THE DESIGN DREAM IN YOUR KITCHEN

You’re a Gordon Ramsay wannabe, crafting culinary celebrations of succulent scrumptiousness that leaves your guests’ mouths watering like hunger-fuelled animals. You fry, stir, griddle and grill your way to success on a daily basis, with the surefoodedness of a Jamie Oliver/Nigella Lawson supergroup.

But while your food might be talented, you couldn’t say the same for your kitchen. Instead, it’s a mess of poorly structured worktops, lino curling up at its ends, a drought of drainage space and cupboards that can only hold two tins of beans and some pasta sauce at one time.

In short, it’s a kitchen carbuncle. Yet it doesn’t have to be that way. With a simple design revamp, you’ll find that your cooking aspirations can finally be met by your kitchen.

Mix and mats

Just have a look at the state of your flooring – cheap lino that would make aesthetes sick in their mouths, spag bol stains fossilised in its ravine-like cracks and the type of floral colouring that only a pensioner could love.

You don’t have to go to the trouble of buying a whole new roll of lino. Cover up that floral stain-ridden mess with a few kitchen mats in select places. They’ll avoid dirt by being completely machine washable, and will be cheap and cheerful to replace.

Ideal storage

You know those cupboards that heave under the weight of your storage needs? You don’t have to shell out for an entirely new kitchen as a solution.

Storage drawers or boxes can, if you’ve got the right taste, add some pizzazz to your kitchen and give you more room for your mountains of ingredients.

If you’ve got a bit of a Handy Andy complex, knock up some basic shelves in spare corners of your kitchen for smaller condiments and spices. Soon, you’ll have more space than you know what to do with.

The white stuff

Your white goods are the heart and soul of your kitchen, the make or break situation of your culinary wonders – so invest wisely.

Nowadays, the right appliances aren’t just the most powerful but the most energy efficient. So important is this to consumers, who want to save the environment and slash their bills, that all electrical appliances now come with an official energy efficiency rating.

Storage space also comes into the fray once again. Just imagine having to use a fridge the size of a small dog or an oven that can’t fit a turkey.

Naturally, these expensive items are the parts of your kitchen that’ll require the most thought. Do you want style over substance? Cheapness over quality? Efficiency over storage space? The trick is to find that balancing act and stick with it.

Just make sure your cooking matches up with your spending – you won’t be able to blame bad food on your kitchen again!