Computer area is not just about the computer. You need a printer, storage for printer paper, fax/scanner and other stuff that goes with the printer. Most people need these things unless you have an office near where the family spends most of the time. We actually have 2 printers in the house, 1 in the baseement office which is printer/scanner/fax, then another one under the kitchen desk. These get used all the time. We have a nice color laser printer, and when the kids have projects for the school, this is an essential part of the 'stuff' that we need to have in the house. I can't imagine going to Kinkos to print because our printer is not good enough to print out a school paper... (been there and done that!) Another thing that you need is a place to store kids junk: pens, markers, crayons, colored paper, scizzors, glue, glitter glue, etc etc. Where will that go? What about a place to charge stuff? we have 4 cell phones, ipad, 2 laptops, 3 ipods that get charged nearly every night. So far, these get charged in respective bedrooms. It would have been nice to charge these at a central station. I don't. I sure wish I had designed them into the house. I also like having a desktop in addition to my laptop. I like the large monitors to do some stuff easier. If you are working from home, this is more of an issue. I am not ready to trade my laptop completely for my high res 24 inch flat panel screen that I use with my desktop. I also like working with my feet on the ground which means 'desk height' not countertop height. Most people still need a phone station with a personal phone book, pens, paper, calendar, message board, grocery list, mail sorting etc. I have met very few people that have completely transitioned to a no-paper household. What about the storage for your stereo system? No one has the stereo amp out in the open these days. They are hidden behind a door/elsewhere and the controlled from the laptop/iphone. LOW: if they are ripping out their desks, it tells me that they are older folks that have already raised their kids. I can't imagine running a household without a central work area. However, the kitchen desks do not work when they are smack in the middle of the kitchen because having it in a bad place obstructs the work flow both in the kitchen and the desk. I often see desks that are too close to the work area of the kitchen and WAY too small to be useful. So what the family ends up doing is to use the dining room as the de-facto work table and it gets covered with projects and paper. The family never eats in the DR and use the kitchen table to eat. In many of these homes that I have seen, the DR is a poorly designed office (since it is subpar as an office) and the kitchen desk is the drop-zone. This is the reflection of poor design rather than the idea that the kitchen desk is not useful. Each space that you design has to be done well enough to be useful. IMHO, the kitchen desk has to be big enough to work as a small office. You need to be able to store just about all you need in that little space. Then it has to be out of the way of the workflow in the kitchen. You current location is a great location for the small desk because it is NOT in the kitchen proper. If you had put it next to your current refrigerator (which often were in the 80s and the 90s), it would have been useless...

Wow! Very good job! And now you have everything at your fingertips! And know where things are! Huge improvement! If you enjoy seeing the instruments on the shelfs, that’s your reward for all this great work. And it keeps some fairly open space too. You could hang on walls as art as Calidesign mentioned above. But somehow I think on the shelfs will help you keep shelves in order. But certainly a personal choice! My only wish, is we could hear some music from you!!!

Oh my god! Scorpions??? I have never felt as glad to live in NYC as I do now. I would do everything in my power to avoid a hiding place for them. A few thoughts: Pop of color on the buffet? Something like this but maybe in green? If it is pretty enough you don't need anything at all in it. Buffet - Scorpion proof glass dome with realistic faux succulent inside? Table - Dark wood trencher bowl to contrast the light wood of the table - filled with something - but now I'm freaked out that a scorpion is going to hide in it! Big glass jar with faux flowers like these. (They make really good faux these days.) Clear glass you can see the critters, and might be nice to have some height on the table to bridge it upwards towards the chandelier.

Can you please post a picture of the room and orientation it is to go in within that room? I would say to avoid matching the wood colour and style of this table at all cost. Look for a vintage piece also in wood - lighter tone - or one that looks worn but with character, antique.