Custom kitchen cabinets for DC condos and high-rises: galley layouts, building rules, and what to plan for

Key takeaways

• A condo kitchen is constrained twice: by the length of the room and by the building’s rules. Both should be on the table before anyone draws the cabinets.
• Many high-rise replacements keep the existing plumbing and gas locations, because moving a sink or a range can trigger permits and a longer building review.
• Storage in a galley comes from height, drawers and a continuous run, not from adding an island the room does not have.
• Delivery and install have to be booked with management: work hours, the freight elevator, and protection from the lobby to your door.
• For a house kitchen, or a Georgetown rowhouse, start with those guides instead. This post is about kitchens in mid-rise and high-rise buildings.

A kitchen in a Washington DC condo is a different project from a kitchen in a house. The room is often a galley eight to twelve feet long. The plumbing may have to stay put. The crew has to book a freight elevator and work inside the building’s hours. This guide is for homeowners in those buildings, from Foggy Bottom and the West End to Dupont Circle and Downtown. It is not a neighborhood service page; those already exist for West End, Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle and Downtown. For how cabinets are specified more generally, see our custom kitchen cabinets guide. For a rowhouse, use the Georgetown kitchen cabinet guide.

What makes a DC condo kitchen different from a house kitchen?

A DC condo kitchen is usually a short galley in a building that controls access, hours and what may be moved inside the walls. A house kitchen can often grow an inch, shift a sink or take a longer install day; a condo kitchen usually cannot.

Three constraints show up again and again in mid-rise and high-rise buildings:

• The footprint. Many galleys run about eight to twelve feet, a length Pannello’s Foggy Bottom kitchen page uses when it describes the kitchens it draws there. There is rarely room for an island, and the opposite wall may be a living room, not another cabinet run.
• The services. Plumbing, gas and HVAC often sit in shared or hard-to-move chases. Moving a sink or a range is not a casual layout change.
• The building. Approved hours, a freight elevator reservation, corridor protection and, in some buildings, a written alteration approval all sit on the calendar before a panel is unloaded.

The design question, as Pannello’s Downtown kitchen page puts it, is density: “how many functions fit in a kitchen that runs eight or ten feet long.” That is a different brief from an open-plan suburban kitchen, and it should be priced and scheduled as one.

What should you get from the building before anyone draws the kitchen?

You should get the written renovation rules from management, and any alteration application the building uses, before the cabinet drawings are treated as final. Buildings differ, so the document from your management office is the one that matters.

Ask for, and keep on file:

• Permitted work hours and any weekend or noise limits
• How to reserve the freight elevator or loading dock, and how far in advance
• Protection requirements for the lobby, corridors and elevator
• Insurance or contractor-documentation the building wants to see
• Whether drawings, a method of procedure or board (or management) approval are required, and how long that review usually takes
• Any limits on moving plumbing, gas, electrical or ventilation
• Rules for debris removal and for leaving the common areas clean

Pannello’s West End kitchen page describes the pattern those rules often take: “approved working hours (usually 9am to 5pm weekdays), freight elevator booking through building management, floor and wall protection from lobby to front door, and a pre-construction walk with the building engineer.” The same page says, “Pannello handles all of it.” Foggy Bottom and Downtown pages describe the same kind of coordination: freight elevator reservations, approved hours and in-building protection. Ask any company, in writing, who books the elevator, who supplies the protection and who is the point of contact with management.

Planning a condo kitchen? Bring photos, rough dimensions and the building’s renovation rules to a design consultation in our Georgetown showroom. Pannello’s kitchen pages describe the visit as “90 minutes in our Georgetown showroom,” with “No quote until we have drawn your room.” Call (202) 909-0224 or book online.

Should you keep the plumbing and gas where they are?

Often yes, if a replacement in the existing footprint will give you the kitchen you want. Moving a sink or a range in a high-rise can trigger mechanical permits, a longer building review and a general contractor, which is why many condo projects are drawn to the existing locations.

Pannello’s West End kitchen page is direct: “West End kitchen replacements almost always preserve the existing plumbing and gas locations. Moving a sink or range in a West End high-rise triggers mechanical permits, building approval, and a scope of work most owners prefer to avoid.” The FAQ on that page adds that “We design to the existing infrastructure and use cabinet configuration to deliver a completely new kitchen character without triggering mechanical permits or structural modifications.”

That is not a rule for every building. If you do need to move a sink, a range or a vent, treat it as a different project. Pannello’s FAQ says that for a cabinet-only scope, with “no wall changes, no plumbing relocation, no electrical panel work,” it “manages everything from design through installation without a GC,” but that a kitchen involving “structural work, plumbing rough-in changes, or electrical upgrades” needs a general contractor to coordinate those trades. Get that line in writing for your drawings, and ask management whether a layout change is even allowed.

How do you get more storage out of a galley kitchen?

You get more storage by using the height, tightening the run and specifying drawers and tall cabinets to what you actually own, not by forcing an island into a room that cannot take one. The same ideas appear across Pannello’s condo kitchen pages, because the rooms are similar even when the addresses are not.

Design move	Why it helps in a short galley	What to ask
A tall pantry or appliance column at one end	It uses the wall’s height for food storage or a refrigerator, and frees the run for cooking	Whether the column is drawn floor to ceiling, and how it is delivered
A continuous counter to the wall	It gives a full work surface in a room that has no island	The material, the thickness and when the top is templated
Push-to-open or integrated pulls	They keep the face calm in a kitchen that is often open to the living room	Whether the hardware is specified, not left as an option
Drawers specified to what you own	A galley has little wasted space to hide a bad interior	Whether the designer asked what you cook with and what you store
Undercabinet lighting	Overhead fixtures often do a poor job in a narrow run	Whether it is plug-in or hardwired, and who pulls any permit
Integrated, panel-ready appliances	They keep the run visually continuous	Cut sheets before shop drawings are signed

Pannello’s Foggy Bottom page describes a tight galley as “integrated pantry columns at one end, a continuous counter in quartz or porcelain that runs wall to wall, push-to-open hardware so there are no visible pulls to interrupt the face, and undercabinet LED that carries the lighting load the overhead fixture cannot.” The Dupont Circle page uses the same family of moves for condo galleys. Counters in that program are part of the cabinet drawing: Pannello’s countertops service says kitchen counters “are templated with the kitchen cabinets.”

A worked example already on the site is the Connecticut Avenue condo kitchen in Dupont Circle. The project page describes a pre-war condo kitchen drawn as “one continuous wardrobe-style run: full-tall pantry on the left, integrated Sub-Zero column in the middle, paneled dishwasher and ovens on the right,” all push-to-open, and “A single Neolith porcelain counter wraps L-shaped, with a 2-inch mitered edge.” It lists “4 weeks fabrication, 4 days install.” Treat that as one published project, not a promise for every galley.

How is a condo cabinet installation scheduled and delivered?

The install has to be booked around the building, not only around the shop. That usually means a freight elevator reservation, work inside approved hours, protection from the lobby to the door, and a delivery whose panels actually fit the elevator.

Pannello’s condo kitchen pages describe the delivery as flat-panel: cabinets ship in panels, assemble in the room and take “a smaller footprint in the freight elevator than fully assembled American cabinets,” in the words of the Foggy Bottom page. The Dupont Circle page says, “Flat-panel delivery makes high-rise installs straightforward,” with deliveries timed “outside resident peak hours.” Ask any company how it measures the elevator and the path, and whether tall cabinets are designed in pieces that join in the kitchen.

On time in the unit, the Foggy Bottom and Downtown kitchen pages both say that most condo kitchen installs there “complete in two to three working days.” That is a shorter window than the “five to eight working days” Pannello’s process page and FAQ give for a full kitchen, and it should be read as the condo-galley figure those pages publish, not as a substitute for a written day count on your drawings. Our cabinet installation guide covers prep, punch lists and trade coordination in more detail. You should still plan to be without the kitchen during the install window; the FAQ states that plainly.

Do you need a city permit as well as building approval?

Building approval and a city permit are separate questions, and you may need one, both or, for a cabinet-only swap, neither from the city. The building’s yes is never a substitute for a permit the Department of Buildings requires, and a city permit does not replace the house rules.

In Washington, DC, the Department of Buildings says that for “interior renovations such as kitchen or bathroom remodeling,” the appropriate permit type is an Alteration and Repair permit. Trade permits for electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing work must be obtained by a DC master-level professional in that trade. A replacement that keeps the layout, the sink and the range may be a simpler path; a layout change is not. Confirm the scope with DOB rather than assuming. DC DOB, Alteration and Repair

For a fuller permit comparison, including what nearby counties publish about cabinet-only work, use the permit section in the cabinet installation guide. The practical step is the same in every building: get in writing who pulls any permit, and whether the building must see it before work starts.

How does Pannello approach a condo kitchen?

Pannello draws the kitchen to the existing room, fabricates it in panels that can be taken up in a freight elevator and installs it with its own crew, after the building’s rules are on the calendar. The custom kitchen cabinets service page and the condo location pages state “In-house installation · no subcontractors,” a “3 to 5 week” fabrication lead time once drawings are approved, and “no quote until we have drawn your room.”

The process page says its six stages are “the same path for a kitchen, a closet, a pantry wall, or a millwork program”: a 90-minute showroom consultation, a field measure with elevations “within seven business days,” a written specification, shop drawings reviewed “with you (and your designer or architect),” fabrication, then installation. If a designer is already on the project, Pannello’s FAQ says it will “treat the designer as the primary client when one is engaged.”

If the building, the footprint or the budget points to a different kind of shop, a good designer will say so. As the consultation page puts it: “If Pannello isn’t the right fit for your project, we’ll tell you who else to consider.”

Frequently asked questions

Can you replace a condo kitchen without moving the plumbing?

Often yes, if the existing sink and range locations will support the layout you want. Pannello’s West End kitchen page says replacements there “almost always preserve the existing plumbing and gas locations,” and that moving a sink or range “triggers mechanical permits, building approval, and a scope of work most owners prefer to avoid.” Ask your management office whether a layout change is allowed, and ask the cabinet company, in writing, whether your drawings assume the services stay put.

How long does a condo kitchen installation take?

It depends on the room and the building, so ask for a written number of working days. Pannello’s Foggy Bottom and Downtown kitchen pages say most condo kitchen installs there complete in two to three working days. The process page and FAQ give five to eight working days for a full kitchen. Fabrication is described on the kitchen pages as three to five weeks from approved drawings. Building approvals and permits can add time before that clock starts.

What should I give the cabinet designer from my building?

Give them the renovation rules, the alteration application if there is one, the permitted work hours, the freight elevator procedure and any insurance or documentation the building requires. If the building must review drawings, say so before shop drawings are treated as final. A company that has worked in your building may already know the pattern; a company that has not will still need the documents.

How do the cabinets get up to a high-rise unit?

Usually through the freight elevator, in pieces sized to fit it, then assembled in the kitchen. Pannello’s Foggy Bottom page describes this as flat-panel delivery, with floor and wall protection “from lobby to front door” and a smaller elevator footprint “than fully assembled American cabinets.” Ask any company how it measures the elevator and whether a tall pantry is designed to go up in more than one piece.

Do I need a general contractor for a condo kitchen?

Not always. Pannello’s FAQ says a cabinet-only scope, with no wall changes, plumbing relocation or electrical panel work, can be managed from design through installation without a general contractor. If the project moves plumbing, opens walls or upgrades electrical, “you will need a GC to coordinate those trades.” Some buildings also require a general contractor or a designated coordinator regardless of scope, so check the house rules.

Does a design consultation cost anything?

That varies by company, so ask when you book. Pannello’s kitchen location pages describe the visit as “90 minutes in our Georgetown showroom” and say, “No quote until we have drawn your room.” The consultation page offers the visit at no charge. Bring photos, rough dimensions and the building’s renovation rules.

Ready to talk through a condo kitchen?

Book a design consultation at our Georgetown showroom, or call (202) 909-0224. Bring photos, measurements and, if you have them, the building’s renovation rules.

Pannello Home Interiors 2201 Wisconsin Ave NW, Suite RO400, Washington, DC 20007 Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00, Sat 10:00–15:00, Sun closed Serving Washington DC, McLean, Bethesda and the surrounding area.