“All New Kitchen Idea Book”, Joanne Kellar Bouknight

Bouknight, Joanne Kellar. All New Kitchen Idea Book. Newtown, CT: Taunton, 2009. Print.

I’m impressed with the Taunton “idea book” series in general, and this kitchen book was no exception.  The very first full-page kitchen pictured, on page four, I immediately took to my husband and said “this is the kitchen I want!”.  I chose this book simply because was on the shelf of our local library branch, and I am thinking ahead to gutting the kitchen in our farmhouse (which is a decent size – about ten feet square).

It would be interesting to compare this to the original edition, ten years earlier in 1999.  Kitchens and bathrooms seem to have the most variation in style from year to year, and it seems to me (or am I just getting older?) that the swings are getting bigger and shorter all the time.  When I find a picture in an older book that I like, I know the odds are good that I will still like it in the future.

Getting back to the book itself, the chapters are a somewhat odd, mixed bag; “style and layout”, “the kitchen island”, “dining and work spaces”, “cabinets”, “open shelves and pantries”, “countertops, backsplashes and sinks”, “appliances”, “floors, walls, and ceilings”, and “lighting and windows”.  Really, though, the book is an excuse for big, often full-page, colour photos of beautiful-looking kitchens.  I liked seeing a dining alcove entirely lined in bookshelves – that’s my kind of kitchen!

There is no index, which is fine in a book of this type (how do you index 200 pictures of kitchens?).   There are only two books listed in the references section, but they look to be good ones:

• Calloway, Stephen, Elizabeth C. Cromley, and Alan Powers. The Elements of Style: an Encyclopedia of Domestic Architectural Detail. Buffalo, NY: Firefly, 2005. Print.
• McAlester, Virginia, and A. Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Knopf, 1984. Print.