Wet and Dry Kitchen in Singapore: How to Plan One for Your HDB Flat
a wet and dry kitchen splits your cooking space into two zones. The wet kitchen is where water, oil and smoke happen: the sink, the main hob and heavy frying. The dry kitchen is for everything that doesn’t make a mess: food prep, the fridge, small appliances and storage, usually open to the dining area. The two are often separated by a glass sliding door.
It works best if you wok-fry or deep-fry often and want an open, clean-looking space for the rest of the day. If you mostly reheat, steam or bake, a single open kitchen with a strong hood is usually enough, and cheaper.
We design and build aluminium kitchen cabinets for landed homes, condos, and HDB flats together with our parent company Concepcion Interiors, which has over 30 years in interiors and carpentry. The layouts and advice below come from 1000+ of wet and dry kitchen cabinets.
What Goes in the Wet Kitchen and What Goes in the Dry Kitchen
| Wet kitchen | Dry kitchen |
Main job | Washing, wok-frying, deep-frying, boiling | Prep, light cooking, serving, storage |
Usually holds | Sink, gas hob, cooker hood, dish rack, washing machine if there’s no service yard | Fridge, oven, microwave, rice cooker, air fryer, water dispenser, coffee machine |
What it deals with | Water, oil splatter, steam, smoke, daily mopping | Crumbs and spills, but mostly dry |
Hob, if any | Gas or induction for heavy cooking | Induction or a single cooker for light cooking |
Looks | Practical first | Seen from the living room, so it is part of your interior design |
The rule we use when planning: anything that splashes, smokes or drips goes in the wet kitchen. Anything you’d be happy to have on the dining table goes in the dry kitchen.
Do You Actually Need a Wet and Dry Kitchen?
Answer these before you pay for two kitchens:
- How often do you fry? If you wok-fry or deep-fry several times a week, smoke and oil will reach your sofa and curtains in a fully open kitchen. A wet kitchen you can close off is worth it.
- How many people cook at once? Two zones let one person wash and fry while another preps or plates in the dry kitchen.
- Do you have a service yard? If not, the washing machine may share the wet kitchen. That takes cabinet space you’d otherwise use for storage.
- How big is the space? Splitting a small kitchen in two can leave both halves too cramped to work in.
Most of our wet and dry kitchen customers are families who cook local food daily. Couples who cook a few times a week usually choose an open kitchen with a breakfast counter instead.
The HDB Context: Why This Matters for New BTO Flats
HDB has made the open-concept kitchen the standard for new BTO flats since 2018, wherever the layout allows (Mothership). Many newer floor plans already label the space as a compact wet kitchen plus an adjoining dry kitchen.
In October 2026, HDB said the wet and dry areas in a Tengah Garden Waterfront 4-room flat together take up about 10 sqm, roughly a standard kitchen in newer flats with a service yard, and that buyers can give more of the open area to the kitchen if they cook a lot (HDB on Facebook, via Mothership). That project has no separate service yard, so the wet kitchen doubles as the utility area (Uchify).
What that means in practice:
- Check your floor plan for a service yard. Without one, the washing machine and the sink compete for the same wall.
- Find the fixed points first. The floor trap, sink position, gas or induction point and any pipe stacks decide where the wet kitchen goes. You can’t move most of them.
- Decide how far the dry kitchen pushes into the living area. This is the decision that changes your living room size, not just your kitchen.
For cabinet sizes and prices by BTO flat type, see our guide to BTO kitchen cabinets.
4 Wet and Dry Kitchen Layouts That Work in HDB Flats
1. Enclosed wet kitchen with a glass sliding door, dry counter outside
The most common setup in BTO flats. The wet kitchen keeps the sink and hob behind a glass door. Outside, a run of cabinets or a counter holds the fridge, tall unit and small appliances. Our HIP project used this setup: a wet kitchen behind a door, with a pantry wall outside for appliances and the water dispenser.
- Best for: families who cook daily and want a living room that doesn’t smell of frying
- Typical cabinet run: wet kitchen 10 ft top and bottom; dry kitchen 4 ft
- Watch out for: The balance between storage using tall unit and countertop space. We’ve seen some household having too much of one and over sacrificing the other.
One example of a cabinet behind glass sliding door
2. Parallel split: wet on one wall, dry on the other
Two facing runs, one wet and one dry. Common in older resale flats with a long, narrow kitchen.
- Best for: narrow kitchens where a door across the middle isn’t possible
- Typical cabinet run: 12 ft each side; walkway 1000 mm
- Watch out for: walkway width. Leave a minimum of 900mm, and more for wheelchair consideration between the two runs so two people can pass. For more on tight layouts, see kitchen cabinet planning for narrow HDB kitchens.
3. Dry kitchen as an island or peninsula
The wet kitchen stays along the wall, and the dry kitchen becomes an island or peninsula facing the dining area. It doubles as a breakfast counter.
- Best for: bigger 5-room, executive and condo kitchens
- Typical size: island 4 ft length × 800-900mm depth from our jobs
- Watch out for: power points. An island needs its sockets planned, and we need to ensure there’s wiring on the wall for us to pull the cable for powerpoints on the island.
4. Older resale flat: original kitchen becomes the wet kitchen
In many older HDB flats the kitchen is already a closed room. Owners keep it as the wet kitchen and build a dry kitchen in part of the dining area, sometimes after hacking part of the kitchen wall and adding a glass partition.
- Best for: resale flats where the kitchen is enclosed but too small to hold the fridge and appliances
- Watch out for: hacking any wall needs HDB approval, and structural walls can’t be hacked at all. Check your floor plan first.
Where to Put the Hob
This is the decision owners most often get wrong.
- If you wok-fry or deep-fry, the main hob goes in the wet kitchen, with the hood. That’s the whole point of having one.
- A second, smaller induction hob in the dry kitchen is useful for boiling, instant noodles, eggs or reheating without opening the wet kitchen. About 3 in 8 of our wet and dry kitchen customers add one.
- Gas stays where the gas point is. Any change to the gas pipe needs a licensed gas service worker. We build the cabinets around the existing gas pipe rather than hiding or rerouting it.
- Some newer BTO flats come with an induction point instead of gas. Check your floor plan before you buy a gas hob.
Choosing the Divider
Divider | Pros | Cons |
Glass sliding door (full height) | Keeps smoke and oil in, kitchen stays bright | Needs wall space for the door to slide into; track rails on the flooring. |
Glass swing door | Seals better than sliding | Need to have sufficient space |
Fixed glass panel plus doorway | Cheaper, blocks most splatter | Doesn’t contain smoke |
No divider (zoned layout only) | Cheapest, most open | Smoke and smell reach the living area |
Frosted or fluted glass hides the mess in the wet kitchen while still letting light through, or ask for tempered glass.
If the wet kitchen will have no window once the door is closed, plan the ventilation before the door: a hood vented outside, and an exhaust fan if there’s no window at all.
Cabinets for Each Zone
The two zones treat cabinets very differently, so they don’t need the same finish.
Wet kitchen. The sink, dish rack and floor trap share one short run that gets wet every day from washing up and mopping. Aluminium doesn’t swell or rot when water gets underneath, and termites don’t affect it. Laminated plywood can swell at exposed edges, and the sink cabinet is where it usually starts. For the wet zone we recommend aluminium kitchen cabinets, with BLUM soft-close hinges and runners as standard.
Dry kitchen. It’s seen from the sofa, so the finish has to suit your living room. We offer wood-grain, matte, solid-colour and textured finishes, and many owners match the dry kitchen to their TV console or shoe cabinet. Water exposure is lower, but the fridge, water dispenser and coffee machine still drip.
Storage that earns its space in a dry kitchen:
- Tall unit for oven and microwave, so they don’t take counter space
- Appliance garage: a counter-height cabinet with a lift-up or pocket door that hides the rice cooker and air fryer
- Pull-out pantry for dry food that you want out of the steam of the wet kitchen
- Deep drawers for plates and bowls, close to the dining table
this has pull out appliances and deep drawers. Video below
Countertops for Each Zone
- Wet kitchen: the top takes hot woks, water and oil. A stainless steel countertop can be made as one piece with the sink, which removes the joint where water gets in. Sintered stone also handles heat well though quartz and sintered stone countertops are still the most preferred options..
- Dry kitchen: heat matters less, so quartz countertops are a common choice for the look. Keep hot pots on a trivet, since quartz resin can scorch.
What a Wet and Dry Kitchen Costs
You are building two cabinet runs instead of one, plus the divider. The total depends mostly on the combined length, because cabinets are priced per foot run.
Item | Typical range |
Wet and dry kitchen cabinets (top + bottom) | From S$5,000 to S$20,000 240 per foot run |
Corner unit or corner system | About S$199 – S$699S199toS599 each |
Full pantry wall in the dry kitchen | Adds about S$600,S$1,000 eachS1,000toS3,000 |
Tall unit | S$1,000 onwards S$[X] each |
Glass sliding door | S[X]–S[X], or “quoted by glass contractor” S$1,000 to S$2,900 |
Worked example | 4-room HDB, [X] ft wet + [X] ft dry: S$[X] total, cabinets only |
For comparison, cabinets for a whole 4-room BTO kitchen usually cost S5,000toS20,000. Prices are before GST and valid as of October 2026. Countertops are quoted separately.
For per-foot-run rates and how to compare two quotes line by line, see aluminium kitchen cabinets price in Singapore. For the whole flat, see HDB renovation cost in Singapore.
HDB Rules to Check Before You Confirm the Layout
- Hacking walls: demolishing or altering any internal non-structural wall needs HDB approval. Structural walls and reinforced concrete can’t be touched. Your floor plan marks which is which.
- Adding a partition: HDB doesn’t require a permit to erect gypsum partition. A framed glass sliding door isn’t listed separately in HDB’s guidelines. Boss: confirm from our jobs whether HDB asked for a permit for a glass sliding door.
- Kitchen floor: replacing kitchen floor finishes needs a permit and pre-packed waterproofing screed. Raising the floor as a platform isn’t allowed.
- Gas works: must be done by a licensed gas service worker, and gas pipes can’t be enclosed in false ceilings.
- Contractor: permit works must be done by a contractor in HDB’s Directory of Renovation Contractors. Our parent company Concepcion Interiors Pte Ltd is listed (HB-05-3488E).
- Condos: check your MCST by-laws, which can be stricter than HDB on gas, venting and partitions.
Mistakes We See in Wet and Dry Kitchens
- Putting the fridge in the wet kitchen. It takes the space you need for washing up, and you end up opening the door every time you want a drink.
- Making the wet kitchen too small to cook in. If two people can’t stand at the sink and hob at the same time, the dry kitchen ends up doing the frying, which defeats the point.
- Planning the dry kitchen without power points. Every appliance on the dry counter needs a socket. Adding them after the backsplash is up costs far more.
- Forgetting the washing machine. In flats without a service yard, decide where it goes before anything else. It usually takes about 2 ft of bottom cabinet.
- Using the same finish everywhere to save time. The wet kitchen needs a finish that wipes clean of oil. The dry kitchen needs one that suits the living room. They don’t have to match.
Read the full Job 1 story: HDB Home Improvement Programme.
Talk to Us
Send us your floor plan and tell us how you cook, and we’ll suggest where the wet and dry zones should go before you commit to a layout. Or request a site measurement once you have your keys. You can see cabinet finishes at our showroom at 39 Woodlands Close, #05-21, Singapore 737856. If you’re renovating more than the kitchen, we also work as a professional kitchen renovation contractor.
Phone: +65 9750 9275· Email: sales@tse7en.com
A wet kitchen is for anything involving water, oil or smoke: washing, frying and boiling. A dry kitchen is for prep, light cooking, storage and appliances, and is usually open to the dining area.
Yes, if you fry often or have more than one person cooking. If you mostly reheat or steam, a single open kitchen with a strong hood is usually enough and costs less.
Yes, but usually as zones rather than two separate kitchens: a short wet run behind a door, and a small dry counter or tall unit outside it.
In the dry kitchen. It keeps the wet kitchen free for washing up and lets people get drinks without walking into the cooking area.
HDB doesn’t require a permit to erect gypsum board walls. Hacking any wall to create the opening does need HDB approval.
They don’t have to. Many owners use a practical, easy-to-wipe finish in the wet kitchen and a finish that matches the living room in the dry kitchen.
A wet and dry kitchen can range anywhere between $5,000 to $20,000. The total depends on the combined length of both runs plus the divider.
Usually 2 to 6 weeks from site measurement to installation, with installation itself taking 1 to 10 days depending on scope. Plus 1 days for the glass door.
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Home Blog a wet and dry kitchen splits your cooking space into two zones. The wet kitchen is where water, oil and smoke happen: the...