Making the most of your food preparation area

There has never been a better time to test your skills in the kitchen. With the abundance of ingredients now available, plenty of recipes and advice online and gadgets galore to aid your foodie efforts, you should be able to create edible masterpieces. However, to cook up a storm you need a well designed and finished kitchen. If you think your food preparation area could do with a revamp, take heed of the following advice.

Make sure your worktops are up-to-scratch

Firstly, you�ll need a worktop, and a good quality one at that. Having a stable surface to slice and dice on is crucial if you�re to impress with your culinary concoctions. Timber versions are among the best in terms of appearance and practicality. Firms like Worktop Express offer a host of products in timbers such as oak, walnut, bamboo, iroko, beech, wenge and ash.

When you�re ordering your wooden kitchen worktops, make sure you purchase enough for your food prep zone. For example, if you tend to share your kitchen, you�ll need enough surface space to accommodate everyone.

If you don�t have enough room along your walls, it�s worth considering adding an island unit to the middle of your kitchen. This will give you extra work space.

Create an effective work triangle

You might often hear the term �work triangle� come up in reference to kitchen planning. This refers to your cooker top, sink and fridge. The received wisdom is that these objects should be in close, but not too close, proximity to each other. Experts suggest this can help you to work more efficiently.

This makes sense. After all, you don�t want everything to be crammed together because this could make cooking awkward. At the same time, it�s important that these important elements are close enough to ensure that you don�t find yourself constantly dashing from one end of your kitchen to the other.

Incorporate plenty of storage

Plenty of storage is a must in kitchens. You�ll need somewhere to stow all your cutlery, crockery, glassware, pans and food. It�s also handy to have homes for all the gadgets you use when preparing your dishes.

Rotating corner units and full-height shelving or cabinets can help you to take full advantage of all the available space. You can add special organisers to these units to enable you to keep all your items in order as well. By ensuring your cabinets are neat and tidy, you�ll avoid those dreaded cooking panics when you can�t find the vital ingredient or piece of kit to complete a dish.

Install effective lighting

Last but by no means least, think about your lighting. There is an impressive selection of lighting products to choose from these days, meaning you shouldn�t struggle to find the ideal solutions for your kitchen. As well as ceiling lights, it�s important to have cooker top and under cabinet lights. This will ensure you can see exactly what you�re doing when you�re busy preparing food. Whether you�re stirring stews or chopping chillies, you�ll benefit from the ideal level of illumination.

If your food preparation area doubles up as a dining space, make sure you can change the ambiance of the room with a few lighting adjustments. For example, it�s worth fitting your main lights with dimmer switches so you enjoy intimate dinners with loved ones without the full glare of bright lighting to contend with.

By following simple design principles like these, you should be able to make the very most of your kitchen. In turn, this will help you to turn out dish after dish of sumptuous food.