I showed some african violets in the spring. I think about 12-13. I didn't make the the top few, but I did pull off a few best in class. This summer I've been badly neglecting them - I am struggling with several other passions/challenges and the violets/ indoor plants are getting the short end of my time. I am at the point realizing I have more plants than I have space for but not sure which ones I want to part with. I'll have to shave down drastically to keep sane. I'm also feeling like I'm constantly fighting an uphill struggle trying to maintain the African violets and a few Streptocarpus in an environment that is hostile to them - too much light + too much heat. Light - to give an idea: Coleus grown indoors will show most of their flashy colors under the lights. (the yellow/green and pink/yellow/green tricolors, some darker ones keep their purple too.) By the window - a little faded, but still okay. Further away, they will reach for the lights. I obviously need the artificial lighting, but not sure how to regulate it for the violets. They are getting pretty bleached and curling/ pushing their leaves down/ away from the lights. I'm still having issues with them drying up too fast. I can try to resolve the light or take a few near the wall/ac but the other is just as damaging. Also I suspect they really resent the tap water and the mineral buildup that ensues rapidly. That said there are a few successes or partial successes I made over the winter - summer. One of them was I successfully sprouted geraniums from seed - speedy mix. They bloomed later than the bedding plants I bought,and still not as big. But still I did it. I am currently starting a 2nd gen from seeds I harvested from my bedding geraniums. We'll see how those survive. I hope they make it over the winter. So far they tolerate the frequent dry spells much better than the AVs. So far, I do not see the rotting issues with the seed started geraniums. I also suspect the overly bright T8 lights are what help. I successfully rooted some rex begonia leaf cuttings in water and got some pups off the stem. (now separated and waiting to see if they thrive on their own.) If rex begonia leaves thrived under the lights/ near my window, perhaps if I tried again with geranium cuttings they might grow too. I'll try that with a tricolor one.

I have mostly drawers in G-shaped kitchen, but either side of range, I have a small drawer at top with a cupboard below. Each cupboard has two repositionable shelves with standard holes and clips for the shelf positions. On each of the shelves, I've screwed down a metal roll-out unit purchased at big box hardware stores. There is a slight disparity in width (with the cabinet being a few inches wider than the roll-out); positioning the roll-out far to the right or to the left leaves a small open channel on the other side that can be used for narrow items or for thin bottles. I like the roll-outs for my pots and pans because I can see the entire contents of both the upper and lower one faster than pulling out and shutting two deep drawers. When the lower unit is extended, I can still see part of the contents of the upper unit and it's quicker to dig about. Also, pan handles can protrude over the edge of the metal unit, allowing me to access open space beyond the rolling unit. Some pan lids can stand up in the grooves that form the bottom of the rollout--your mileage may vary. I use the niche between the bottom of the roll-out and the shelf for a thin item--in my case one is a little broiler pan, one is a marble tile that I use for defrosting frozen food, one is a little cast iron cornbread pan, you get the idea. I restack my pans quite frequently, depending on time of year and what I'm cooking at that time, for example, my deep pots are stored at back bottom for part of the year and don't come out much until I'm boiling down something, usually tomatoes, or blanching. I can reposition the shelves as I need to to change the headroom of the pot stacks. Having the repositionable shelf means that I can have an assymetrical shelf pattern within the cupboard and still a symmetrical look when the cabinet doors are closed. Don't forget that you can also hang an inexpensive underslung wire unit below your upper shelf. I have one that holds my omelet pan with its touchy ceramic coating; this protects it from the rough and tumble of the contents of the rolling unit. As for my lower drawers in the rest of the kitchen, generally I like them very much. Because our kitchen remodel required us to lose the long wall that supported a large china cabinet in the dining room, I had to move the china and serving pieces into the kitchen. I have 4 large lower drawers with heavy duty rolling mechanisms to hold my china and serving pieces. They are ready at a moment's notice for me to use for fancy tablesetting and I can put party stuff away quicker now than when I had to lug it into the dining room cabinet. My casseroles are in a med-size drawer. I have one deep bin drawer for deck stuff--special tablecloths, plastic bev glasses, seasonal serving pieces. I have one deep bin drawer that is for tupperware, yogurt containers, mason jars, etc. I limit myself to this space only for containers for leftovers & freezing odd things; in my old kitchen this stuff took over a huge cabinet, shame on me. I have one shallow-ish drawer for wraps and plastic bags; I have a cabinet door on my tray storage and on my recycle & waste cabinet and on a corner cabinet I have a double door with a lazy susan inside. If I were to do it again, I'd combine the double door and corner cab with an adjacent open space such as the vertical tray holder so that the door opening was larger when it's open. (One idea for better light in a dark corner space is a battery-powered push on/push off light stuck to the wall, but this doesn't solve the problem of getting your shoulders into a narrow opening to chase a lost item. I have really enjoyed my very wide, medium-depth baking drawer. I've got most of what I need for baking inside it--flour, sugars, chips, other standard ingredients, plus bowls and funnels and large glass measuring pyrex . In the shallow drawer above it are some of my baking pans (13 x 9 pans, brownie pan, cupcake pans, more) with measuring cups and spoons and blades for the food processor and mixer inside them. Above that drawer is a wide pull-out breadboard. In the bottom med-depth drawer is clunker stuff--awkward items like food mill and some stuff in boxes like pasta maker, plus my Betty Crocker cookbook. (all the rest of cookbooks are across the room in large bookshelf). Don't forget to have a couple built-in breadboards/cutting boards. Having pull-out boards means extra work surfaces. You especially need one alongside the refrig. -- a sandwich making station, plus place for processing leftovers, plus plunk space for grocery bags. --Florantha

I've gotten snagged on pulls like that quite a few times, but it depends on what you are wearing whether you are at risk or not. They have a bad habit of catching my pants pockets. The pulls I have are discontinued, but look like this. Mine are brushed nickel, but I think that finish has been discontinued. These from Haefele look nice to me, but they might not be available in your finish. We get pulls from both Haefele and Sugatsune, but we also custom make a lot of our pulls, but not for cabinets. I have had pulls plated to the finish I want, and it is not expensive to do. The pull style you showed is the most common and the least expensive at Home Depot, or at least it was when I bought mine.

Thanks everyone for your help. I love those copper frames @ CB2 and even the deco wood mirrors, but I feel like there is so much going on in this room, I want some elements to repeat, hence the bronze. (I’m going for a quiet 12” tile floor that sort-of looks like sand) @Nancy in Mich thanks so much for mentioning the faucet and the pivot sink. You are right! No pivot mirror! I don’t want it crowding my faucet. BTW, the PB one comes in black, not bronze (doh, my bad) so that wouldn’t work anyway. But thanks for this good point. That would have been horrible for me. Any thoughts on the drawer hardware for that vanity (the top blue dresser style one)? My thought is to emphasis the dresser look and have each drawer have a pair of knobs. I’d choose chrome to match the Rohl faucet, so there’s some repetition. Maybe little round ones (Vs. square). For the hand-towel, I found a 10” wide l-shaped bar (from Kohler, looks a bit industrial, so goes w/ the sconces, in my mind) and then the tp holder also in bronze. I‘m wary of mixing metals in such a small room, so it would be chrome faucet and knobs (and toilet lever, I guess) and ORB everything else, including the hadware on the pocket door.