Understanding how you work in and use your kitchen is a key factor in the design.

With your floor plan drawn up it's time to look at how to mix up the ingredients in your kitchen in a way that will deliver the best working results.

Start by looking at the way work flows in a kitchen. This will provide the most efficient workspace for the cook. Only CDs are meant to run around in circles!

Work should flow in one smooth circle with no interruption from outside sources. Trying to get a hot casserole out of the oven while the kids are flying out the back door nearby isn't a good scenario.

An even simpler way to arrange workflow is by grouping essential functions into separate workstations and making sure that the pattern obtained fits the kitchen work triangle:

The distance between each point of the triange should add up to no more than 7 metres, otherwise the cook will need to wear jogging shoes!

Safety
The kitchen is the most accident-prone area in the whole house, so you need to think carefully about safety. Avoid such things as placing a cooking appliance near a doorway, under a window or in a corner where it's hard to reach.

Provide bench space on both sides of a cooktop, as well as to at least one side of a wall oven. Try to keep the cooking area (cooker, sink, preparation, bench) separate from the snack station (food, storage, fridge).