One other item that I have found extremely useful - a pot hanger on the wall over my butcher block table. As my kitchen is so small, there isn't room for an island table with a pot hanger, but the wall opposite my working area serves the purpose of the lack of extra storage cupboards. It has 12 hooks to serve a variety of pots, fry pans, sieves, hand mixer, oft-used utensils, etc. On top - a shelf catches other seldom used utensils. This allows more room in my tiny kitchen cupboards for the rest of my usual baking dishes. As Linda Lou mentioned in her post, having mats on the floor where most of the work is being done, helps tremendously also. I bought 4 heavy-duty rubber mats decorative - from Home Depot) to lay end-to-end on this area, and it saves a lot of wear and tear on the feet and legs during heavy canning times. Also easy to pick up, clean with the hose, and they are ready to go again. Just my 2 c's. Bejay

I just posted my almost done kitchen recently. The cabinets are a similar to robin's egg blue and the backsplash and paint will be white. Marble counters with white vintage sink. I realize that this type of kitchen isn't for everyone, but I definitely did pick something that enhances my mood everytime I spend time in it. The way I figured out it would make me happy was to go through SO many magazines and books. For a year. It was easier for me b/c I knew I wanted the style to match the house......then whenever I saw a kitchen with painted cabinets I thought it was so beautiful, but I could never do that. Literally, when I saw these pictures my heart would leap in a happy way. For a while I thought I was going to do an all white kitchen that would be like a canvas and I'd add accent colors that would make me happy. I was settled on that b/c it was rational. All the while I was still looking through magazines and books, trying to focus on white kitchens, but whenever I saw a colored kitchen I'd almost stop breathing. All of a sudden I took the leap and committed to permanent color and I couldn't be more happy that I did. Here is a link that might be useful: My Kitchen

That's why we did both -- runnels on one side and the drainboard on the other. And I have to say, they are both incredibly useful. But if I had to choose, hands-down I'd go with the drainboard. Our runnels funnel the water back into the sink, but a nice, big drainboard is just the easiest for wiping down into the sink. Wait, I guess it depends what your use will be. We keep our dishrack in the drainboard all the time -- it never gets put away. I just lift up the dishrack, wipe out the drainboard and plop!, back goes the dishrack. Easy peasy. But we're a dishrack family. If you have just the odd pot or pan you handwash, then runnels might be a better way to go .... But I really love both of them! Oh yeah, we have a slight negative reveal as well, for precisely the reasons mentioned above (so crumbs go into the sink, not onto the lip of the sink).

I'm feeling pretty good right now as we are just finishing up the minor upgrades of a kitchen we did 20 years ago. Our house is an urban, 1916, primarily prairie style in an upscale neighborhood. My goal all along has been "timeless", and I think I have achieved it. Twenty years ago we put an addition off the back of our then-small kitchen, and we added a first floor powder room. Despite the fact that we (now) have a lovely vintage home, when we moved in our kitchen had dropped acoustic ceiling with brown grids, one major appliance in each of the "Current" colors--bronze, avocado and gold, cabinets that were so cheap the shelves sagged when used, one cabinet that wasn't even attached to the wall, and cheap vinyl flooring. When we put the addition on 20 years ago, we could afford the work to have the addition added, but we couldn't afford to have a contractor do the inside. So, we hired floorers to install thin board maple floors (as are found in many houses in our area), a plumber to do some of the major work, and a cabinet maker to make some replica cabinets for us and to hang the cabinetry. Everything else we did ourselves. We started out doing all of the demo before the addition was put on. The kitchen was sooooo awful that I really enjoyed using that sledge hammer. The change in layout also entailed moving the stairs to the basement, so to cook we spent three months literally swinging down between the rafters to access the fridge and old stove that we'd moved to the basement to be used as a kitchen along with the laundry tub. Because of layout and lot constraints, we ended up with a long and narrow--10' by 30'--kitchen with an eating area at the end furthest from the dining room. I found a kitchen full of 1920s cabinets with the inset drawers and original glass knobs and exterior ball top hinges that were being ripped out from a very large old home whose kitchen was being modernized. $500 for the entire kitchen full of birch cabinets, and there were a lot of cabinets. I designed the kitchen around the various pieces of cabinetry and hired a cabinetmaker to make some additional pieces. I stripped all of the original cabinets of their light gold glaze painted finish and stained both them and the new matching ones a honey color meant to mimic the color those old varnished cabinets so often take on. I also found vintage lights to hang over my sink and down the middle of the room. As a concession to need, we installed a lighted ceiling fan over the kitchen table. Counters were do-it-yourself tiled. 4" squares with contrasting full bullnose edging. Backsplash was white subway which, believe it or not, was not easy to find 20 years ago. I think we got it right because, several years after the kitchen was completed, an out-of-town guest who owned a similar vintage house came in and told me she so regretted doing her kitchen in the all white look that shouted 1980s, whereas mine just felt as though ti belonged. Now fast forward 20 years. Some things about the kitchen are looking a bit tired and need a refresh, but the basics are still very good. I wanted new counters because they'd chipped in places. The old Jenn-air downdraft (top of the line and the latest thing when we did the kitchen) was old and tired. We just finished our minor upgrades (other than still waiting to get the floors refinished), and in my eye the kitchen still fits in perfectly with our old house. We have no island and never did. The workhorse counters are unoiled, matte, charcoal soapstone. The opposite wall, which is more a buffet-type serving or pastry area, is Carrera counters. I found a replacement for the white, cast iron drop in sink with a drainboard that we'd originally installed and had cabinetry built for. So, we put that in despite the fact that everyone uses undermount sinks today. We replaced the old Jenn-air downdraft with a classic open burner SS Wolf we found on closeout as a new model was coming in. It has a 10" riser on the back which tends to mimic those old ranges with high backs. We did need to install a hood for ventilation (and modern codes) and went with a very flattened chimney style Zephyr so as to minimize the visual effect. Even though we hadn't planned to, we needed to replace all of our backsplash. For this I put in a creamy, crazed subway tile with grout that matches. Now our only thought is what to do with some of the appliances that we will slowly replace. When we did the addition remodel we'd gone with white because that color was appropriate to the era of our kitchen, and stainless wasn't yet a thing. As appliances needed replacing, we stuck with white because I hate (or thought I did) stainless. But, something funny has happened now that we have the new stainless range and the new countertops. Our old white appliances now visually seem to be out of place. Perhaps it is because we no longer have the tile countertops edged in white. Despite the fact that I thought I really didn't like stainless, I am now considering putting in stainless as we need to replace other appliances. Or, perhaps keeping a white fridge, getting a dishwasher whose front I could panel and putting in a replacement wall oven/ micro combo in stainless. After having been though this, and having lived with my kitchen for 20 years, my advice to owners of older houses is to shy away from the latest trendy kitchen. Instead install something that is not a true period replica but something that includes modern features and is period appropriate to the era of your house. You'll be able to happily live with it for as long as you live in the house (we've been here 30 years and have no current intentions of moving) and to just do some minor upgrades as necessary without having to face the expense and mess of a major remodel every time the trends change.