Kitchen Comfort, Up And Down

There are two elements in a kitchen that most people don't connect to comfort, but they're critical for a comfortable workspace, says Spike Carlsen, executive editor of the Family Handyman magazine. They are overhead lighting, and underfoot flooring.

As construction is under way on a new kitchen for the Maloney family, winners of the Lowe's Dream Kitchen makeover contest, Carlson offers advice on The Early Show on how you can remodel your own kitchen.

Floor Coverings - You need to think of comfort, durability, appearance and cleaning.

• Vinyl flooring. It's hard to beat. It's comfortable, durable, easy to keep clean, affordable and friendly for those who want to do it by themselves.

  You can create inexpensive and interesting floors with 12-by-12-inch squares of various colors to create a checkerboard or other patterns.

• Cork. Cork is soft under foot, attractive, sound deadening, and more forgiving if you drop things.
• Floating laminate floors that click together.
• Wood is comfortable and a good choice as long as you keep standing water off of it. It is an excellent way to pull dining room and kitchen areas together.
• Tile is durable, but wide grout lines can show dirt, and it feels hard under foot. It can also feel cold, but there are under-floor heat systems.

• General lighting. Use track lighting so you can still use the existing "center of the ceiling" power source, but installed where needed.
• Task lighting. Puck and fluorescent lights are good for under-cabinet lighting.
• Accent lighting. Simple rope lighting can be run on top of upper cabinets or in toe-kick space.