If you’re looking to renovate your kitchen or are putting together an entirely new kitchen design, there are many things to consider. It can seem like something of an overwhelming concept, but as long as you give yourself enough time to consider all the details, while remembering the broader picture; designing your new kitchen interior doesn’t have to be the nightmare it could be.

Function

The first thing you must consider is the functionality of the kitchen. It’s very easy to get carried away with ideas as to how you want your kitchen to look and end up with the knife drawer a mile away from the stove top. Figure out how much storage and shelving space you need.  Then draw a plan of where everything in your kitchen will ideally fit. You will want your cooking utensils as near as possible to the stove, with your food cupboards as far away from it as possible to prevent accelerated spoiling of any perishables.

Consider everything you want to be in the kitchen. Will you have a dining table? Do you have space for utilities such as a washing machine and dish washer – or do you have a separate room for them elsewhere? Having established what you want, establish what you can feasibly fit into the space. You may have to make some compromises.

Look
Now you’ve given ample consideration to how everything in your kitchen is going to work, and where it’s going to go, it’s time to get involved with the fun stuff. There are innumerable options when it comes to fittings, fixtures, worktops, windows, sinks, faucets and everything else in between, but broadly speaking most kitchens fall into one of two camps: traditional or modern.

At this point, decide broadly between the two before getting involved in the details. A traditional kitchen will tend to feature kind earthy colors. They will often rely heavily on wood.  Black marble and an apron front sink is often used to create a traditional tone. As a general rule of thumb, a traditional kitchen will invoke homeliness (perhaps think of your parents’ kitchen), however with a good eye for design you can infuse your traditional kitchen with a modern twist.

By contrast, a modern kitchen will tend towards clean lines and space. Right-angles will feature much more heavily and single hole kitchen faucets will add a minimalist touch to the modern look. Colors will usually be solid blocks , often of very bold and sometimes contrasting colors. This modern red kitchen designed by interior designer group Design Interiors, located in the UK, is a great example of a modern kitchen utilizing big blocks of striking red and contrasting it with stainless steel fixtures – stainless steel sink,  faucet, oven and dishwasher.

Cost
Now that you know roughly what’s going to be in your kitchen, where it’s going to be and roughly what it’s going to look like, it’s time to think about budgets. You need to identify how much you can spend, and if possible, break it down to individual caps for each item that will be needed. If you’re new to this, this is where an interior designer can really come in handy; particularly as they will know ways of doing things cheaper if the budget requires it.

Whether or not you are hiring an interior designer, it’s important to have a good plan before you start.

Special thanks to our friends at kitchen design Sussex for the images. Please visit Design Interiors at www.design-interiors.com