The kitchen design process in Cyprus, stage by stage

A kitchen is the one room in a Cypriot property where the design has to be finished before anything is ordered, because almost every decision in it is locked to a service: where the waste can fall, where a duct reaches open air, what the electrical supply will carry, and whether the hob runs on bottled gas from the service balcony. Choosing doors and worktops first, which is how most kitchens start, produces the same outcome every time — a scheme redrawn once someone opens the cupboard under the sink.

Overview and timeline

The sequence is fixed: survey and services check, brief and layout, appliance schedule, joinery drawings, costing and procurement, strip-out and first fix, wet trades, carcass installation, worktop template, worktop fit and second fix, snagging. Nothing in it is optional, and one stage has no substitute for waiting — the worktop template.

What sets the programme is not the size of the kitchen but how much moves. A replacement kitchen on existing service positions runs on lead times alone. Move the sink, add an induction hob or duct a new hood, and the electrical, plumbing and builder's work all come in front of the units, so the dusty trades have to finish before anything final arrives. If the job extends to an opening, the facade or the structure, it is not a fit-out at all: that is a planning matter for the Department of Town Planning and Housing, with structural design signed by a professional on the ETEK register, and the approval sits outside the contractor's programme.

Building stock predicts which case applies. In the 1970s to 1990s apartment blocks of Strovolos and the surrounding Nicosia suburbs, rewiring and replumbing dominate renovation work, and the kitchen is where that surfaces — a kitchen project in that stock is usually an electrical project wearing new doors. In the newer high-rise stock along the Limassol coast, where balcony waterproofing and facade maintenance are handled at building level, the constraint is the external wall: a new extract penetration is a common-property question before it is a design one.

Before starting

Five things belong ahead of the first drawing. Each can invalidate a layout that has already been agreed.

Find the waste and its fall. Kitchen waste in a Cypriot flat normally runs to a stack on or near the service balcony, and the stack does not move. A sink can travel only as far as the fall across the floor allows before the run needs building up or the slab needs chasing. That single measurement decides whether an island with a sink is possible.

Check the electrical supply, not just the sockets. An induction hob and an electric oven together want a dedicated high-current circuit and spare capacity at the board, and older apartment consumer units frequently have neither. A new or altered installation also has to be certified by a licensed electrician before the Electricity Authority of Cyprus will energise it.

Decide gas or electric early. Many Cypriot kitchens run a hob on bottled gas kept on the service balcony, with the regulator and pipe run fixed to that position. Switching to induction removes the bottle and adds a circuit; keeping gas ties the hob position to the bottle location.

Establish the extract route. Where the duct leaves the building, its diameter, and who owns the wall it passes through. In an apartment the facade is usually common property, so this carries a committee timeline of its own.

Separate the three budgets. Design and specification, units and appliances with their fitting, and fitting labour alone where units are client-supplied. Quotes that merge them are the ones that turn into arguments.

The stages in order

1. Measured survey and services check

   Dimensions, ceiling height, window and door positions, the incoming water and the waste stack, the electrical board and its spare ways, the gas bottle position, and every candidate route for the extract duct. Photograph what is behind the units before they come out, not after.

2. Brief and layout

   How many cook at once, what is cooked, whether an outdoor kitchen takes the frying, and an honest audit of what is currently stored. Layouts are tested against the survey rather than against a showroom plan. Visualisation is decided here, and it is priced per image, so the number of views is a budget decision to take deliberately.

3. Appliance schedule locked

   Every appliance named with its model, dimensions, service requirement and door swing, before any joinery is drawn. Appliances set the widths of the runs, and a later substitution is the most common cause of a unit that no longer fits.

4. Joinery and worktop specification

   Carcass material, drawer runners and hinges, whether fronts are sprayed or foil-wrapped, handle or handleless, and the worktop material with thickness, edge profile and cut-outs. Fitted joinery is quoted by the linear metre, and these decisions rather than overall length move the figure.

   Custom joinery, Cyprus

   Work	Indicative range	Midpoint	Published sources
   FurnitureBudget for furnishing a two-bedroom apartment in Cyprus from empty, covering living area, bedrooms and dining. Low end is a basics-only fit-out from value retailers; the mid figure is the budget cited for a comfortable mid-range setup in Limassol or Paphos. Delivery is quoted separately at €50–150 to the main cities and up to €300 to Paphos and Troodos, with assembly at €100–500.	€8,000–€20,000per 2-bedroom apartment	€15,000	Cyprus Sunset — guide to furniture stores and interior design in Cyprus (€8,000 basics to €20,000 mid-range for a two-bedroom, €15,000 standard budget)read 2026-08-02

   Indicative range compiled from published sources, not a quote. It shows the level those sources report for this kind of work, not what your job costs. Only a site visit and a written quote for your actual scope produce a real figure. Sources compiled 2026-08-02.

5. Costing and procurement

   Quotes taken against the specification, not a description. Imported appliances and slab materials arrive in batches, so the longest-lead item sets the installation date for everything behind it, and stone or porcelain is reserved from one batch in full.

6. Strip-out and first fix

   Old units out, then plumbing, electrical, gas and ducting in their new positions, then plaster repair. The loud, dusty block, cheapest run as one continuous phase rather than spread across the programme.

7. Wet trades and floor

   Screed, floor and tiled areas laid and cured before carcasses arrive. Fitting units onto an unfinished floor is how appliance heights end up wrong and how a dishwasher stops coming out of its housing.

8. Carcass installation

   Units levelled and fixed, services connected as far as they can be, and the run left ready to be measured. Nothing is final except the positions.

9. Worktop template and fabrication

   The template is taken from the installed carcasses, then the slab is cut off site. That gap is where the household lives without a worktop. Sink type, tap holes, drainer grooves and upstands are confirmed at template, and changing them afterwards means a new slab.

10. Worktop fit, second fix and handover

    Worktop in, sink and hob connected, splashback, appliances commissioned, electrical certification issued, then a walk-through against the specification with a dated defects list and a note of which finishes need attention.

Where projects usually slip

The consumer unit. In older apartment stock the discovery that there is no spare capacity for an induction hob arrives after the appliances are ordered. At survey stage it is a budget line; after strip-out it is a delay, because the board work and its certification have to be scheduled around the rest of the job.

The waste fall. Sink positions get agreed on a plan and then meet the floor. Where the fall cannot be achieved the options are a raised build-up under the run, chasing the slab, or moving the sink back — all of which change the layout that was signed.

The extract route. In Limassol high-rise stock and in any managed block, a new facade penetration needs the committee's agreement, and that consent runs on its own calendar rather than the contractor's.

Appliance substitution after template. A model swapped for availability almost always differs in width, depth or door swing. After the worktop is templated, the cheapest correction is usually a different appliance rather than a different worktop.

Distance and access. Work in Polis Chrysochous carries travel time inside most quoted day rates, since the contractor base is in Paphos. That appears as a higher rate rather than a separate line, which is worth knowing when quotes from two districts are compared.

Season. In holiday-let stock around Protaras, refurbishment windows between bookings are short, and a kitchen with a worktop template gap in the middle of it does not compress. Schedule the whole sequence inside the closed period rather than assuming the fitting week is the whole job.

What is signed off

A kitchen package should be specific enough that the finished room can be checked against it. That means a plan and elevations with unit widths and appliance positions; an appliance schedule naming models with dimensions and service requirements; an electrical layout showing circuits, sockets and switch positions, and who issues the installation certificate; a plumbing and waste layout showing the run and its fall; an extract route with duct diameter and the external termination; a unit schedule stating carcass material, front finish and ironmongery; a worktop specification with material, thickness, edge and every cut-out; a programme that shows the template gap as its own line; and a written variation procedure so a change agreed on site carries a cost and a date before it is built.

Three things are worth reading for specifically. Whether making good — chasing, plastering and repainting after first fix — is inside the price or outside it. Whether the electrical certification is included and named. And what happens if a scheduled appliance becomes unavailable, because that clause decides who pays for the substitution.

The kitchen design section on this site covers the layout and material decisions behind these stages, the services pages set out where the fit-out scope boundary falls, and the area pages deal with how building stock, access and contractor supply differ by district.

Common questions

Is a permit needed for kitchen design in Cyprus?

Not for units, worktops, appliances, finishes or lighting fittings — that is a fit-out. A permit becomes relevant when an opening changes size, the facade is altered or anything structural is touched, which is a matter for the Department of Town Planning and Housing with structural design signed by a professional on the ETEK register. Separately, altered electrical work needs certification by a licensed electrician before the supply is energised, and in an apartment the facade and balconies are normally common property, so the management committee is a further consent.

How long does kitchen design take in Cyprus?

Less about the room than about what moves. A replacement kitchen on existing service positions runs on lead times. Moving services adds first fix, wet trades and making good in front of the units. On top of either sits the worktop template gap, which cannot be compressed because the slab is cut from the installed carcasses. Any work touching openings or structure also inherits an approval timeline the contractor does not control.

What does a kitchen designer need from the client?

An appliance list rather than an appliance idea, a realistic account of how the kitchen is cooked in, the electrical board and its spare capacity, whether the hob is gas or electric now, and access to the space behind the existing units. The more of that is available at survey, the fewer redraws are billed later.

Can the kitchen be used during the work?

Not through first fix and not through the template gap. The usual arrangement is a temporary run with a kettle, a microwave and a fridge in another room, and in houses with a covered outdoor kitchen that is where the household relocates. Planning that in advance is cheaper than discovering it on the first morning.

Is it worth paying for the design separately from the units?

The design fee is charged per project and does not include the units, which makes it look like an addition when it is usually a subtraction. It is what catches the appliance that does not fit, the hob with no duct route, the sink the waste cannot reach and the slab that cannot be delivered — each of which costs more to find after the order than before it.