Wow, super-mom. I was wondering if your heavy use is due to a large family or small home business ... Impressive to do so much from scratch and so much healthier. I have no appliances on the counters. My kitchen often looks like it does not involve cooking at all. Especially in the mornings. Starting any cooking project or experiment i need it empty and clean, dishwasher empty and sink clear. I'm constantly tweaking how it might work better. Our kitchen does have 4 seasons. Evolves throughout the year....baking more in the colder months, marble slab is out now replaced by a second cutting board in the spring. Sometimes all 4 seasons in one weekend. Like the recent 3 day holiday weekend during a snow storm. The mixer was out all weekend, and the juicer, and all three blender containers and a full counter of spices and seeds and flours. Just took a zippy 20 minutes to put it all away and douche the place. By monday afternoon it became a pasta making factory for dinner later, then a meat market, grinding for sausage. Even if i baked everyday, i would have to move it from the main baking area to give it a cleaning and start fresh as ingredients change with each project. Husband is a slob, but does agree about the kitchen. He makes coffee in the mornings and tends the dogs. Uses that time to meditate and 'zen' the kitchen. But that is our solution for peace and harmony. : ) His stuff and tools are everywhere all the time. Rarely puts anything away. Our solution? I have a half dozen heavy llbean canvas bags. One is by his office door, door shut, lol. I just put his 'stuff' in it. If he can't find anything, that is a good place to check first. It is always full. He empties it occasionally. Another bag by the stairs to downstairs where all the stuff and my stuff goes. I always thought the lift was a good idea but i could never actually use it on the platform. I need my mixer with ingredients right next to it, not behind it. Even in the photo flour is on the platform, so it is also all over the floor. Much easier to wipe the counter than the floor. I don't read panic or insanity in your written voice. Just looking for a way to make it work. I would leave it out for a few weeks on the island. You might just find it is a bugger-bear. Gotta move it to clean. Might as well move to the backsplash home. Think of it as a 'cleansing' for organizing thoughts and the next project. Make and bake three days worth of meals in a day and freeze. (i'm sure you do that)...but give the kitchen a break for a day or two a week, and keeping the island clear will keep the family in check. One rule, island clear. One thing i did was take a couple heirloom trays from my Grandmother and put hardware store lazy susans on the bottom. They are in my pantry but are easy to haul out to the work counter. One has smalls like vanilla, nutmeg nuts, etc. The other has my most used seeds and nuts and some baking supplies. I can leave those trays out all weekend but easy to carry and put away. I have one rule. Breakfast table clear always. Here it is after the weekend... : )

I fear the organization mavens on the boards will want to ban me completely for this confession, but I have everything out on my counters, which range from 30" to 36" deep, specifically to accommodate deep built-ins and appliances on the counters. Magimix, 27 year-old Dualit toaster, 30-year-old Kitchenaid mixer, food scale, small food processor, cutting boards, breadmaker (sometimes two), single portable induction plate, blender (in summertime). In the butler's pantry, electric kettle, coffee grinder, coffee press. Also cooking implements in two crocks. If these items aren't out, I do not use them, and they are there to be used. Right now, various canning-related devices are out, as well, because I made both pickle recipes I received here (YUMMM to the one that we've been able to taste, Loves2cookforsix) the other has a couple of weeks to go), and today we're making jam. At least ninety percent of the folks here would probably think it's too much clutter, but I like things at hand. I can lift to clean, but if I have to lift, carry elsewhere, put away, then do the reverse to use these things, I just won't. Especially, with various physical issues. My kitchen is for cooking. It was designed to be used, and I don't feel a need to cover up its function. DH has a deep fryer that has to live in the laundry room when not in use, but it's only for turkey when the weather is too bad for outdoor deep frying. Certain spices and oils are gathered on a tray so that they can be away from direct light and cooking heat, but readily accessible while food prep is going on. I had to move everything out when I resealed the granite and marble before Thanksgiving, but, within a week or two, it was all back out on the counters as each item was replaced in order to use. And then there's this--a bit outdated because it's a few years old, but you get the idea. (The bottle of Aleve isn't always out) ; This post was edited by kitchendetective on Sat, Mar 16, 13 at 8:57

OMG, that is so sweet and nice everyone! WMA8 & Martinca, yes that is exactly what DH & I have talked about me doing for a few yrs now & want to do. I really, really want to fix up cast off & cheap but quality finds and resell to people who would not otherwise be able to afford brand new. I think that we all deserve quality and heirloom pieces that aren't fads & made in China. Not everyone starting out wants their home entirely furnished in box store, cookie cutter, flat packed furniture. In fact I just got home from a pow wow w/ my boss & friend about why it was more preferable to me to reduce my hrs, follow a dream and keep a friend. Every time I wonder if I should wait 'just a little longer' you all give me such a good feeling about going for it and why it will work!! PS - still talking w/ seller. She e-mailed me to let me know that she spoke w/ Mr. Fox for awhile. She told me that w/ a deposit she would hold the bed and let me pay it off. So tempted. Really have to consider it and sit down w/ Mr. Fox. It's not that I don't have the money to pay for it - it's just that I have to make sure that Mr. Fox will refinishing the bed for me down the road. I have so much furniture that has required refinishing of chipping veneer that I don't think will ever see the light of day again. Her interest certainly seemed piqued when our truck pulled up so maybe I have found someone who can source things for me and/or keep me in mind first when she gets things from auction. PS - Our current mattress is very low profile but we desperately want a new mattress. What is the average mattress thickness now? Just thinking ahead and will take measurements. The four poster bed headboard height is 41". Baker tag is on bed. This post was edited by TheFoxesPad on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 5:57

I hadn't seen the DWR kitchens. Remodelista and Apartment therapy have the same press release. The cabinets shown look heavy to me, probably because of the edges that stick out. The Viola Park and Henrybuilt above are much cleaner looking. Both of those photos look really dated to me, in a way that other Modern cabinets, especially the Euro ones, don't. Perhaps it's just a matter of what I've seen. The above look like kitchens that I've seen in houses they were original and new styles in. ... Come to think of it, though, for all that Modern is enduring, Poggenpohl and Pedini are showing different looks within that now than the ones I was seeing fifteen years ago. Maybe Henrybuilt just needs to update their advert photos? I absolutely agree that their forms could work in just about any house if detailed right. Modern endures unless it's '80's red or blue lacquer. :) In a neutral material/color, inc. the Henrybuilt woods and the Viola white, it is very little black dress. I think the most "insistent" thing about the Henrybuilt, however, is the hardware. That absolutely plugs it as Modern, whereas the flat slabs of the Viola could be any flat slab Euro, across many decades. It's all pull doors, but otherwise doesn't look much different from my own bamboo, which is much quainter looking. Of course, the other thing that makes the Viola Park is the lack of clutter with the flush cooktop, hidden hood, and, presumably, integrated everything else. I've always agreed, in general, about the age of house/period of kitchen thing, though sometimes the locale and/or style of the house have more to say about it. Even when I was thinking white kitchen, it was never going to be Peacock Scullery-ish, and certainly not inset with cup pulls. That would look really off in my 25 year old house. So would a lot of Art Nouveau. The house is rectilinear, and too new. OTOH, the little A.N. details, work, and help make my kitchen look grown in place rather than slapped on top. I think it's a case of what a colleague called "instant ancestors". That was about using clipart photos in a collage. The portraits give a sense, in the collage, of a community, with history. It doesn't matter that they're not the actual people from an actual community. They convey the message just by their presence. Using some details from days gone by in a kitchen (whether salvage or repro), like using old family pieces and/or antiques in another room, will give some temporal depth to the room and make the date much less obvious.