I have been looking at books and articles on kitchens for quite a while. Rarely do I see a kitchen I would want to have.

The emphasis is mostly on looks. We get the kitchen with expensive wood cabinets that look vulnerable and hard to clean. Or there's the sterile-looking stainless steel job that looks like an operating room.

I can't believe the people who want the kitchen to be completely open to view. They must not cook. As for me, when I want to sit down with my guests, I don't want anybody looking at the used pots and pans in the kitchen.

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A few months ago, my newspaper had an article about a kitchen which appeared in a movie. (Wish I could remember the name of the movie!) Evidentaly the movie was nothing special, but the kitchen struck a chord in the hearts of Americans. It had white wooden cupboards with black handles - and glass in the doors. The cupboards connected to the counters with curved, wooden uprights. There was a central island, and the island stood on legs with ball-shaped feet at the bottom. It had a clean, cozy, yet practical look.

Designers were amazed when people started showing up with pictures of that kitchen and copies of that movie. They wanted a kitchen like that! But apparently the set designers who assembled it for the movie thought nothing of it. They didn't know they had touched a chord somewhere.

My kitchen, whose upper cupboards are little changed from 1915, has many of the same features.