Getting your measurements wrong can be a disaster, and often when it's too late to fix it. Here's how to successfully measure your kitchen.

Now that your kitchen plan is looking good, it's time to check that it will actually work in more than one dimension. That means looking at the nitty gritty measurements and drawing up an elevation (side view) of each wall, plus any appliances. This must be to scale and include the correct position of windows and any other fixture.

These are the standard measurements for an ergonomically designed kitchen. They can be adjusted up or down to suit taller or shorter cooks, but be warned - it may make it harder to sell your house or find a volunteer to wash the dishes!

• To use our heights and depths diagram effectively, use it with graph paper (1sq = 250mm), available from newsagents.