Product Description

Filled with handsome photographs of retro-style kitchens, this is a "what to" book for those who want to learn how to restore or re-create a bungalow-era kitchen. It is filled with invaluable information describing what was in these kitchens, when it was available, and how it went together. You will be inspired to re-create the Bungalow aesthetic of old while enjoying contemporary conveniences.
(20000101)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52931 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Review
Old House Journal : The text is conversational but thorough, the kitchens shown are stylish but not trendy this book is not just for bungalow owners.

Arizona Republic : A visit to the past and a picturesque guide to creating a historic look in your own kitchen, whether old or new.

Fine Building : This book is more about being as authentic to early-20th-century styles as possible without compromising the basic requirements of a contemporary kitchen.

Arizona Republic, January 1, 2000
A visit to the past and a picturesque guide to creating a historic look in your own kitchen, whether old

Old House Journal, January 1, 2000
The text is conversational but thorough, the kitchens shown are stylish but not trendy...this book is not just for bungalow

Customer Reviews

Priority for the Poor
Being on the extremely limited budget, the idea of restoring our 1923 craftsman kitchen to the obsessive original is not even an option. This fabulous book gives you numerous ideas/ paths as to what a $100,000 restoration would encompass, and then provides compromises that the 'normal' home owner can accomplish with great results. It definitely made me re-contemplate several ideas that we had already set in stone, and I think ultimately will save us investment money. My favorite aspect of this book? Unlike several bungalow magazines (which will go unnamed) that feel the need to pretentiously describe the 'color of fumed oak' and ten million other things that the average home owner will never afford or see, Jane Powell is down to earth and able to 'talk' to you like your neighbor next door.

Not useful for building my new bungalow home
If I were restoring an old bungalow kitchen, this book might have been more useful. But I am just trying to bring some period touches to the new Craftsman bungalow that I'm building. The author gives examples of "Obsessive Restoration" and a "Compromise Solution" for each element of restoring a bungalow kitchen. I found a few things useful, such as what countertops were found in a period bungalow, but I could have found that elsewhere on the internet. In addition, the author wasted way too many pages discussing the history of kitchens, which is irrelevant to me. Her companion book, "Bungalow Bathrooms" is much of the same.

What a great resource!
I've been toying for years with plans to fix up the kitchen in our 1923 American Foursquare house, but last year when both my nonagenarian grandmothers moved into Assisted Living Facilities, I found myself clearing out their kitchens. When I brought some of their vintage kitchen equipment into my own kitchen, it suddenly came clear that my own kitchen re-do simply had to honor the history of my house and more importantly, the histories of my grandmothers' kitchens.

I am in no way interested in obsessive restoration, but I really needed to see what kitchens of my grandmothers' childhoods and young married lives would look like. What might my own kitchen have looked like when it was first built? There are charming Craftsman details elsewhere in my home... under the barn-red paint and 1970's "country primitive" wallpaper, what was the feel of this room?

This book is like a stroll through a neighborhood-full of kitchens from this era, wonderfully photographed and clearly explained. While my kitchen renovation will be a relatively simple project, I am thrilled to have such a lovely resource on which to base my search for the kitchen that lies beneath all that paint!