is one 600 mm cupboard elsewhere in the run, which most households consider a fair trade.
What should I do with the corner in a small L-shape kitchen?
Pick one of three options early: blank it (cheapest, loses the storage), a blind-corner unit with a pull-out (recovers most of the space for a hardware cost), or a carousel (easiest to use, dearest). On a 4.8 m kitchen the corner is a real share of your total storage, so decide deliberately rather than letting the quote decide for you.
Is a 3m x 2.4m kitchen big enough for an island?
No. Once 600 mm deep benches line both walls, the clear floor is about 2,400 by 1,800 mm, and an island needs walkway on both sides plus its own bench depth. Spend the budget on the corner unit and drawers instead; a small kitchen with generous clear floor works better than one with a furniture obstacle in the middle.