Joan Kohn's It's Your Kitchen: Over 100 Inspirational Kitchens

Using photographs and descriptions of a wide variety of professionally designed kitchens to inspire readers, the author--host of HGTV's Kitchen Design and Bed and Bath Design--provides a pretty and practical guide to kitchen design and renovation. Because""a well-designed kitchen draws the family together and sets the tone for the day,"" Kohn believes the design of one's kitchen is key to the overall feel and function of one's home. The volume is divided into two logical sections; the first,""Design Essentials,"" gives information about creating a vision, the basics of kitchen design, tools to assess an existing kitchen and budgets, as well as tips for assembling ideas and following personal style. This section clearly demonstrates that avoiding a cookie-cutter kitchen requires some investment of time and thought, but also helps guide that preparation. The second section introduces the building blocks of kitchen design: function, raw space, floor plan and style. The chapters in this section provide realistic advice for creating a great kitchen within the constraints of an existing home, and remind readers that""no kitchen design is truly complete until it is tested and retested by the life you live in it."" The book's 230 full-color photographs of real kitchens are almost too tantalizing--they make settling on one style of kitchen quite a challenge.