Best Signature Kitchens: Over 100 Fabulous Kitchens from Top Designers

This is a really beautiful book with gorgeous kitchens in many different styles. The photographs are clear and show great views of the kitchen details. Each kitchen has it's own chapter title, a bird's eye view of the layout, one huge photo and one smaller photo of some feature or different view of the kitchen. There is a callout section in the middle of the page that includes the specifics: Products Used, Dimensions of of the kitchen, the Designers' name and Special Features of the room. Sometimes the details in the information is lacking. For instance, on several descriptions for countertops it may say only granite, on others it will tell you the name of the granite. The layout of the book is easy to follow and the full description (not the callout) is very informative. It tells what the problems in the previous kitchen were and what the owners were looking for in the design. They discuss the challenges in the design and give more details about the kitchen. A few quibbles. In the beginning section, before getting to the actual kitchens featured, there were lots of pictures of kitchens, but no captions for the photographs. For instance on page 13, there is a photo of an unsual countertop with a glass vessel sink. Without reading through all the text on the two facing pages, I have no idea what material composes the glass vessel sink or the countertop. In fact, even if you read the text, you still won't know the composition. That's because the text talks about all kinds of environmentally friendly countertops, but never describes the items in the photo. I know it's not one of the featured kitchens, but if there is a photo, it should have some type of caption or desciription, either in the text or in a caption. These photos have neither. How frustrating that I, as the reader, saw this photo of exactly the type of countertop I want, but no information that indicates what kind of countertop, the manufacturer, nada. Again, in the beginning section, when there are captions for the photos, they're mainly useless. For example, page 19 shows a gorgeous kitchen with an unusul sink and two-toned cabinetry. The caption says, "Simple updates will keep a kitchen looking fresh. A vibrant wall color or a new set of simple hardware is the ideal addition for an out-of-date space." What I want to know is what wood was used to create those cabinets and where can I get that awesome SS sink! In this same section, an entire narrative (2-3 paragraphs) are spent on information about BATHROOM products - curtains, toilets, showerheads. Maybe if they took out the bathroom tidbits there may have been space for the author to tell me the countertop material and where I could get the sink. LOL Luckily, this section is short, about 12 pages, so you don't have to suffer too long, but this is why I did not give the book 5 stars. Besides this minor quibble, this is a fantastic book with wonderful, gorgeous kitchens. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for idea