1. Decide upon and stick to your budget. Don?t just pick one figure, pick a bottom and absolute top figure before you do anything else.

2. Do you really need to buy a new kitchen or could you get away with replacing small part of it? The general rule is that if you just want to freshen up, your local home improvement store will stock replacement cupboard doors and work surfaces. If your kitchen is looking very tired or out of date, or it is not as easy to work in as you would like, or you are looking to sell your home in the near future, get a designer in.

3. What do you like about your kitchen? What do you hate? The answers to these questions can bring enlightenment to what your new kitchen needs.

4. An images collage taken from magazines and the internet will help designers understand what style of kitchen you are looking for.

5. Plan your kitchen according to your lifestyle. Keep this also in mind when planning your storage. Do you eat in your kitchen or is it just for cooking? Is your kitchen the social meeting point in your home? Who will use it?

6. Where possible, plan to keep power and water supply points as they are as moving them is a major part of renovation costs.

7. For ventilation point placement See tip number 6 .

8. Try and group different functions together. For example your cooker, utensils and food storage in one place, your eating place and condiment storage in another and your dishes, pots and pans and dishwashing facilities elsewhere. This will save you energy and time.

9. In a small and or narrow kitchen you can create more space by making the wall-cabinets taller rather than having them protruding outwards. You will create more headspace and the kitchen will look wider.

10. When it comes to storage, think about reducing clutter; Does that kitchen draw really need to be full of non-essential items or could you store it elsewhere in your home?

11. Think long term: Building a new kitchen is a major expense so make sure that you consider the wow factor. Ask your kitchen designer what other customers are buying that they weren?t buying a few years ago, including equipment and gadgets. A kitchen with the wow factor can easily add up to 10% to the asking price for a home and or make it a more attractive proposition in a competitive market.

12. Consider trends: the Starbucks generation love gadgets and having a built in coffee making machine could be what gives your kitchen the wow factor. We all want a kitchen that takes less time to clean, less time to cook, offers more storage and uses less energy and water: so take a look around the internet for new kitchen appliances and gadgets ideas.

13. Easily replaceable features will make it less expensive to update the look of your kitchen in the years to come. So spending more on the strength and durability of your kitchen framework now will often pay dividends if it?s simply a matter of replacing work surfaces and cupboard doors every decade or so.

14. Go green ? you won?t regret it. Ask your kitchen designer how you can save energy and water in your kitchen. Not only will the help the environment but also you will save money on your utility bills AND have an attractive feature for any future potential home buyer.

15. Can you get a grant for making your kitchen greener? Ask around!