What is an open kitchen?

An open kitchen removes the wall between the kitchen and the living and dining area, joining cooking and living into one connected, bright space. The upside is light, a larger feel and being able to cook with the family around; the things to think through are oil smoke, noise and the gas rules.

Can you use gas in an open kitchen in Hong Kong?

Not always. It depends on the flat's approved plans, not just the walls. A kitchen originally designed enclosed for gas usually loses eligibility once the wall and fire door are removed, so many open-kitchen flats must use induction; but a flat sold as an approved open kitchen with proper ventilation and fire-safety provisions can keep town gas. Before committing to an open kitchen, confirm with your building management and authorised person whether your flat is actually allowed gas.

How do you reduce oil smoke in an open kitchen?

A powerful extractor hood and a well-planned ventilation route are key. If you cook on high heat often, consider a semi-open design with a glass sliding partition that stays open day to day and closes to contain smoke while cooking, keeping both openness and practicality.

Is an open kitchen good for a small Hong Kong flat?

Often, yes. Removing the kitchen wall brings in more daylight and makes the space read much larger. The keys are good extraction, using an island or sliding partition as a soft divider, and enough storage to keep the kitchen tidy.

How do you keep an open kitchen tidy?

Because it is always in view, make storage more generous: tall cabinets to the ceiling, integrated appliances, and pull-out baskets and fitted interiors that keep clutter behind doors, with the worktop kept clear. A good open kitchen is defined by how completely it tidies away.

Open Kitchen Design Hong Kong: Pros & Gas Rules

An open kitchen is increasingly popular in Hong Kong: take down the wall between the kitchen and the living and dining area, and cooking, eating and living flow into one bright, connected space. It brings in light, makes a flat feel larger, and keeps whoever is cooking part of the room rather than shut away. But an open kitchen in Hong Kong comes with real considerations: oil smoke, noise, and most importantly the gas and fire-safety rules. This guide explains what an open kitchen gives you and what to think through, with a real island open kitchen from one of our projects as the example.

What an open kitchen is, and why it suits Hong Kong flats

An open kitchen removes the partition between the kitchen and the living and dining area, so the cooking zone and the living zone become one connected space. Most Hong Kong flats are tight, and a kitchen wall chops the space up and blocks light. Open it up and daylight reaches deep into the home, the flat reads far larger, and the cook is no longer boxed into a small galley but can talk to the family while cooking. For a small flat, that sense of openness is often worth more than one more wall.

Open kitchen in a Hong Kong flat with the partition removed, daylight reaching from the living area into the cooking zone — Removing the kitchen wall lets daylight reach deep into the flat and the cook stay part of the room.

The trade-off: openness versus oil smoke and noise

The real cost of an open kitchen is oil smoke and noise. Without the wall, the smoke from Chinese high-heat cooking drifts into the living room, and there is nothing to muffle the extractor or the fridge. So a fully open kitchen does not suit every household. If you cook on high heat often, we suggest a semi-open layout: a glass sliding partition that stays open for everyday flow and closes to contain smoke while you cook, giving you both. A powerful extractor hood and a well-planned ventilation route are what make or break an open kitchen.

Semi-open Hong Kong kitchen with a glass sliding partition that closes to contain cooking smoke and opens for everyday flow — A glass sliding partition stays open for everyday flow and closes to contain smoke while you cook.

Gas or induction: the Hong Kong fire-safety question

This is the point many people miss: in Hong Kong, a lot of flats with an open kitchen are not permitted to use town gas and must switch to induction, for fire safety. Whether a flat keeps a gas hob depends on its approved building plans and fire-safety provisions, not simply on having a wall. A kitchen originally designed as an enclosed, gas-ready room usually loses gas eligibility once that wall and fire door are removed, and many such flats then move to an induction (IH) hob; a flat sold as an approved open kitchen, with an openable window, ventilation and the developer's fire-safety package, can keep town gas in an open layout. That affects how you cook and your appliance budget, so before committing to an open kitchen, always confirm with your building management, the authorised person and your design team whether your specific flat is actually allowed gas. We check this for you at the measuring stage.

The island as a natural boundary

Open does not mean boundaryless. An island is often the best soft divider there is. One side of the island handles cooking and the sink, the other becomes a breakfast bar, separating the kitchen from the living and dining area without blocking light or sightlines. Below it sits a lot of storage, and the worktop serves for prep, homework and entertaining. If the flat has room for one, an island is just about the most worthwhile thing you can invest in for an open kitchen.

Stone-topped kitchen island in an open Hong Kong layout, cooking and sink on one side, breakfast bar seating on the other — An island divides the kitchen from the living area without blocking light or sightlines.

Storage: because it is on show, it has to be complete

An open kitchen is almost always in view, so its storage has to be more generous and more hidden than a conventional kitchen. We run tall cabinets to the ceiling and integrate the appliances, building the oven, fridge and microwave into the joinery so the worktop stays clear. Pull-out baskets and fitted interiors keep clutter behind doors. Whether an open kitchen looks good often comes down less to how the worktop is styled and more to how completely everything can be tidied away.

Open Hong Kong kitchen with tall handleless cabinets to the ceiling and integrated appliances keeping the worktop clear — Tall cabinets to the ceiling and integrated appliances keep an on-show kitchen reading tidy.

A real example: the island open kitchen at Tin Hau Temple Road

One of our Tin Hau Temple Road projects is a textbook open layout. A large island faces the dining and living area, cooking, eating and living run in one line, and daylight from the big windows reaches right into the kitchen. One side of the island is the cooking and stone worktop, the other seats people at the bar; tall cabinets run to the ceiling and tuck the appliances and clutter away, so even though the whole kitchen is on show, it still reads tidy. That is what a well-done open kitchen looks like: open and bright, but able to be put in order.