150 Best Kitchen Ideas [ハードカバー]

150 Best Kitchen Ideas is ALL about the contemporary kitchen. This is a massive book with over 590 pages full of great quality photographs and designs. The chapters are divided by material: Wood, Lacquered, Steel, Stone, Mixed Materials. The photograph on the cover and maybe one kitchen in the Wood chapter is probably the closest you will get to a traditional kitchen.

When I began going through the pages (it's really a photo book), I was pretty disappointed until I got to a section in the Wood chapter, about page 70. You'll actually have to count most of the pages, because unless there is text on the page, the page is unnumbered. Until page 70, with a few exceptions, the kitchens depicted had an interesting element or two, but nothing where the entire kitchen was gorgeous. For example, on page 11, the cabinets are made of multi-colored wood, quite interesting, but practically everything else in the room is solid white. On page 21 there is a modular type kitchen, basically white melamine and some type of long grain wood, nice clean lines but the only colors are white, tan and stainless steel. On page 35, the cabinets are 3 different woods with a horizontal design, very interesting, but it still looked like a kitchen in a high rise office building.

After the initial pages, the kitchens improved by incorporating color and interesting textures which seemed to lend a warmth to the kitchens. I liked all the kitchens in the WOOD chapter, after page 70, except the wood panelled one. The LACQUERED section brought in lots of color (except for a few that were mainly white. There was one kitchen/dining area that was mainly black (page 183-185), I'm still drooling over it! LOL ... mouth droppingly gorgeous. The kitchens that incorporated color were also quite beautiful. The STEEL chapter is lots of SS, which means most of the kitchens have an industrial feel. There are lots of curved cooktop surfaces and designs in this section. The STONE section designs used so little stone or were so stark white that the stone didn't really warm the kitchen. The MIXED MATERIAL chapter included lots of components, had unusual light fixtures and accessories, and some of the most interesting and diverse designs. I have a traditional home, but contemporary kitchens can be quite beautiful with their clean lines and style. Even if it's not my personal style, I can still appreciate beautiful design.

The last 100 pages or so really delve into some of the innovative design finds for a contemporary kitchen, i.e. hods (cooking and/or sink of kitchen in a self-contained unit/pod/hob), extractor hoods (some that look like some alien pod), lighting, sinks, faucets, cookware, utensils and storage solutions. On page 502, there is a wall that looks like a one dimensional outline of a dining table, bench and light fixture, but they all pull out from the wall - REALLY COOL. It's worth looking for this book just to see that! LOL

If you want a contemporary kitchen, this is an awesome book. If you have a traditional kitchen, there will probably be very liitle that you find useful. That being said, I loved this book and definitely think it would be a required purchase if you are planning a contemporary kitchen design or remodel.

I have quite a few of the "150 Best ... Ideas" books and like them. This one on kitchens was disappointing. Not a lot of variety for the size of the book - different materials and finishes on basically the same suburban kitchen designs, over and over. An awful lot of sales pamphlet photos from kitchen supply companies.

A lot of modern ideas, not too many classic ones. But a great book to have if you are remodeling or building a kitchen.