Every good project starts with a good foundation, and in the kitchen, foundation means base cabinets. You might be surprised to learn that there’s not a lot of difference in cost between a cabinet made with light-duty materials and one that lasts a lot longer. In A Buyer's Guide to Kitchen Cabinets, Veteran cabinetmaker and journalist Scott Gibson takes us on a tour of the typical kinds of cabinets that you find in kitchen showrooms and shows us what to look for to get the most utility and durability for the investment.
“When it comes to energy consumption, the kitchen is the hungriest room in the house.” So begins Alex Wilson’s article, The Energy-Smart Kitchen. If you’re in the market for kitchen appliances and you care about how much energy they use, this is a must-read article about evaluating your choices. And if you’re already outfitted with appliances that have a lot of life left in them, Wilson’s tips for how to operate them for peak performance will lower your energy bills.
Not all bathrooms are created for equal functions. Powder rooms and kids’ bathrooms have certain requirements, and so do master baths. In Master the Master Suite, Texas architect Paul DeGroot walks us through five floor plans that range from just under 400 sq. ft. to nearly 800 sq. ft. Each one illustrates how the relationship of bedroom, closet, and bathroom can be fine-tuned to deliver a suite that offers privacy, plenty of storage, lots of daylight, and the right number of bath fixtures for your lifestyle.
And to make sure that you never end up standing under a stream of cold water in that bathroom’s shower, take a look at Dave Yates’s article, Water Heaters: Tank or Tankless?. This master plumber takes on the common questions about which one of these types of water heaters costs the least to operate and which one ensures that a houseful of people has enough hot water every morning.
Rounding out the issue are exemplary kitchen and bath remodels with ideas that can be applied to just about any project, regardless of budget, style, or floor plan. And if you’ve got an inclination to include a breakfast nook in your kitchen, you’ll appreciate Breakfast-Booth Basics, with our bonus feature on designing and building a bench for the perfect built-in booth. For an in-depth, narrated tutorial on building the bench, check out John White’s 14-part video series, Learn How to Build a Breakfast Booth. It has great construction advice for both beginning and accomplished woodworkers.
If you'd like to know more about the issue, or if you've got a project that you'd like considered for next year's issue of Kitchens & Baths, drop me a line at cmiller@taunton.com. See the Call for Entries page for details on refining your submission.
Charles Miller
Special-issues editor
Published 2007, ISSN 1096-360X, #FHB071201
