The way you work in the kitchen needs to be thought out and planned for. One of the most functional working designs is the kitchen work triangle.

A kitchen work triangle has the kitchen sink in one tip of the triangle, the center of the cooktop or range in another tip of the triangle and the center of the refrigerator in the other tip of the triangle.

According to the National Kitchen and Bath Association the triangle formed by these appliances should total 26 feet or less for maximum efficiency.

It's also highly recommended that you don't have any appliances, cabinet doors or entries to the space block each other when you open them. If you have a kitchen island then also make sure that any appliances or doors across from the island don't hit the kitchen island when they open.

Most kitchen plans now are designed with an open space between the kitchen and the dining room and quite often include the family room as well all as one great room.

This allows the cook to be connected to everyone while working in the kitchen and is a more social and intimate space use and is a more desirable trend in kitchen designs these days.

When you have the kitchen and dining area or dining room and even the family room all in one big space a great way to visually designate the different areas is through the use of color and ceiling height.

Having slightly separate tone on tone colors that vary slightly but are still in the same color family can help achieve this or even choosing colors that are not in the same color family but yet are still complimentary can also work out quite well too.

Another option in your remodel is to have the kitchen ceiling a little higher than the dining area. Dining is a more intimate activity and having the ceiling a little lower can create that cozy intimate feeling where as in the kitchen there is a lot of movement and activity going on and the more spacious it feels the more comfortable it will feel to move around in it.

Having higher ceilings creates the illusion that the space is larger so having higher ceilings in the kitchen is something you might consider.