My cutting area is kitchen cabinet height, with a pre-made counter from Lowe's on the top - its absolutely perfect. I used the old cabinets from our kitchen (we remodeled it, so when the new cabinets arrived from Kraftmade, the old ones went into the garage to be painted for my quilt room). At each end of the 10' counter is the base cabinet, with about 4' of open area in between. We used that area to build shelves between the two base cabinets, which I skirted with a skirt that has velcro on the top, so I can rip it off to wash or open it up. The wall cabinets went above - one set at each end, and we built open cabinets in between to store the shoe size plastic boxes with lids for misc. A mini flood light set up from Ikea is mounted so I have tons of light onto that counter, and cutting is a breeze now.