My cutting area is an 8' long counter on top of old kitchen cabinets. When we decided to update the kitchen, I took the cabinets, and painted them all white. DH installed a countertop and the cabinets in my quilt rm, and put tiny Ikea floodlights that shine over the counter top, so plenty of light. He built a long segmented 'cubby' that hangs right under the wall cabinets (which he attached the floods to) that hold all the small things. Perfect height for a short person to use for cutting. Unfortunately, laying out my quilting is done on our king size bed as I hate laying things out on the floor -- not good for my back either way, but it works. I'd love to have a table where my machine is installed level into the table, but I'm not cutting up my antique drop side crank table, so I make do with it 'as is'.