Get the right ingredients to cook up a kitchen

You’ll find planning is essential when it comes to designing the room that is the busiest hub of your house

The kitchen is the heart of your home. If there’s one room that’s really worth getting right, this is First and foremost: spend time planning it. If you get this part right, everything else is more likely to fall into place. Rush things and get them wrong it. and you’ll spend years living with a layout that isn’t ideal.

Most major DIY stores and kitchen specialists offer a free computer design service. This allows you to put in the shape and dimensions of your room and play around with different layouts until you find the one that suits you best. It’s well worth taking the time to experiment until you find the right design.

Work out how much you can afford and spend the budget wisely. You can get away with scrimping on cabinets but make sure the work surface is as good as you can afford: you want something that will look great, be durable and is easy to clean.

Even if you’re a Luddite, the kitchen is the best place in the home to embrace technology, especially lighting. Modern LEDs can do wonders to create atmosphere, from dimmable ceiling lights to under-cupboard units and even floor-level LED strips. Good lighting enhances a room dramatically and modern LEDs cost buttons to run.

Underfloor heating works well in tiled kitchens, creating an even heat distribution. Work out where you’re most likely to put the kettle, blender, coffee maker and other gadgets so you can locate sockets in the right place.

Make sure you’ve built in enough free workspace, with some clear space close to the cooker – you don’t want to have to walk across the room to put every chopped onion into the pan.

Most major DIY stores and kitchen specialists offer a free computer design service allowing you to get your kitchen just right.