Kitchen Culture: Re-inventing Kitchen Design

The best kitchen design book I have ever seen. Grey has spent time evaluating the ergonomics of the kitchen from the proper height for the oven door, space between various dedicated work surfaces to raising the dish washer 14 inches so you never have to bend over to put your dishes in to be cleaned. It makes so much sense and the designs are diversifed from modern to classic traditional - and they are just beautiful! He is ecologically mindful and his advice from floors to counter tops to appliances was eye opening for me and very practical. I am designing my new kitchen based on his recommendations. The best news is it will work for me now with kids and still work for me when I am 75 yeras old thanks to the ergonomic design.

I'm addicted to coffee table books on home design, and I usually love kitchen design books- my all-time favorite book which I took on vacation and also recommended to my book club was "Great Kitchens". I think that this book overpromised. Johnny Grey stated that he's "reinventing kitchen design". The reinvemtion is his trademark style of semi-circle curved cabinets and round and oval islands. The workmanship on these curved units is amazing and the photographs do them full justice. I was wondering where in the world a person would have curved cabinetry custom made...and lo! The cabinetry is available through "The Grey Guild". Johnny Grey is the only kitchen designer featured in this book, which is terrific is you're an ardent fan. I found that I was not a fan (yawn), seen one and you've seen the unique, all of the rest is style differences. The book, to me, was a shameless sales job for Johnny Grey and his organization. I would have given the book a "2" rating, but the section on kitchen ergonomics at the back redeemed this book a little, in my opinion (finally something useful!). I do design, build, and live with new kitchens, as my husband and I are owner builders and rennovators. His kitchen designs would be a pleasure to cook in (for the most part), but the curved cabinetry would blow up my largest kitchen budget before appliances were purchased. These kitchens belong in multi-million dollar homes and they aren't a reasonable design choice for even a million dollar home building budget. The money spends quickly in homebuilding, and a large part of the house budget is gone before the house is finished enough for kitchen purchases. In my expereince the kitchen budget receives the most scrutiny and is the source of most budget arguements. These "Grey" kitchens would pass muster only in a project where money was no object and the budget had no ceiling.

We have just finished a major kitchen renovation and this book was incredibly helpful. His focus on kitchens in the round is entirely new. No longer do you have to think only in perpendicular planes. This new way of thinking makes the room more useful, wastes less space and brings a level of design and excitement we'd never seen before. If you're thinking of a new kitchen or a renovation this is a must look book

Undoubtably this book may offer some good advice. But all the kitchens appear to be by Johnny Grey and are the most bloated, overachieving, ugly executive kitchens I've ever seen.If you have no taste whatsoever you'll love this book.

Kitchen Culture: Re-inventing Kitchen Design, does exactly this. It takes those obscure thoughts and whimsys' and shows you it can be done. I showed this to a cabinet maker friend who was very impressed and he said that you could achieve this using cheaper materials if you so wished. He was not daunted by the fact that it was built by an English master craftsman, it merely removed obstacles that shapes can produce. This book fits my "whimsy" well, read enjoy and create.

I love the underlying concepts in this book. Kitchens should be ergonomic spaces, with function coming first. They should also be designed with the way we live in mind. This is the starting point for Johnny Grey's "revolutionary" kitchen designs. His kitchens use unfitted cabinets to create efficient work centers tailored to your needs. The sink cabinets, for example, are higher than typical cabinets because you are mostly working at the bottom of the sink, not the top.The kitchens featured are wonderful, but all of them are impossible for anyone who doesn't have millions of dollars to spend or when space is limited. While the curved custom cabinets are beautiful, it would have been nice to see at least one or two kitchens that use off-the-shelf cabinets in innovative ways. If you are working with a creative designer they might be able to take this book and run with it, but if you are a DIYer it will be hard to envision these ideas in your own kitchen.On the upside, the section at the back that details the ergonomics of kitchen design is very useful, and possibly worth the price of the book.

My husband and I need to update our kitchen. I am a librarian so I have access to a lot of books on kitchen design, but this was by far my favorite, so much so that I bought my own copy. What an innovative way to look at a kitchen! By using bright colors and soft curves, Johnny Grey has opened my eyes to what an inviting space a kitchen can be for my family and I look forward to integrating his concepts into our eventual design.

This book is extremely innovative. It is definately not for those who are looking for safe tried and trued kitchen design. It is for anyone who wants to design "out of the box".

Overall the book is disappointing and has little to say to your regular homeowner: the design consistently advocates curved units and surfaces which are probitively expensive BUT there's just a few pages that are radical with advice that I've found nowhere else and make the book worth it alone. Grey argues for higher worktops than are standard, and different heights for different functions. It's quickly and simply argued and he gives mostly easy to follow advice on getting a kitchen to work at the right height for you. I took his advice, it barely added any cost and have a blissfully painless kitchen: no stoop or back ache when using the sink; no bent neck when chopping or sore elbows; and no peering over pan tops stirring with a crocked arm. If only furniture designers followed similar ideas.

This is a book about reinventing the kitchen not just refurbishing it. It challenges your preconceptions and makes you re-evaluate how you use the space in your home. The kitchen is the hub - the social centre for receiving guests, preparing food, eating and generally living. Johnny Grey pioneered the concept of the unfitted kitchen and explains his ideas about soft geometry, ergonomics and the role of the space that we call a kitchen in modern life. The beautiful rooms illustrated in this book may only be achievable for those with a very large budget but they are inspirational.

Arrived in good condition.The content was as expected after reading previous reviews.

Some great ideas from an innovative designer

A+++++