Customer Reviews

Kitchens for the Rest of Us: From the Kitchen You Have to the Kitchen You Love

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

On the back cover of this book, it states, "Kitchens for the Rest of Us. If your tastes yearn for granite but your budget calls for laminate, there is still hope for your kitchen makeover dreams." The book, however, includes more kitchens with granite countertops than laminate.

According to the author, most of the kitchens in the book cost $30,000 to $50,000. That, to me, isn't exactly a "laminate" budget.

This is a nice book with beautiful kitchens. It isn't, however, any more helpful to me than all the other designer books and magazines that showcase custom kitchens.

I agree completely with Cate, below. I couldn't find a laminate countertop in the book. Stock cabinets aren't allowed, and Sub Zero is the most common refrigerator in these very high-end remodeled kitchens (yes, really). If you have a big budget and you like the Fine Homebuilding look--expensive plainness--this might be a useful and inspirational resource. These kitchens have a more handcrafted, less ostentatious appearance than do many in the pricey kitchen design magazines. They are handsome rooms, although page after page of the same look put me to sleep. (Almost all the cabinets are unpainted Shaker-style custom cherry or maple; the countertops and room designs aren't special, for the most part, and the text isn't helpful.) It's not a book I'll consult again and again the way I do the This Old House: Kitchens book. Reading it does let me know that money and conventional good taste don't necessarily create interesting and useful rooms, and it is sort of nice to know that there are some pricey things that I don't want. But those side effects aren't enough to make me feel good about being misled by the way the book is described. The title must be a joke about social class. What world do the editors live in where a $50,000 kitchen is for the rest of us? My kitchen overhaul budget is set firmly in the laminate range, and there was very little in the book of use to me.

Maybe it's not nice to pile on and hammer how deceptive the title is, but Taunton Press/Fine Homebuilding deserves it. This book, like most Taunton books, has two major problems.

First problem: The misleading title that these are supposed to be mid(?)-level kitchens. Uh, no. Mid-level for Donald Trump, maybe. These completed kitchens have high-end countertops, stainless appliances, high-end flooring, etc. Going from "the kitchen you have to the kitchen you love" always seems to involve knocking down a wall and completely relocating plumbing or gas lines. Not to mention incorporating all the latest gizmos and color schemes that, 20 years from now, will be as in-fashion as those slate-blue-and-mauve country kitchens from 20 years ago. You're going from the Kitchen You Have to Some Designer's Trendy Kitchen that Takes Up Your Whole House. And for supposedly being cost-concious, I saw precious little text addressing how much the components (not to mention the de$igner'S time), actually cost.

Second Problem: is a peeve I have with these Taunton Dream books in general, of which this book another example. I've flipped through a lot of their books, and once you've seen one, you've seen them all. This book offers no general design hints for the homeowner. Kitchens for the Rest of Us is basically a smattering of 15-20 self-contained examples of completed kitchens. It's as if you have the choice between hiring a designer and doing exACtly what they did, or feeling lost and doing nothing at all. The attitude of the book is clearly "Look what WE did! Aren't WE just SO awesome? Hire us!" Instead of buying this book, you may as well focus on the kitchens in any of their other designer books; you get just as much information. Almost all Taunton books are like this, especially the recent ones (that includes you, Sarah Susanka). Don't bother buying them unless you really are in the mood for dreaming.

Here's my advice: Go to any public library to the Dewey Decimal call number 643.3. Check out those books, xerox the pages you like, and take them to a designer if you want. Many of the design books in the library are much more useful. They were written 15-20 years ago, back when people were more frugal, more sensible, and definitely more humble.

I love this book. I checked it out from the library and photocopied *many* pages when we were in the planning stages of our latest kitchen remodel. Now I'm buying a copy of my own, mostly so I can show better-quality images to our contractor as he finishes our breakfast nook benches, but also because I've gotten so much use out of it that I feel I owe it to the author to buy a copy. True, all of the photos and plans are of completed kitchens, but I'm not exactly sure why previous reviewers find that troubling.

On that note: The "...for the rest of us" title seems realistic, to me. These are functional kitchens with plenty of personality but without six-figure pricetags, ultra-custom finishes, or massive footprint changes. They're not "design on a dime" kitchens, but the folks at IKEA or Home Depot would be happy to help you design one of those, if that's truly your aim.

Reviewers who think a $30-50K kitchen remodel budget is "high-end" need to get in touch with reality. At least on the coasts, anything less than that falls into the "budget" or "economy" range, the sort of pricetag you might expect for an aesthetics-only remodel, or a small kitchen with IKEA cabinets and department store appliances. Don't even think about moving water, gas, or electric for that price ...and plan on doing the demo and cabinet-hanging yourself.

Five years ago, we did our own kitchen remodel -- tackling much of the labor ourselves, serving as our own 'general contractor' for work we had to hire out, using IKEA cabinets and Sears appliances, buying our sink and faucet online, running all the new electrical ourselves -- and it still cost us $30K.

You can't fault Taunton for economic reality: Most of the kitchens you see in magazines are easily in the $100K+ range, so a $30K-$50K kitchen really is "for the rest of us".

I loved this book. It has several pages on each kitchen shown, along with a before and after floor plan. This is really helpful if you are rethinking your floor plan. I have gotten many good layout ideas from it.

The kitchens, for the most part, aren't huge. They are small to middle-sized, and give me a lot of insight into how to make things fit and how to make my kitchen function well. There are good design ideas too, beyond layout, and with the multiple photos of each kitchen you can really get a good look at things from several angles.

I just checked out 4 kitchen design books from the library, all produced in '08 and '09 (we put our remodel on hold for 4 years and are getting back to it now). I sat down with the books and a pad of post-it notes thinking I'd mark any good ideas, and buy any book that had a lot of ideas I liked. I used 3 post-its total on 4 books. No kidding. The kitchens were nothing like mine and I couldn't even relate them to my space. Vaulted ceilings and really cool and unusual spaces, beautiful to look at but nothing remotely like what I have to work with. Giant commercial grade appliances that would break my bank and leave no room for anything else! You get the idea. The books I checked out were more like fantasy books or just fun looks at what other people (with money) have done. This book was so much more realistic for our size and budget. Really practical ideas too.

It's the only book I've bothered to actually buy because it has so much I can use.

I'd say take a look inside and if you like the pages you see, you will probably like the book.

After seeing nothing but high end kitchens in most books, I really thought this would be the book to help those of us who don't have huge budgets. Unfortunately, I was very wrong. Wolfe ranges, Sub-Zero refrigerators, granite counters and backsplashes aren't mainstay for the 'rest of us', yet these high priced appliances and finishes fill the vast majority of the kitchens in this book.

This book was a huge disappointment, I won't make that mistake again.

If you think your dream kitchen is beyond your reach, this book will help you find a way to do it without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Any who long to transform a kitchen into a classy workspace but lack the funds will find plenty to inspire in KITCHENS FOR THE REST OF US - those on a budget. 20 remodel examples here show how to get the most for your money, pairing design with budget tips for tweaking the kitchen workspace. Color photos and diagrams abound in a fine survey recommended for any home and garden collection.

"For each of the kitchen redos, Lemos includes before-and-after photos, floor plans, and a description of the problem. It's a nice touch that lets the reader see how real-life homeowners solved their kitchen-design woes, from a couple looking to gut their tiny kitchen to newlyweds trying to blend their decorative tastes.
The book has a nice mix of styles and budgets, with plenty of cost-saving tips." (review by Rebecca Swain Vadnie - Orlando Sentinel)
Since remodeling a kitchen causes major upheaval in a home, be sure to get as many ideas as possible before planning your changes. Talk to other homeowners too. I always thought I wanted those fold-out shelves for canned goods, but found them to be awkward once I had them.

As a designer I am asking all of my customers to read this book. It lays out everything they need to figure out before they start a kitchen project and shows all the various alternatives in an easy to follow way.