Mine favorite is simple and functional. It's my favorite since we've used it daily in two houses for over 40 years, the center point of the kitchen.
Attachment 456371
No fancy joinery. Made from hard maple, legs, shelf, top glued up. Built this when my shop consisted of a radial arm saw, a drill, two clamps, a hand plane, cabinet scrapers, and some sandpaper wrapped around a block of wood. Indestructible.
In this house it's in the middle of the kitchen central to fridge, microwave, convection oven, coffee pot, sink, counters, silverware drawer, range top, pantry, toaster oven, dish cabinets. Grandkids eat breakfast there, play with legos, used for rolling out pie dough, staging for salads, drinks, and leftovers, surface for chopping things, pounding chicken, setting down groceries before putting them away, making vanilla extract and limoncello, surface for emptying the dishwasher, great for sorting medicines, filling out birthday cards, browsing through cookbooks.
JKJ