The dishwasher should preferably be close to both sink and china storage so you can unload and put away in one motion. You will frequently be taking ingredients in and out of the fridge for preparation or cooking with, so you need a work surface with easy access to both cooker and fridge. And you will need to drain cooked food at almost every meal, so the sink needs to be no more than a step or so away from the cooker or you will be lugging around potentially dangerous pots of boiling water this is especially bad news with children around.

The other factor to consider is sociability. The style of kitchen where all the work is done facing the wall, with your back to the room, can be frustrating if you want to keep an eye on children or enter into the conversation, and this is why the central island has become so popular in recent years. Some people fit sinks or hobs onto central islands, and most have a chopping area, which means that chopping, cooking or washing-up can go on while the cook is facing the room. In a traditional kitchen, there would always have been a large table in the centre for food preparation. So now, where there isn’t space for a table, a small central island can provide a valuable staging post. It is also always useful for extra Storage, both under the surface or above.

The core of the perfect kitchen is a well-planned layout. More than any other room in the house, the kitchen represents a big investment, so you will want something you can live with for a long time. Equally, however, tastes change, and there will be times when you feel tempted to rip it all out and start again. Fortunately, you can, in a sense, do both. Well-designed kitchens have the flexibility to look completely different without having to replace any of the major items, simply by painting woodwork and changing accessories such as blinds, curtains and collections. And if you have moved into a house where the kitchen is fundamentally sound, but not to your taste, it’s worth thinking carefully about what really needs changing and how you could make the rest more visually attractive before spending thousands on a completely new Set-up. For a half-way-house compromise, look into changing the doors of the cupboards. There are several companies who specialize in doing this, and for a comparatively small amount of money, the whole feel of your kitchen can be changed.