Choosing kitchen cabinets for a small panel-flat kitchen

The cabinet depth that actually fits a panel flat

Standard base cabinets are 60 cm deep, sized for a worktop with a slight overhang and enough room for pots and drawer runners. In many Tallinn panel flats from the 1960s to 1980s, the kitchen is narrow enough that 60 cm base units on both sides leave barely enough space to open an oven door or stand comfortably between them.

Where the room is under about 2.2 m wide, it is worth looking at 50 cm or even 40 cm deep base cabinets on one side, paired with full-depth units only where you need the worktop width, for example next to the hob. Wall cabinets are usually 30 to 35 cm deep regardless of room size, so they rarely need adjusting.

Depth is one of the few decisions that cannot be changed later without swapping the carcass, so it is worth measuring the room at several points, not just at the doorway, since panel-flat walls are not always perfectly straight.

The stove wall and other things you cannot move

In flats with a gas stove, the position of the gas pipe is normally fixed and the cooker has to stay on that wall, along with a minimum clearance from the pipe that the gas fitter will confirm. We do not do gas work ourselves, so any change to a gas connection needs a qualified gas specialist regardless of who fits the cabinets.

Electric stove wiring, ventilation ducting, and the kitchen's water and drain points are also usually fixed in a panel building, since moving them means cutting into a wall that is often part of the building's structure. Cabinet layout has to work around these points rather than the other way round.

Before choosing furniture, it is worth listing what genuinely cannot move: gas or power point, drain, extractor duct, and any load-bearing wall. Everything else is negotiable, and it is far cheaper to plan the layout around fixed points than to relocate them afterwards.

Doors: chipboard, MDF, and which one to choose

Most kitchen fronts are either laminated chipboard or MDF with a foil, paint or veneer finish. Chipboard fronts are flat, cheaper, and perfectly durable for a straightforward flat-panel look, but they cannot be routed into shaped or curved profiles.

MDF is denser and machines cleanly, so it is used for shaker-style fronts, painted finishes, and anything with a moulded edge. It costs more than chipboard but takes knocks and moisture at the edges slightly better, which matters near a sink or hob.

For a small kitchen, a plain flat chipboard front in a light colour often does more for the sense of space than an expensive profiled MDF door, since it reads as one uninterrupted surface rather than a grid of frames and shadow lines.

Worktop material: laminate, quartz, and what the difference means

Laminate worktop is a particleboard core faced with a hard plastic layer. It is the cheapest option, comes in the widest range of finishes including convincing stone-look prints, and is entirely adequate for normal kitchen use as long as you use a chopping board and do not set hot pans straight onto it.

Quartz composite is a mix of ground quartz and resin, sold in slabs, and considerably harder wearing against scratches, heat and staining. It costs several times more than laminate and needs to be templated and cut to size rather than ordered as a standard length.

For a small kitchen, the worktop finish matters more to daily use than to the sense of space, so it is worth spending on quartz only where the extra durability actually earns its keep, such as around a hob and sink, and choosing laminate elsewhere.

Standard module sizes worth planning around

Kitchen cabinets come in standard widths, and designing the layout to those widths avoids expensive custom cutting and infill panels. Working with the standard range also makes it easier to source replacement units later if a cabinet is damaged.

Sink and hob units tend to come in wider standard sizes than plain storage cabinets, since they need to accommodate the appliance or basin, so it is worth checking your chosen sink and hob dimensions against the manufacturer's module list before ordering anything else.

• Base cabinets: typically 30, 40, 45, 50, 60 and 80 cm wide
• Wall cabinets: same width range, usually 30 to 90 cm high
• Standard worktop depth: 60 cm, with 3.8 or 4 cm thickness
• Standard kitchen height: worktop at roughly 85 to 90 cm off the floor
• Sink base units: commonly 60, 80 or 100 cm to fit standard basins
• Tall units for oven or fridge: usually 60 cm wide

When to measure it yourself and when to call in a fitter

Measuring a straightforward rectangular kitchen with a tape measure, noting wall lengths, window and door positions, and the height to the ceiling, is something most people can do to get a rough sense of what will fit before ordering.

Where the walls are out of square, which is common in older panel and wooden buildings, or where the layout involves a corner unit, an island, or built-in appliances, a fitter's site measurement avoids ordering cabinets that need trimming or leave a visible gap.

Our kitchen installation covers fitting from a plan you already have or one worked out together on site, from 600 € per job depending on size and layout, and a flat renovation that includes kitchen work more broadly starts from 180 € per job.

Smaller jobs around a kitchen that are not worth doing yourself

Levelling cabinets against an uneven panel-flat wall, cutting a worktop cleanly for a sink or hob cut-out, and fitting soft-close hinges and drawer runners so doors sit flush all need a steady hand and the right tools to avoid a visibly crooked result.

Any work on the electrical circuit for the hob, extractor or under-cabinet lighting should go to a qualified electrician rather than being wired in as part of the carpentry.

For odd jobs such as rehanging a door, adjusting hinges, or fitting a single replacement unit, our odd jobs rate from 39 € per hour, minimum one hour, covers a call-out without needing a full installation booking.