Lynn, is that a new stove too? What I'm asking is, will it have higher BTU's? My new stove really "kicks out" to the sides when it ignites the burner, please be careful. The stove manufacturer usually lists the required minimum clearances for surrounding cabinets/walls with a diagram right in the front of the stove manual. Personally, I'd be worried about a fire hazard with everything in such close proximity. I think the new wood fridge cabinet is going to restrict the fridge's heat exhaust and to me, seems dangerously close to the burners. How about a stainless steel heat shield on the side wall (and behind the stove) instead of tile? Also, make sure your new microwave vents out enough of the heat from the stove. Some of those microwave fans are less powerful, or recirculating air back into the room and not exhausting out (I don't know what you're installing). Good luck!

I had crackled subway behind the range at my last house. I didn't realize it would be a problem until I started noticing some darkened areas. I gave the area a good scrub down (water diluted with bleach), allowed for good airdrying, and then used a grout sealer, brushed over the entire tile and grout area several times until no more would absorb. After that process, maintenance was easy. I should note that I do heavy cooking--searing, roasting, frying--and the sealing process was enough to keep the tile looking good.

Great thread idea, circuspeanut, and interesting thoughts all. On Mad Men, we watched several epis (with great anticipation) and never went back, we didn't care for the acting, the writing or the whole misogynistic tone, yech. Being baby boomer/gen x cusp types, I do remember some of the iconic design stuff (appliances, lighting), but thankfully I grew up in the boonies, so the whole suburb thing is lost on me. The razor blade disposal doesn't bother me at all, in fact, I prefer that to the plastic and gel encased blade pods you can buy (for a small forture!) and not recycle. And WRT town dumps, I am again showing my rube status, but our town has one, and most everyone uses it, there is no curbside pickup by our town or county, those who do have curbside contract with private companies. Finally, the initial question, I think it transitions into set design when, well, props are used extensively and pretend to be authentically used items. Consider the old fashioned mixer with mint green bowl on the counter (when the brand new Viking is in the cab, or worse yet, no actual mixer is ever used cuz no actual cooking is ever done), that feels inauthentic to me, but having a collection of old fashioned graters on the wall as a decorative feature feels OK, probably cuz they are decorative pure and simple and not trying to get anyone to think they really use the old Mixmaster. I appreciate retro design, but I would never want it to be "just like grannie's", and I don't think most folks would either. ITA that the appliances are a dead giveaway, but other factors can be the number of windows, lighting, ceiling height, etc. I am not a purist tho, and happily mix antiques with vintage and new stuff and don't worry about it, maybe purists need it to be seamless. Great discussion and pics, all. sandyponder

I have marble subway tiles for my entire kitchen and I sealed it with Miracle 511 Porous Plus before my GC installed them. Every time I cooked there's some level of splashes and I wiped the entire backsplash area behind my cooktop at the end of that day as part of clean up. I haven't notice any etch from looking straight at my backsplash with and without my hood lights. I can go home tonight to look at it from different angle to see if there's any etch but at least with my hood light on, I can't tell. It's been a year and I think I will reseal the backsplash again.