@rococogurl, those cabinets are beautiful! Maybe a little too futuristic if anything, but fabulous. I'm hoping my frosted glass inserts will look almost as good. I'd love to have built-in strip LED lighting that automatically turn on when drawers/doors open, but I'm not that handy with automation. So that's you? Jane F? I really believe no kitchen is complete without organizer inserts. I still assert that better designed, reasonably priced options should exist. Something that is modular, adjustable to suit your specific needs today and your future needs as they evolve. The nice thing about Servo-Drive is they work just fine as regular Tandem Plus Blumotion drawers when the motors fail or during power outages. Yes, little kiddies are an issue; I have iTouchless trash cans in my pediatric office, and while some kids play with them nonstop until I have to turn them off, it does get old for most of my patients after a while. Some have mentioned on other threads that for larger dogs, they could learn to open the Servo-Drive and make royal messes. Lucky for us, our 4-lb. Maltese can't reach the trash inside even if she opened the trash pullout! That kitchen sink of the future has some great ideas, but the worst part is the need for so many button presses. My guess is gesture-based control would truly be the "wave" of the future (so to speak), for better-than-analog-control intuitiveness. There is a less cheesy video from Blum. Still loses a lot in the translation from German. Here is a link that might be useful: Less Cheesy Servo-Drive Video

Blumotion is the glide system that lets the drawers open and close. The difference is in the drawer box construction. Metabox: uses powder coated metal drawer boxes. This is the cheapest option for Blum. Most custom cabinet companies do not use this. This is similar to Ikea boxes. Tandem: companies typically use hardwood dovetailed boxes and uses the glides by Blum. This is the typical American cabinet system that you see with typical mid to high-end cabinets in America. You only see dovetailed wooden drawers when you open and close the drawers. Tandembox: DO NOT use hardwood dovetailed boxes. The sides of boxes are stainless steel modules from Blum and the cabinet maker only makes the bottom and back that fits the Blum SS hardware sides and bottom. This is similar to what Ikea drawers look like but the components are made of SS instead of powder coated steel. The components are much higher grade than the metaboxes. This is more common with European cabinets. In America, there is typically an upcharge from Tandem to Tandembox. (for some companies, the charge may be the same...) This is not common in America. Tandembox Intivo: the drawer boxes use SS and tempered glass. Tempered glass is expensive. (I have only seen a few houses with this system ever!) I have no idea what the up charge is. I think it is quite a bit higher. If you go to higher end cabinet showrooms that have European style cabinets, they should be able to show you the difference between Tandembox and Tandem. They all have similar opening and closing mechanism; Blumotion. The drawers give you completely different feel when you open and close since what you see is SS versus wood. The difference is really the esthetics, not drawer mechanism.

In my parent's home, we "hacked" an Ikea GRUNDTAL dish rack to make a drying rack inside a cabinet. There is no wooden base to the cabinet - the water drips into the base of the rack (rather than into the sink as some of these racks do). My mother loves it. I am adopting the same concept in our flat using the stainless steel dish rack found across India (need to get a base for it to hold the water drips). The stainless steel dish rack used in typical Indian kitchens cost in India is about USD 35. Tsé & Tsé dish rack sells these on their website.. Ironically, just when Indian families are abandoning these kind of dish racks as being too traditional and "blah", they are considered chic in Europe. This post was edited by gemcap on Fri, Jan 23, 15 at 6:47

@dann1888 What is your preference between the cans or the LED strips? Do you anticipate any awkwardness with wiring if we have plugmold at the back, and this lighting at the front? @halett&co That's a great look. I wish I had known about this design issue before I ordered the cabinet so that I could have modified the design accordingly -- it's too late for me to add in longer side panels but that would have addressed most concerns!