Galley kitchens inspire creativity. By aligning your entire work space along the length of one wall, you're reducing the amount of space consumed by your kitchen and allowing yourself more room for your living areas. The addition of an island is ideal for maximum work space. The kitchen, living or family room and dining areas are essentially one large room with no walls. This layout also creates the illusion of a larger home.
High ceilings can add to that effect.
If you're designing the blueprints to your dream kitchen, go ahead and sketch in your furniture, as well. Planning ahead can prevent scenarios like pulling your chair back from the table to discover that you're blocking the main passageway, the door to the backyard, the refrigerator or else. Allow yourself the flexibility of changing your furniture arrangement around at will. After all, tastes change, but layouts don't. Courtney Ronan is a freelance writer who contributes a weekly column profiling various communities.