Designing a Functional Wet and Dry Kitchen for Singapore Homes
Many Singapore households cook in two registers — light prep and entertaining in an open dry kitchen, and heavy, aromatic cooking in an enclosed wet kitchen. A well-planned wet-and-dry layout gives you both: a showpiece space that opens to the living area, and a hardworking space that contains the heat, grease and strong smells of serious cooking. Done right, it is one of the most practical layouts you can choose.
The Dry Kitchen
The dry kitchen usually opens to the living and dining areas and is built around an island or breakfast counter, an induction hob, a sink, the fridge and display storage. It is where the family gathers and guests linger, so this is where you spend on finishes, lighting and the island worktop. Because heavy cooking happens elsewhere, it stays clean and presentable.
The Wet Kitchen
The wet kitchen is enclosed and built for real cooking — a powerful gas hob, a strong ducted exhaust, durable surfaces and easy-clean wall tiling. Sitting behind a door, it keeps oil mist, heat and strong aromas out of the living spaces. Of everything in the wet kitchen, ventilation is the most important feature; the rest is about durability and easy cleaning.
Get the Dimensions Right
A kitchen lives or dies on its clearances, not just its looks. A few rules of thumb worth designing to:
Walkways: allow about 1m of clear space in front of counters; in a galley or around an island where two people pass or a door swings, 1.1–1.2m is more comfortable.
The island: leave roughly 1–1.2m around it so drawers and the dishwasher open freely and people can move past someone working. An island much under 1m long rarely earns its space.
Counter height: the standard is around 850–900mm, but it costs nothing to set it to suit the main cook's height during design.
Work triangle: keep the total distance between sink, hob and fridge tight — broadly 4–8m added up — so cooking does not become a hike.
Splashback and upper cabinets: about 600mm between the counter and the underside of wall units keeps the worktop usable.
Plan the Storage Before the Cabinetry
Storage is where kitchens quietly succeed or fail. Decide what goes where before the cabinet maker quotes:
A tall pantry or larder unit for dry goods, plus a dedicated home for bulky items like the rice cooker, air fryer, blender and slow cooker.
An appliance garage or a deep counter run in the wet kitchen so small appliances live out of sight but stay plugged in.
Pull-out drawers rather than deep low cupboards — they save you crouching and digging.
A planned bin and recycling pull-out near the prep sink, sized for Singapore's recycling streams.
Soft-close hardware and moisture-resistant carcasses throughout, especially in the humid wet kitchen.
Layout and Workflow
Keep the work triangle — sink, hob and fridge — tight so cooking flows without long walks.
Provide generous counter and storage space in both zones; a beautiful kitchen with nowhere to put things fails daily.
Position the wet kitchen near the service yard, bin store and utility area.
Ensure a clear, short path for carrying dishes from the wet kitchen to the dry kitchen and dining table.
Ventilation Is Everything
Heavy Singapore-style cooking — high-heat wok work, frying, strong spices — produces far more grease and heat than a light Western kitchen, so the wet-kitchen exhaust has to be genuinely powerful, not decorative:
Choose a high-extraction ducted hood sized for heavy cooking, and duct it to an external louvre — never a recirculating filter that simply pushes the smell back into the room.
Keep the duct short, smooth and as straight as possible; every bend and metre of length cuts extraction. Use a generous duct diameter and avoid flexible concertina ducting on long runs.
Plan the external louvre position early — it affects the façade and must not discharge towards a neighbour's window or your own living spaces.
In a tightly sealed, air-conditioned home, give the wet kitchen a make-up air path (a vent or a slightly undercut door) so the hood can actually pull air rather than fight a vacuum.
The dry kitchen still needs a hood for its induction hob — lighter duty, but grease and steam still rise.
M&E Provisions: Power, Gas and Plumbing
This is the part that is painful to fix after cabinetry is in, so lock it down at design stage:
Electrical: an induction hob and a built-in oven each typically need their own dedicated, adequately rated circuit. Plan generous socket outlets along the backsplash and at the island (for the kettle, blender, charging and small appliances), and points for the fridge, dishwasher, microwave, water heater and any wine fridge.
Gas: if you are using city gas or LPG, the licensed pipe run, shut-off valve and hob position must be set early (see our guide on town gas, LPG and induction).
Plumbing: provide a floor trap in the wet kitchen, water points for the sink(s), dishwasher and any instant-hot or filtered-water tap, and proper falls to drainage so the floor stays dry.
Ducting and conduits: route the exhaust duct, and run a spare conduit or two, before the ceiling and walls close up.
Countertops and Finishes That Last
The wet and dry kitchens take very different punishment, so they can use different surfaces:
Dry kitchen / island: quartz (engineered stone) and sintered stone are popular for their hardness, stain resistance and clean look; natural granite and marble are options if you accept more care. This is the showpiece, so spend here.
Wet kitchen: prioritise a tough, heat- and stain-tolerant worktop and easy-clean tiled walls that wipe down after greasy cooking. Aluminium or moisture-resistant cabinet carcasses outlast standard board in the humidity and splashes.
Splashback: large-format tiles or a single slab behind the hob mean fewer grout lines to scrub.
Flooring: slip-resistant porcelain in the wet kitchen; the dry kitchen can match the adjoining living area.
Lighting the Kitchen Properly
Good kitchen lighting is layered, not a single ceiling light:
Task lighting under the wall cabinets and over the island, aimed at the worktop so you are not working in your own shadow.
Ambient lighting for the overall room, ideally dimmable in the open dry kitchen so it works for both cooking and entertaining.
Bright, even light in the wet kitchen for safe, clean cooking, on easy-wipe fittings that tolerate grease and steam.
A Quick Pre-Design Checklist
Before you finalise the kitchen, you should be able to answer:
How heavily do we cook, and does that justify a separate wet kitchen?
Gas or induction — and have we provided the right piping or circuit?
Where does the exhaust duct run, and where does the external louvre sit?
Where do the fridge, oven, dishwasher, microwave and small appliances each live?
Is there a clear, short path from wet kitchen to dry kitchen to dining table?
Does the design suit a domestic helper or a second cook working at the same time, if that applies to your household?
Planning Your Landed Home Rebuild?
A landed rebuild rewards careful planning and the right team. Hitomo Construction guides Singapore homeowners through feasibility, design, regulatory submissions, construction and handover — so every decision is made with the full picture in front of you.
Reach out for a no-obligation discussion. Contact Hitomo Construction today to get started.
