Some things I try to incorporate in your type of kitchen.

An island with a raised bar (42") where buddies of any gender can sit or stand at to kibitz, lend suggestions, or just watch in wonder while you dazzle ’em.

A great hood. Stainless steel probably, one that gets ooh’s and ah’s. Actually if you have a high ceiling over the cooktop you can do a mantle type in stucco or whatever.

A pot rack. You really look like a professional chef with pots and a bunch of garlic hanging from a rack.

Look for induction cooking (google it) it will be the think of the future, cooks faster than gas and uses less energy than any other indoor cooking method. And while you are looking try GE’s Advantium. Does the work of a microwave and a second oven. Cook a Perdue 5# oven stuffer in about 20 minutes and it looks cooked too, browned and beautiful. A built in wall oven and an Advantium does it all.

Lots of drawers—-everything you have in a kitchen except a big lobster pot will fit in a drawer. And be a lot easier to get at.

A double bowl (sink and 1/2) stainless steel sink undermounted in a stone top and a seperate prep sink if possible. Butcher block on a movable cabinet of some sort is handy also.

And as Andrea wrote great lighting. Undercabinet lighting that shines down on the work surface is essential and overhead lighting that looks like it is from a different planet makes the kitchen "one of a kind"

I do knife racks, spice racks, cookbook shelves and whatever to "jazz up the joint"——-those things are handy and look great.

Cabinet hardware that you can get you fingers into and can hang a dishtowel if you want.

Start with the basics and wing it.

Have fun and don’t worry it will be great.