HDB Interior Design Singapore: Open Kitchen Pros and Cons

The open kitchen is the most requested move in HDB interior design Singapore projects right now, and new BTO kitchens are handed over induction-ready, which makes it easier than it was ten years ago. HDB allows open-concept kitchens. The real question is whether your cooking habits and your flat's wall layout can carry the design.

What HDB actually allows, and what it does not

Open-concept kitchens are permitted in HDB flats. What is not permitted is hacking structural elements. Load-bearing walls, beams, columns and slabs stay. Many kitchen walls in HDB flats are non-structural infill, but plenty are not, and the only way to know is to check the approved structural drawings for your block before you draw the design.

Two more constraints shape the job:

• Your renovation must be done by an HDB Licensed Renovation Contractor from the Directory of Renovation Contractors, and a renovation permit must be approved before works begin. Processing takes about two weeks, and any wall removal will be listed in that application.
• If you keep gas, the installation follows SP and SCDF requirements, and gas works are handled by the authorised party, not your carpenter. Newer BTO kitchens are induction-ready, so many owners drop gas entirely and gain a cleaner counter run.

Hacking is noisy work, so it happens on weekdays between 9am and 6pm only. No hacking on Sundays or public holidays.

The genuine advantages in HDB interior design terms

In a 4-room flat of about 90 sqm, the kitchen wall usually separates two rooms that are each slightly too small. Removing it gives you one room that works.

• Usable counter length goes up. A peninsula built where the wall stood typically adds 1.8 to 2.4 metres of worktop and a run of base cabinets facing the living room. That is where the microwave, the air fryer and the coffee setup finally get a home.
• Daylight travels further. Most HDB kitchens have the service yard window. Take down the wall and that light reaches the dining area, which cuts the hours you run artificial lighting.




• The flat reads larger without gaining a square metre. A 3-room flat at 60 to 65 sqm benefits most, because the closed kitchen there is often under 6 sqm and feels like a corridor.
• Supervision improves. If you have young children, cooking while watching the living room is a practical daily gain.
• Dining seating comes free. A peninsula with a 300mm overhang seats two or three on stools, which lets you delete a bulky dining table in a small flat.

The real costs nobody mentions in the showroom

I have redone enough open kitchens to know where the regret comes from.

• Oil migration. Wok frying at high heat throws aerosolised oil well beyond the hob. Without a partition, that film lands on your sofa fabric, TV console and ceiling. You will feel it within three months.
• Noise carries. A range hood on boost, an extractor and a blender in an open plan makes the living room unusable for a call.
• Mess is permanent theatre. A closed kitchen lets you shut the door on unwashed pots. An open one does not, so your counter has to stay tidy every day.
• Storage drops. The wall you removed was holding wall cabinets. Losing 2.4 metres of upper cabinets removes roughly 0.7 cubic metres of storage that must be rebuilt elsewhere.
• Resale appeal narrows slightly. Buyers who cook Chinese food daily will price in rebuilding the wall.

None of this is a reason to avoid the design. It is a reason to design it properly.

How to build a semi-open kitchen that solves both problems

The version I recommend most often is a half-open kitchen with a closable wet zone. Here is the method.

1. Confirm the wall is non-structural against the block's structural drawings. If any part of it is a column or beam, keep that portion and turn it into a full-height pantry cabinet so it reads as intentional.
2. Split the kitchen into a dry zone and a wet zone. Dry zone faces the living room and holds the sink, prep counter, fridge, oven and small appliances. Wet zone sits at the far end with the hob and hood, closest to the existing service yard window.




3. Install a top-hung glass sliding partition between the two zones. Top-hung means no floor track, so the floor finish runs continuously and you do not sweep grit out of a channel. Use 10mm tempered clear or fluted glass with an aluminium frame.
4. Size the opening to at least 1.8 metres clear so the kitchen feels open when the panels are stacked, and specify soft-close on the track.
5. Put the hood on a dedicated circuit and size it properly. For a closable wet zone of around 4 to 5 sqm, a hood rated around 1,200 to 1,500 cubic metres per hour handles heavy frying. Duct it to the existing exhaust point rather than recirculating.
6. Build the peninsula at 900mm counter height with a 100mm upstand on the kitchen side. The upstand stops water and crumbs from sliding into the living room.
7. Specify quartz or solid surface for the counter. Quartz at 20mm handles daily knocks in the peninsula edge better than thinner stone.
8. Recover the lost upper storage. Add a 300mm pull-out pantry beside the fridge, run tall cabinets to the ceiling on the remaining wall, and use full-extension drawers instead of shelves in every base cabinet.
9. Plan the electrical before tiling. Count your appliances, then add four spare points along the peninsula at 1,100mm height. Sockets on the peninsula face, not the top.
10. Light the counter separately. Under-cabinet LED strips at around 4000K on their own switch, so you can cook without lighting the whole living room.

Budget-wise, taking down a non-structural kitchen wall, making good the floor and ceiling, and building a peninsula with a glass partition commonly adds S$6,000 to S$12,000 to a renovation. That sits inside the usual market range of S$30,000 to S$45,000 for a 4-room BTO and S$50,000 to S$70,000 for a comparable resale flat.

Who should keep a closed kitchen

Be honest about how you cook. Keep the wall, or use solid doors instead of glass, if you fry with a wok more than three times a week, if you steam and braise daily and generate heavy steam, or if someone in the household works from the dining table during dinner prep. In a 5-room flat at around 110 sqm, you can afford a fully closed kitchen plus a separate dry pantry facing the dining area, which gives you the open feeling with none of the oil.

One more layout note. If your flat is a newer BTO with a balcony, do not plan to push the kitchen out there. HDB does not allow the balcony to be enclosed, so it cannot become conditioned kitchen space. Use it for a herb rack and a drying zone instead, and keep the kitchen inside the original envelope.

An open kitchen works when the storage you removed is rebuilt somewhere else, the ventilation is sized for how you actually cook, and the electrical plan was drawn before the tiler arrived. That level of coordination is hard to get from separate trades quoting separate scopes. With whole-house customization, the peninsula, the pantry pull-out, the partition track and the socket heights are drawn on one plan and produced to the measurements of your actual flat after hacking. If you are weighing this decision, walk your current kitchen at dinner time and count how many times you would want that partition closed. The answer tells you which version to build.