I think the only way I would consider having one would be if I also had another fridge with a solid door. It would look really cool to have folks over and have the bowls of salads and the incredible dessert sitting there looking at them with some wine chilling belwo, but who wants to see the dozens of bottles of partially used condiments and wrapped leftovers, etc.? I think the Subzero Pro 48 tried to compromise on that with the drawers below, keeping a commercial feel, but the use of the space isn't good for me -- or the price tag, and I couldn't even be tempted when they put the ice at floor level. I guess if you are going to spend that much opn a fridge, you ought to have no ice in it and have a separate icemaker. Silly me.

Are you putting the two units right together? I think 6 feet of stainless might be a bit much if unbroken, but it depends on the room. And the alcove you are describing might house them nicely and give enough warmth to balance the cool SS. I have 4 feet of stainless and it doesn't bother me. That is surrounded by my blue cabinets, and the two cooler colors are an accent wall - the backdrop for the white and cherry in my kitchen. So I'd say placement makes a difference too. Have you looked at color renderings? Look also at the views as you enter the room from different angles or sit in adjoining rooms. And with 2 units, you can always look at splitting them up. Or what about putting a painted finish on the fridge and freezer with a top treatment to make them look like a huge armoire?

I finally was able to upload the image from our Architect. This is a first drawing, so forgive the roughness! I'm going to give a brief description bc there is a lot going on!! Let's start with the "left' wall, with the range. The freezer is going to be at the end across from the peninsula, not where it is in the drawing. This gives about 30' of counter space on either side of the cook top. The back wall is going to have a furniture looking hutch about 4'wide. The curved wall is actually going to be a opening to the back hall. The previous desk/recipe area is going to become a pantry. We are going to see if it is possible to bump that wall out to become even with the outside staircase, so we could have a step in pantry. If we can't, it will still be a pantry but the specifics are yet to be determined! The right wall now has the sink, dw, and trash pullouts! The Arch moved the doorway down so that the above items could be accommodated. There will be a large window or windows about this area. The bottom 'wall' aka peninsula will now only have storage and the dinning room side will be raised to bar height. The island will no longer have seating. Disregard the curved end, that part was the Architects doing, and I was not a fan. I was really looking forward to having seating at the island, but we can no longer have seating on the right side of the island, bc of the new sink area. I should really start a new thread bc this is a far cry from my original post!!

Wow! Happy 75th and happy golden anniversary! I hope I last that long! I'm sure he'll match the panels and your wife's kitchen will be restored just in time to celebrate. Ive thought all of those things you mention about that roll out shelf. It's heavy duty, so it held something heavy. I can't imagine a Kitchenaid mixer there - it's right at the entrance to the living room and diagonal from the double ovens. I put my Kitchenaid clear across the room by the pantry and ovens (tray storage above ovens). The living room had an actual bar (it's been removed but was on the original plans and I removed the upper cabinet from the laundry room wall - kept bumping my head on it and don't need glassware storage upstairs). I agree, it's custom and I can't figure it out. We have a fire sprinkler system in the garage only (because, save the cars, of course). The house is quirky to say the least. As for baby proofing, well, we literally live on a cliff, so there's that. The house is currently raising its 3rd set of kids, so I suppose mine will survive just fine too. Just don't look down when the house is taking 80 mile per hour winds. Fortunately, the foundations are set 30 feet into bedrock. The cool thing is when the fog creeps in. The house looks like it's floating in the clouds. It's like a lair - complete with a pirate deck off the master. It's hard to be a grownup here sometimes......