Feeling Flexible: The Easy-to-Use Kitchen

Another one of Melissa's innovations that made the kitchen both easier to use and more accommodating for multiple cooks is a pivoting table that can swing to become a work area or a seating area — whatever's needed. "It all sounds so simple now, but I agonized over the design for weeks," Melissa says. "So they wouldn't wear and tear the wood floors, I created a dark circle of porcelain tile for the wheels to pivot on."