Kitchen on stage

Mark Barden loves to cook for guests and when he does, the beet juice flies. "Guests expect it to be quite a show," says his wife, Doris Mitsch.

The couple wanted to make it possible for Barden to interact with guests while he's preparing their meal. But they didn't want to look at big piles of pots and pans.

The solution: curtains to screen the kitchen when necessary.

"When cooking, it lets me face the room," Barden says. "It pulls me into the conversation and allows guests to be involved in what I'm doing."

Read more about this curtained kitchen