What have you done to disguise kitchen appliances, make them stand out less. What creative ways have you came up with to made them look less like an appliance & more like a decorative piece or more like a cabinet??? (Besides the decorative panels of course, which seem to be out of my price range.) How does a black refrigerator blend in? I know my black dishwasher looks ok. I have always had a white refrigerator so not sure how the other colors look. My other choice would probably be the SS, the kind that say they show less finger prints but still am not sold on the idea. By the way, I have medium color wood cabinets now. Thanks everyone for your input :-) Creative minds & pictures needed!!! Terri

Thanks, I sent you an e-mail Judy. Urlee I was wondering what you were talking about. LOL I remember both of you. You have been posting on here for years now, thatÂs great. I still use PSP 7 also even though I have PSP x. I remember Barb & Charlene that used to post on here also, they are both from Michigan like me. What ever happened to everyone? This used to be the happening place. Well going to get for now, take care. If you think of anything new for me, please let me know. Terri

I second the suggestion to decide on the floor first, and to think as seriously about use and maintenance as you do about looks when you make the floor decision. Floors with some variation in them (stone, marmoleum, hardwood, bamboo, certain kinds of porcelain tile...) are much easier to keep looking nice than floors that are uniform solid colors. And floors with some softness (wood, marmoleum, bamboo) are easier on the feet and back than harder surfaces. Yada yada, there are a bunch of factors to consider. But considering them first would probably narrow down your cabinet choices, making that decision easier. As for the cabinets, you mentioned liking sugarbeet. With sugarbeet being a warm mid-range tone, you could go either dark or light on the counters. It probably wouldn't look so good if you used another mid-range like the tan or the amazon star; that could look too monolithic. Also, since the kitchen's on the small side, I would steer clear of ebony or similarly dark finishes. Absolute Black would look nice with sugarbeet, but may be a nightmare for maintenance depending on what finish you get--the tiniest bread crumb might stand out like a neon sign. If you like the black I would suggest Black Galaxy, because it has sparkles in it (hence the name "galaxy"), which makes it much more forgiving--breadcrumbs and other small imperfections don't stand out, so your kitchen still looks great even if you're not standing there with a damp cloth to wipe up every speck of dust. But ultimately, of course, this is all about your tastes... not just in colors and styles, but also your taste in lifestyle, if that makes sense. I mean, for example, do you guys like padding into the kitchen barefoot on weekends to make brunch? Your bare feet will like a soft, warm surface like wood/bamboo/marmoleum a lot better than a hard, cold one like stone or porcelain tile. (Of course, if radiant flooring is an option you're willing to pay for, the equation changes a little bit.) And, do you have furry or feathery pets, or do you plan to in the future? If so, avoid solid-colored surfaces (floor or counter) LIKE THE PLAGUE, since the tiniest dog hair or bird feather will be visible on those surfaces, requiring constant cleaning just to keep the kitchen from looking like a mess. I'm sure you can think of more examples of how you like to live in your kitchen. Let those guide your choices.

Alen3 Actually I've been thinking about the same idea, making it smaller and making people bend when they enter it :) But if I go with that, I'll most likely choose to shorten the entrance portion that's on the floor. Because that'd give me more space for the actual entrance to the apartment. chiflipper Thank you for your suggestion :) I did not know about the whole activated charcoal trick and I'll definitely use it. Yet, it would be better if I could find a final solution to the problem, but I guess I'll just have to live with it and try as much as possible to make the smell as less noticeable as possible. wednesday morning You are wright, The smell can be caused by the whole apartment and not just the wine cellar, yet, when I installed the door down there, the smell did decrease significantly. But it still remained. So, since I still have a small portion of that brick wall tunnel open to the apartment, I'm guessing that is the main source of the smell. Yes, there are windows in the apartment, but they are quite small (you won't be able to crawl through them in case of fire). I'll be posting some more pics of the apartment since everyone's interested :) And these are the windows And since everyone got so intrigued, I'll also post a pic of the wine cellar down there. So, this pic was taken when I started renovating the old cellar. when I bought the apartment, the cellar had been painted in white by the previous owners (and the government was not happy about it). So, what I did was, I peeled the whole painted off the brick walls and then covered them with transparent sealer (which was suggested by the biggest local store I could find). I also did some electricity down there and that's when I took this picture. Nowadays I have wine racks and the shelves down there, and I a tiny wine table in the center for people to enjoy the wine in the old atmosphere. And just old traditional furniture and decoration. But I wanted to show you this pic so that you can understand the type of the building that this is. Even though it looks pretty modern from the outside (the building), it hides some really ancient stuff inside :)