Often referred to at the heart of the home, the kitchen is fast becoming the room where we carry out many of our day-to-day activities, from cooking and cleaning to socialising with friends and helping the kids with their homework.

Therefore, it is important that our interior design reflects this. Over the past few years open-plan living has become increasingly popular in stylish properties across the UK, and is a great way to maximise space in your home.

"There is a lot more emphasis nowadays on the kitchen being part of the living area - it needs to integrate well with other living spaces in an open-plan design," says Gideon Wegh, director of Docauk.com.

"Our kitchens these days are much more visible, they are no longer tucked away in a room of their own."

Which means it's out with pokey cramped kitchens hidden away at the back of the house, and in with large spacious living areas that all the family can enjoy together.

However, if you aren't blessed with an open-plan kitchen and don't quite have the finances in place to start tearing down walls just yet, there are other ways to spruce up your kitchen and make it a more 'visible' feature in the house.

And according to Gideon, for a chic, modern kitchen, handle-less designs are the way forward this season.

"The newest styles are towards new types of handle-less designs," he says. "[These use] negative details in the doors, as opposed to the long handle-less trims, which go from end to end of the run."

Another great way to update your interior without breaking the bank is to invest in new kitchen sink taps or fresh appliances for the kitchen.

Even something as simple as installing brushed steel pull out kitchen taps or treating yourself to some stylish stainless steel appliances can instantly revamp a tired-looking kitchen and make your room a more pleasant modern living space.