The kitchen is often known as the heart of a house, and it’s high time its design and style reflected the important role that it plays in our daily lives. Gone are the days when mom (or dad) would spend hours on end, slaving alone before a hot stove. It’s a new era and the kitchen is getting a new lease on life, drawing friends and family in by blending comfort and style with practicality and function.

“Nowadays people want to be together,” explains designer and manager for Conspec Kitchens, Joseph Coverley. “People want to have more of an open concept, and a kitchen that is visible from other rooms.

“I think in a lot of ways it’s our lifestyle. Parents want to come home, start making dinner and be able to watch their kids do homework — they can with a raised eating bar. The same thing if the TV is on and the kids are playing in front of it. They can be in view.”

In days gone by, traditional kitchen plans left the cook isolated, Mr. Coverley says, whereas with the new open plan they can be included.

“The other thing is, and everybody will say it, when you have company over they want to go into the kitchen and talk,” he adds. “If there is an island and the cabinetry is set up in such a way that people can stand around and chat, if there’s a place to sit, that can happen.”

When it comes to Bermuda, he feels the trend is catching on: “I think it’s something that people want, but their houses are not always laid out in a way that allows for it.

“A lot of my work is with renovations and very often I am struggling to try to make the kitchen more practical and functional. A lot of the old layouts have too many windows and doors in the wrong places. It just isn’t very practical and it’s not modern. It’s not what people like.”

Regardless of these obstacles, Mr. Coverley can still, within reason, design a kitchen to fit your lifestyle.

“I’ll work on the practical first and the function of the kitchen — the walking distance between appliances, that kind of thing,” he explains. “Then there’s going to be a sort of wish list of the customer, the appliances they want, etc. I need to know all that information.

“After the kitchen is functional I’ll start adding design, like crown moulding, your little details that make it something special.”

Remember that: function first, then design.

Where decorating is concerned, Mr. Coverley says that he and his team can help to a certain degree, but the best advice he offers his clients is to skim through magazines: “Go through and pick out pictures that you like, they don’t necessarily have to be of a kitchen either. After you’ve dog-eared those, find the common thing from each picture. It tells you what you really like, like colour scheme or furniture.”

He continues: “I did that with one client recently and from a number of different magazines the most common thing I noticed was a very flat, plain cabinet door, on every kitchen that she picked. That’s what she really liked.”

So where is all this change leading us? And where is it leading the kitchen for that matter?

“I see the kitchen becoming a part of the living room, as cabinetry can develop a more furniture-like look,” Mr. Coverley muses. “You can add a plinth at the bottom, like at the bottom of your furniture. But not to the entire kitchen, maybe just around the island.

“Glass doors that are visible to the living area help. I just had one customer, she had to have a glass door, so we ended up putting a tall cabinet on the end of the island, facing the living room that she can put all of her displays in.”

The company can even stain your kitchen cabinets to match the furniture in your family or dining room.

With that said, there are a few things that Mr. Coverley hopes anyone thinking about renovating their kitchen will remember.

“One problem I have is with fridge sizes. People having fridges shipped in from the US are often only quoted the box size. There’s still a hinge and it could be another inch or two higher,” he points out. “If I bring in a cabinet that suits the box size, there isn’t enough space. It’s best to get all the specs on your appliances, but mainly the fridge.”

If you have a gas stove, take into account there needs to be a shut-off valve next to it, so there needs to be some space either inside or beside the cabinet.

Last but not least, Mr. Coverley emphasises the importance of getting to a designer in the early stages of renovations or new construction: “As soon as you get your drawings maybe, before construction starts or before they get too far along, especially with things that are hard to change like electrical and plumbing, get your kitchen layout looked at.”