Synopses & Reviews
The American love affair with the Bungalow continues. And in this most adored housing style, it is the kitchen that homeowners must most often restore, renovate, or remodel. But no one wants an authentic Bungalow kitchen, which was a rustic space that usually featured just a stove, a hoosier, and a sink.
While there are books that describe the authentic Bungalow kitchen, there are few that show readers how to update a Bungalow to handle today's lifestyle needs and personal preferences. Happily, manufacturers today understand the demand, and there are many material and appliance options for homeowners--and the designers they hire--to bring contemporary convenience and beauty to an updated or new Bungalow kitchen. The New Bungalow Kitchen not only provides wonderful historical nuggets about Bungalow kitchens, it offers a plethora of ideas about how to create a tastefully restored or remodeled kitchen, or build new within the style.
Review
"Homeowners contemplating renovation may find [author Peter LaBau] a savior, guiding them into the present while staying true to the past...." --"The Washington Post"
"Everyone loves bungalows, but not everyone loves bungalow kitchens -- they're usually cramped, small and relegated to the back of the house. "The New Bungalow Kitchen," by Peter LaBau explains how you can maintain the bungalow style while updating it for modern needs by knocking out walls, adding period light fixtures and rearranging cabinetry. Page after page of stunning kitchens (most bathed in lovely golden light) show how you can incorporate granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and wine closets into houses with casement windows, beadboard walls and lots of natural wood, and still make it all work. LaBau has suggestions for different degrees of renovation -- remodeling on an existing footprint, expanding into a porch area, or bumping out into a whole new addition. Through it all, he remains practical, explaining structure, plumbing and design. It's a gorgeous book. I want "all "these kitchens! It's only been a few years since I remodeled my own kitchen, but paging through 'The New Bungalow Kitchen' makes me want to grab a crowbar and start over."
--"The Minneapolis Star Tribune"
Peter LaBau's "The New Bungalow Kitchen" (Taunton Press, $30) is more eye candy for those who love kitchens (and lust after other people's) than it is a treatise about the architectural form. The kitchens in LaBau's book could fit into just about any house style today, from Queen Anne to McMansion. They are clean and elegant, antique and modern, and full of originals, reproductions, and cutting-edge materials andtechnology. Marco Prozzo's photography is gorgeous, and LaBau offers sound advice in every chapter. What you see in these pages is hardly out of reach. It's all out there. You just need to look. --"The Philadelphis Inquirer"
Synopsis
"The New Bungalow Kitchen" not only provides wonderful historical nuggets about this housing style, it offers a plethora of ideas about how to create a tastefully restored or remodeled kitchen, or build new within the style.
Synopsis
Builds on the popularity of the bungalow style to present a comprehensive guide to home kitchen design, including more than 250 full-color photographs, detailed plans, historical background, materials and appliance options, and hundreds of innovative ideas for updating, renovating, or remodeling one's kitchen.
About the Author
Peter Labau is an architect and the founder of The Classic Group, a Lexington, Massachusetts-based firm that specializes in building and renovating traditional homes. Labau is also a photographer and an accomplished public speaker, and in his spare time he plays first banjo in The Flexible Flyers, a bluegrass band. He now lives in Lexington, Virginia.