I have found that craftsmen excel at their specialty but run into difficulties doing their job on their own homes because they find it difficult to step back and get caught up in technical difficulties or creative dead ends.

I would suggest you contact your local ASID or AIA office and get a referral to an interior designer that specializes in kitchens. The help of a professional designer will make the difference between a long drawn out “discussion” between you and your wife and getting a kitchen that is both beautiful and functional that incorporates all of the latest innovations for efficiency, economy and the environment. In the end you’ll find that you save money because your well designed kitchen will not only enhance the livability of your home but will increase the value far more than if you did it yourself.

The trick is to find someone who is better at doing a job than you are, and then letting them do their job.

European design just absolutely blows my mind, and I find myself reading quite a bit on it, even though these are often modular kitchens that one would simply send away for and have installed by a local craftsman. But what fascinates me is the utter innovation of those designs, so I find myself returning to them quite a bit.

I am also looking to design a kitchen for my wife in a too small space in a tract home, which necessarily lets out those wonderful European designs that excite me so. And whenever I find myself going out on a limb with some idea or another for our kitchen, my wife always grounds me by saying, “If you stick with the classics, you won’t grow tired of them.”

So, what do you do that is different and yet timeless and practical and stimulating to make if you’re a cabinetmaker? Damned if I know, but if I ever figure it out, I mean to make it for us and splash that baby all over the Internet!

What you’ve written, though, has given me quite a bit to think about, and I thank you for sharing your concepts.