Lockdown’s consequences have been far-reaching, and while our wallets and mental health have taken a battering, our kitchens have never seen so much love.

Circumstances have conspired to make them the focus of our attention, and a whole lot of googling has ensued as we’ve tried to make them the best they can be.

Kitchen islands, wine coolers and American fridge freezers are what we’ve all been searching for this past year, according to new research from Wren Kitchens.

The study of Google data found that ‘kitchen pantry ideas’ experienced the biggest increase in interest during 2020, with a 147 per cent uplift in searches compared to 2019. This was followed by ‘pantry shelving’ (124 per cent), ‘kitchen island ideas’ (76 per cent) and ‘American fridge freezers’ (73 per cent).

The latter saw the largest total number of searches by some margin, however, with 1,124,500 clicks, followed by kitchen islands (776,000) and wine coolers (369,000).

As the relatively new owner of a rather rubbish kitchen, I’m with these googlers every click of the way.

Our place’s previous owners loved their fitted units so much they took most of them with them, leaving a patchwork of addled plaster and mismatched paintwork as well as an extreme storage shortage.

Knowing we planned to extend and update the kitchen fairly quickly, we’ve got by with a selection of shelves, a sideboard and a spare fridge that now doubles as a cupboard.

It’s the thought of eventually owning what will one day be our best ever kitchen that’s seeing us through these dark days of just four fitted units.

We’ve only had a brand new kitchen once, and that was a budget Homebase special designed to fill a tiny space. Now we’ve been talking to kitchen designers about Quooker taps, downdraft extractors and islands vs peninsulas.

It’s a whole new lingo, but the kitchen dream is real (as too is our current kitchen nightmare). Here's hoping we can afford to make it a reality.