By Katherine Salant
"My kitchen is too dark." "It's claustrophobic." "There's not enough counter space." "There's plenty of counter space, but it's not in the right place." "I walk a mile every time I fix a meal because the stove, sink and refrigerator are so far apart." "There's no place for anyone to sit and talk with me while I fix a meal." "When I entertain, I don't want to be trapped in the kitchen and miss out on the conversation."
Most kitchen designers hear this litany of complaints at least once a week. 
Their clients want a kitchen that's functional. Just as important, they want one that is welcoming to guests and uplifting to the people who will use it everyday. They want big windows, plenty of light, and wall space to display their children's artwork. And, they want a kitchen that opens onto other spaces, so that whoever is cooking can participate in other family activities.
Unfortunately, some of these "must haves" come at the expense of others.
Maximum ease of meal preparation and clean up means having all the items you need, appliances, sink and food prep areas close at hand. But, having a kitchen that is welcoming, uplifting and open means shifting the storage around, often to a back wall of a kitchen where it's less convenient.
Ample room for family members to kibitz with the cook, and adequate circulation space for guests who always seem to nosh where food and drinks are being served takes up floor area that might have been allocated to counter space and food prep.
Where do you draw the line? "Trying to decide where function beats form and vice verse is hard for most people," said Chevy Chase, Md., certified kitchen designer Jennifer Gilmer.
If you find yourself in such a quandary, here are some points to consider, Gilmer said.
How much inconvenience will you accept? If you store the majority of your dishware in the wall cabinets just above your dishwasher now, for example, will you object to making more steps to retrieve them from a cabinet on the other side of the kitchen?
Are you willing to consider other ways to store things to get them close to where you need them? For example, if your kitchen is large enough, you can create a "super island" with base cabinet storage that is bookended with shallow 12-inch cabinets to hold your dishes. It's a bit unorthodox, but the dish and glassware storage would still be close to the dishwasher so it will be easy to put them away, Gilmer said.
Another sink-side possibility - a super island with drawers instead of base cabinets. It's more efficient because you don't have to open the doors and pull out the rollouts before getting something or putting it away, you just open the drawer. With full drawer extensions, you can pull the drawer all the way out and easily access the items in the back. Adding drawer insets prevents your stacked dishware from swaying and chipping and cracking when you open and shut the drawers.
An important advantage of both of these arrangements, Gilmer said, is that it is easier for younger children to get a dish when making a snack and easier for them to participate in the "taking-clean-dishes-out-of-the-dishwasher-and-putting-them-away" portion of the daily kitchen cleanup.
How much company do you really want as you cook and where do you want them? A common counter arrangement is an L-shaped counter plus an island. It feels "welcoming," and kids, pets and guests can easily flow by you around the island and out of your way. On the other hand, you might be a cook who loves company but not in your immediate work area. A U-shaped counter area with an extended counter (it can be the same level as the rest of the counter or raised) and bar stools along one side for guests and family to sit and chat might work better.
How much do you want to participate in the activity around you? In the classic kitchen plan, the sink is always on an outside wall under a window so that you can look out as you wash the dishes. But Wilmington, Del., certified kitchen designer Ellen Cheever said these days many of her clients want a sink that faces out into the surrounding area so they can join in the conversation. This sink location, which offers a commanding view of the family room area, is also a plus when you have small children who still require constant supervision.
Once you've determined where the function-welcoming divide lies for you and work out a kitchen floor plan, you're ready to zero in on cabinets and counter materials. To maximize the amount of storage you can get in your cabinets, Saline, Mich., certified kitchen designer Kerry Klages urges his clients to use frameless ones, which many kitchen designers call "full access cabinetry." With this type of cabinet, the cabinet box does not have a frame on the front. Instead the doors are hinged to the sides of the cabinet box. Without the frame, the storage is more accessible because you don't have to reach around the frame to get something, and you get more storage area.
The storage advantages for the frameless are greatest with base cabinet storage, especially with the drawer bases, Klages said. With a 24-inch wide drawer base, for example, you get 1 ˝ -inches more drawer width per drawer, which allows you to accommodate slightly bigger or awkwardly shaped pots and pans. With the narrow drawer bases, the advantages are even greater. With a 12-inch frameless drawer base, the inside width of the drawers is 9 inches. With a 12-inch framed drawer base, however, the inside width of the drawers is only 7 ˝ inches wide, useful for dishtowels, potholders, tchotchkes and not much else. For this reason, most kitchen designers do not spec a framed drawer base that is narrow than 15 inches.
With a bank of floor to ceiling cabinets, the highest ones will not be easily accessible for most homeowners. To reach them, Klages's homeowners pull out a small folding step stool, which he attaches to the back of a toe kick. Another one of Klages's handy details-a toe kick at the end of a counter or peninsula so that you can stand there more comfortably while preparing food (or just nibbling what the cook is making).
For a bank of floor-to-ceiling cabinets, Klages prefers ones that are only 12 or 13 inches deep; otherwise he said, "things get buried in there." To make finding foodstuffs easier, he installs shallow door shelves on the back of the cabinet doors and narrower 8-inch shelves in the cabinet box itself. When the situation merits a bank of 24-inch deep cabinets, he prefers ones with rollout shelves so that stored items are both "visible and accessible."
Of course, aesthetic considerations are also important, especially ones that can tie the space together. Clients can have their hearts set on seemingly incompatible materials and colors, but a carefully chosen countertop material will visually unify the space, Klages said. For example, the colored flecks in a rosa parino granite will bring together a red oak floor, white cabinets, black cabinet knobs and stainless steel appliances with black trim for a subtly harmonious effect.
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