Kelly’s Kitchen Sync – Book Review

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A good friend of mine just had her book published and I asked her if I could review it here on Life of an Architect. Kelly Morisseau, a Certified Master Kitchen and Bath Designer (CMKBD) has written ‘Kelly’s Kitchen Sync’ a practical hands on book for the rest of us.

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From the book jacket, she is summed up and introduced as follows:

Kelly has kitchen design in her blood. Her blog, Kitchen Sync, is a top-ten kitchen design blog on the internet. A second generation designer, both her parents were kitchen designers long before anyone understood the term. Kelly’s award-winning experience includes more than 25 years as a professional kitchen designer, both on her own and for leading design/build firms. She is a Certified Master Kitchen and Bath Designer (CMKBD) and a Certified Interior Designer (CID) in California.

Pretty good right? I didn’t know any of these things for the first 6 months after I found Kelly and we became friends. She was probably like the 3rd of 4th person I “met” after I started my blog and she has always been a great source of information and inspiration to me. I know architects always think they know everything – it’s one of our most enduring qualities really – but I never knew how much time and effort people like Kelly put into knowing their craft. I always felt like I could design a kitchen with the best of them but for me, a sink used to be just a sink, a placeholder until I actually needed to select it during construction. Not so fast … I learned from Kelly that not only does she know like, every manufacturer on the planet, but she also knows every piece in their product line. I suppose when you are a certified master kitchen designer and you focus all your attention on a single space, you develop formidable knowledge and specificity about everything that goes into that space.

It’s this level of dedication that you can find in the book Kelly just wrote. I picked up my copy at the end of last week and I just finished reading it cover to cover. Not only was it written in a lively and entertaining manner, it was full of very practical advice. Kelly is a funny person and her humor can be found throughout the book.

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This book is broken down into 4 clearly delineated parts that will help walk you through the process of kitchen design:

Part 1 Everyone needs a little design help: The Expectations and Reality

Part 2 Getting Started: Costs, Where to Go, and Who You Need

Part 3 The Insider Secrets for Making Your Kitchen Work

Part 4 Putting it All Together: Case Studies

Depending on the knowledge level you bring to the mix, you will receive different levels of value from each section. For me, someone who has a fair amount of skill when it comes to kitchen design, the Insider Secrets for Making Your Kitchen Work in Part 3 was great.  It was like taking what I already knew and turning it up to 11 (if you don’t know what that means, you need to watch the movie Spinal Tap).

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According to Kitchen and Bath Design News, over 80% of consumers want to redo their kitchens.

The writing style and delivery of information make this an easy book to process. It is full of commonsense design information that every person I know would benefit from reading. If you are an architect, interior designer, homeowner – whatever – I can guarantee that this book will teach you something you didn’t know and will prepare you better for your next kitchen. When I learned that Kelly had a book coming out, I sent her a message and asked if I could review it and put it on my blog (she didn’t ask me, I asked her). I think Kelly is a great person and I knew from reading her blog Kelly’s Kitchen Sync that Kelly knows what she is talking about. When the book came in, I didn’t expect to learn as much as I did and I certainly didn’t expect to enjoy reading a book on kitchen design as much as I did. Beyond some things that are geared specifically towards homeowners that would be reading this book and have nothing other than practical experience to refer to, I found the detail to be meaty enough that seasoned designers would appreciate. For example; in the section ‘The Insider Secrets for Making Your Kitchen Work’ Kelly has a section where she lists the 6 places hardware snags your design. They are all obvious to someone who has done hundreds and hundreds of kitchens and has lived through these mistakes but for those who have never done a kitchen, or only 100, after reading each tip I was think – “Yeah, that’s a good tip”

I could go on and on about how practical this book was and how much I got out of it, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Kelly’s book is currently sitting on my desk and is butchered with highlighter and post-it notes. That’s the best testament I could provide. I know the book will do well and if you’re part of that 80% that wants to redo your kitchen or your an architect or interior designer who does 10  kitchens a year, do yourself and your clients a favor and read through this book.

Cheers

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