Traditional Style Kitchens: Modern Designs Inspired By The Past Review

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(More customer reviews)Traditional kitchen styles blend modern amenities with historic elements to feature both practical cooking arrangements and stylish décor - and what better place to integrate the two purposes than with a look at Melissa Cordona's Traditional Style Kitchens: Modern Designs Inspired By The Past. From artifacts and decorations to built-ins popular in past eras and blends of antique design touches to modern settings, color photos and plenty of completed designs provide homeowners with many new options.


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Traditional style kitchens blend convenient modern amenities with details that invoke a sense of history, craftsmanship, permanence, and warmth -- including painted and distressed finishes, furniture-grade cabinetry, natural textures, and concealed appliances. Early American, Colonial, Victorian, Shaker, and Arts & Crafts, in addition to Traditional Country and Farmhouse kitchens are shown in over 150 gorgeous color photos. Hundreds of ideas in cabinetry, hardware, light fixtures, appliances, and flooring are featured. Whether you're restoring or renovating a historical home, or want to add nostalgic charm to your contemporary kitchen, this book will provide inspiration with so many Traditional style kitchen designs right at your fingertips.

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A Complete Guide to Kitchen Design with Cooking in Mind Review

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(More customer reviews)Don Silver's book was a well anticipated arrival, but alas much of a disappointment. As one who is designing a kitchen at present for a house to be built in the next few months, I was a let down by the book's content.
Let's start with the good stuff. The first chapter on design basics is great, though Silver's makes a big deal about "breaking free of the kitchen triangle". As one who has lived for the past seven years with an island in the way of the refrigerator, I would have welcomed the "kitchen triangle"! While there are other workable solutions--and he introduces them--the old triangle has survived for a good reason and it is not as bad as he indicates, and is certainly necessary in some cases particularly where kitchen size is an issue or limitation.
Silver introduces some great concepts such as the 30" deep counter, two sinks, etc. but spends far too much time on silly mundane issues like a cursory review of cabinets (visit a Home Depot and or pick up a few cabinet catalogs and you'll get much better and more detailed info) and a tired review of pots and pans (!) which should be very old hat for anyone going so far as to buy this book.
More annoyingly, Silver consciously avoids mention of any brand names! It would be worthwhile to review some, particularly when he has such a penchant for separate "char-grills" (which I have yet to see in ANY appliance store). For example, I'd like to see a review of issues like flame spread and cleanability. My own homework revealed that while a Dacor gas cooktop looked great, the flame spread was too big for normal pots and pans; Viking's non-sealed burners looked "cheap", made out of stamped stainless and would be difficult to clean.
Lastly, the illustrations for the most part looked amateur.

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This book is the first guide to kitchen design from a cooking perspective.As the only book for the homeowner who wants a kitchen that is beautiful and that cooks beautifully, it takes the most complex room in the home and addresses its function as well as its form. With forty years of experience in the design and cooking fields, Don Silvers has discovered that most people have no idea of the pleasure that can be added to cooking in the right kitchen. This book will add new joy to cooking for every reader, even those who have previously disliked cooking.

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Bungalow Kitchens (pb) Review

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(More customer reviews)In Bungalow Kitchens, Jane Powell and Linda Svendsen have successfully collaborated to create, quite simply, the best guidebook available today for preserving the beauty and integrity of yesteryear's bungalow kitchen while adapting it to the utilitarian values and conveniences of today. Every aspect is covered from plumbing to windows to shelving to electrification. What the remodeling householder needs to know about contractors and subcontractors is also informatively dealt with. Highly recommended reading for anyone contemplating an upgrade or modernization of their bungalow kitchen facilities, Jane Powell's informative and detailed text is superbly enhanced by Linda Svendsen photography showcasing bungalow kitchen examples throughout.

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Filled with handsome photographs of retro style kitchens, Bungalow Kitchens is for those who want to learn how to restore or re create a bungalow era kitchen. It is filled with invaluable information describing what was in these kitchens, when it was available, how it went together, and how to update period aesthetics for modern practicality.

Chapters include information on layout and design, dealing with professionals, and a helpful resource list. Photographs that treat you to rare, eye catching examples of kitchens and their fixtures will inspire Bungalow aesthetics of old that accommodate contemporary conveniences.

Jane Powell is an experienced bungalow kitchen restorer and a sought after speaker on the subject. She lives in Oakland, California.

The how-to resource for the Arts & Crafts enthusiast.

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The New Bungalow Kitchen Review

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(More customer reviews)What a joy to pick up a book and see photos of lovely kitchens in my size -- meaning, not McMansion. I am so disheartened by all the kitchen porn featuring 48 inch ranges under huge hoods behind islands with seating for six!Though the book specifically references the bungalow style, the photos and narrative describe how the Colonials and Tudors evolved early in the century, and there is plenty of visual and descriptive information applicable to these styles too.I especially liked the emphasis on finding ways to use authentic materials and styling while incorporating modern appliances, from lighting to cooking and even surfaces. The earlier book, Bungalow Kitchens, took on a very proscriptive voice, for example, absolutely banning in-ceiling spot lights. New Bungalow Kitchens, by contrast, is much more ecumenical, recognizing it is no sin to want to acknowledge and utilize the best of the current offerings, and provides real guidance on how to accomplish this without blatantly violating the period aesthetic. There are lovely kitchens in both dark stained and light painted finishes. It seems the author has a few favorite kitchens that were pictured over and over throughout the book. But the ones he chose certainly bore up well in their close-ups. I got several ideas that I can actually use, in fact, probably more ideas than I can actually use.

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The American love affair with the Bungalow continues. And in this most adored housing style, it is the kitchen that homeowners must most often restore, renovate, or remodel. But no one wants an authentic Bungalow kitchen, which was a rustic space that usually featured just a stove, a hoosier, and a sink. While there are books that describe the authentic Bungalow kitchen, there are few that show readers how to update a Bungalow to handle today's lifestyle needs and personal preferences. Happily, manufacturers today understand the demand, and there are many material and appliance options for homeowners--and the designers they hire--to bring contemporary convenience and beauty to an updated or new Bungalow kitchen. The New Bungalow Kitchen not only provides wonderful historical nuggets about Bungalow kitchens, it offers a plethora of ideas about how to create a tastefully restored or remodeled kitchen, or build new within the style.

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