Above: A drawer insert for kitchen utensils at the Florense showroom in Chicago.

This week I had the opportunity to visit the Florense showroom in Chicago, one of just a handful in the United States (a second is in New York City, and a third is planned for Miami). Florense is a Brazilian cabinet and furniture maker, and its Chicago showroom featured contemporary kitchen vignettes that were flush with frameless, lacquered cabinets. The newest vignette in the showroom is a long and lean all-white kitchen in minimalist style, shown below.
  

But what really caught my attention was a storage solution in a different vignette. This kitchen eschewed traditional drawers. Instead, as you can see below, it had two drawers disguised as one.
 

Inside the hidden drawer was a a second pullout with a wooden cutlery tray.
 

Another design feature I liked at Florense was dining tables attached to kitchen islands. The kitchen below features a marble countertop on the island, and an attached table with a walnut veneer top. This table attachment provides a look you might see at a sushi bar. It's an especially good idea for smaller homes and condos, where a dining table attached to a kitchen island can efficiently room to eat without taking up too much square footage.
 

What do you think?

• Would you want an island with dining table attachment, or do you prefer a traditional kitchen islands that have bar seating?
• Would you prefer a hidden cutlery drawer to a more traditional one?

Mark Rumble, Senior Editor