Design Idea: Kitchen - Custom Induction Range Drop-in surface

We haven't put a lot of time into figuring out the layout of our kitchen.  Basically, all I know is that I don't want built-ins.  I want it to feel like an old style kitchen/pantry with everything on legs - thick worn marble floor visible beneath everything.  But we're going to need a stove and we're going to need a fridge... so what then?

Well, the discussion has been that we would get a standard 30" range with induction cooktop.  But that is maybe a little too simple and doesn't really make good use of the space - so I'm re-thinking it.  That doesn't necessarily mean that WE are re-thinking it.  But I am.  I'm trying to come up with some ideas for how we can make the most of our strangely shaped kitchen.  

So here we go...

30" ranges with induction cooktops are pretty boring looking.  Electrolux and Samsung and a few other folks make them, but they look like boring old electric stoves.  See!

BORING! But then I saw this mad delicious new induction range from LaCornue.

Yes, I know, LaCornue is impossibly expensive.  IMPOSSIBLY.  This thing debuted at the Milan home show last year and I can't find a single showroom in NYC to see the thing.  Not that it matters - I finally got a price on it two minutes ago - a big LaCornue dealer in NYC just called me back while I was typing this and he isn't positive but guesses that it will price out in the ballpark of $12-$15,000 (I don't say "ballpark" ever, but I couldn't say "range" without cringing). 

Anyway, what I began to think (aside from WTF?!) is: well wait a minute, what is it that is so special about this LaCornball range?  It isn't the cooktop itself - that looks pretty much like every other five burner induction cooktop.  It's the table!  They turned a range into a sleek, sexy piece of furniture.  Well, if that's all they did then what's the big deal?  Induction cooktops are thin and easy to install.  You can drop them into pretty much any countertop of any material without a whole lot of margin to the sides or back.  Look...

So, with all the kitchen pimping going on out there, why hasn't anyone dropped a cooktop into something a little more interesting than granite or butcherblock?  And, more important, if I could drop an induction cooktop into any surface, what would it be? 

Well, that's easy!  I'd drop it into a Detroit Jewel, right?

Could I remove the top half of this stove and pull out the insides and drop in a new cooktop?  Even if I had to get a piece of stone cut to sit on top of this to make the opening just right, isn't that going to look a little big cool? Maybe?  Am I the only one who thinks so?

Or could I get a cool old set of enameled iron table legs like are on the Detroit Jewel and have a cabinet built to sit on top that the cooktop drops into?


Could I get use fittings stripped off this old Majestic stove to adorn an old oak table with a stone top on it?

I need to get some better photo compositing software so that I can collage together a picture of the thing I have in mind. 
Anybody?