Some of the first activities every one of us does when we wake up in the morning are done in the kitchen - preparing your breakfast, having coffee, and starting the day. This is where we spend a lot of our early morning hours preparing and sharing meals, and even our lives. This is the heart of our home.

There's no question why we should carefully plan what we want for our kitchen. So how DO we choose? Some of these hints and information should be helpful in this task and hopefully, we can come up with a design that suits both your taste and your necessity.

Before you start filling in your shopping list for your kitchen with all the nicest things, you should have set a budget for everything. Set limits on each spending and try to work around these limits. A typical breakdown of costs usually show 40% of the budget goes to cabinets. Installation, appliances, and countertops eat up around 15% each, while the rest is spent on design fees, flooring, fixtures and fittings, and others.

Cabinets should be given the highest priority among all the other parts of the kitchen when it comes to planning. Cabinets more or less define the character of the area as it occupies the majority of the walls around the kitchen. It also is, by far, the most costly component, as it can consume almost half of your kitchen budget, and we're talking large amounts of money!

When planning for cabinets, you should keep in mind both its appearance and its function. Choose a set that works well for you - has enough storage room to tidy up your place, provides easy access to everything, and at the same time satisfies your taste in terms of texture, dimensions, color, and its general visual effect on the room. Remember that the kitchen is your place in the house where you will be spending a lot of time in and you wouldn't want a mismatched or unsatisfactory set of cabinets greeting you on a daily basis.

Though it costs generally less than cabinets, other items in the kitchen should also follow the same philosophy - choose those that would suit your taste while serving its purpose well. Countertops, appliances, flooring, etc. - all these, when selected properly, can greatly add to the aesthetics and function of the kitchen without the added risk of future problems regarding these things.

Once you have everything in your bag, you should know which goes where. The layout of your kitchen is as critical as your budget because it spells the difference between a maximized kitchen area and a collection of idle spaces. You can use and play around with a number of common plans for your kitchen, each one conforming to the arrangement of adjacent rooms.

L-shape

U-shape

Galley

An imaginary triangle, called the work triangle, is a guide for most designers for arranging and making the plan of your kitchen. This triangle measures the distances between the sink, the range, and the refrigerator. It is desirable to make this as small as possible, which sides usually range from 1.3 to 2.6 meters (4 to 8 ft) in length, to lessen the distance between these stations and limit drips around the floor. Islands also help in shortening these distances while providing additional storage room and working surface. You can place your cooktop, or possibly your sink, here, or maybe even turn it into a small dining area. Modern kitchens, however, require the aid of more than the work triangle. New appliances as key as these three are becoming available to us and demand to be considered in the layout of the room. You just have to be creative with it or use a little imagination to create a perfect layout for the set of items you have on hand.

Another similarly important aspect in the design of the kitchen is the lighting. Surely, you have all the appropriate appliances and cabinets in your kitchen, but strategic placement of lighting around the room would greatly add to its effectiveness and aesthetics.

Consider the floor plan in your choice of lighting, as well as the different tasks you will be doing here, whether cooking, dining or maybe even reading your cookbooks. You should have enough lighting to perform these tasks safe and well.

Consider also the colors and textures in the room. Plan on which types of lighting is appropriate for the different surfaces. Different hues and textures reflect different amounts of light. Light-colored cabinets reflect more light and will need less lighting than dark-colored cabinets. Higher ceilings and taller cabinets will also need more lighting and should be considered in planning.

Now select which types of lighting go where. Ambient, or general lighting fills the room with sufficient illumination. Windows should be considered when planning for the general lighting as well.

Task lighting are used in specific areas where you will need more lighting to reduce the risk of injury and for tasks that require careful attention. Work areas, cooktops, and sinks are some of the areas that require this type of lighting.

Some kitchens have features that you'd want to give more focus to - glass collections, statuettes and figurines, paintings, - whatever items that give your kitchen its character. Accent lightings are strategically positioned and controlled to provide the amount of lighting each object demands.

Decorative lighting in itself adds to the features of the kitchen. It can be a chandelier, a set of glowing vases, or whatever kind of lighting that gives attention to itself, rather than just illuminating an area.