Country Living 500 Kitchen Ideas: Style, Function & Charm Hardcover – August 5, 2014

This book is the best decorating book I have ever purchased. I received this book about 2 years ago, and ever since I opened it, I had been dreaming about what my dream kitchen would look like. Well this year I had my chance to make my dreams a reality and this book was there every step of the way. From cabinets, to sinks, faucets, flooring, counter tops and lighting this book had great ideas. We picked out the style of cabinets from this book and our cabinetmaker was able to duplicate them perfectly. We had this book out so much on this project that he wants to purchase one as well, since most of his work is done on older homes.There are many different types of country decorating in this book, some may not appeal to you, but there is everything from shabby chic, colonial, primitive, shaker, or traditional American country. I prefer French or English country and those elements are included as well. It you can't tell I really love this book. :)

Lots of great ideas in this book...my only complaint is that the shape of the book is rather odd...I expected it to be much larger. And the vertical layout is a bit awkward to flip through.BUT...TONS of great kitchen photos. Mostly beautiful and inspiriting...a few oddball photos from the early 90's, but the majority of the book is composed of recent photos from CL magazine.

I bought this book here on Amazon last summer while in the midst of the building our summer cottage. I had a general idea about what decor ideas I wanted for the cabin, but had no "visual inspirations," so to speak. This book is chock full of ideas for any modern country, shabby chic, flea market thrifty or cottage style lover. I've gotten so many ideas and inspirations, that I have just about every page bookmarked with sticky notes. I've also decided to go with open cabinetry in my kitchen versus the usual cabinetry doors after drooling over the lovely display of pottery and knickknacks featured in this book! I love this book and recommend it to anyone who wants inspiration on their home or just to have dreamy thoughts about what they would love for their kitchen to look like.Five stars all the way!

I had high hopes for this book but didn't get any new and ingenious ideas from it like hoped for. The pictures, though often repeated of the same kitchen, are very nice, but there was no tips presented on where to purchase anything or how to achieve the looks that were presented. The tips offered seemed rather obvious. Overall, underwhelmed. If you are looking for really amazing and awesome kitchen ideas, please go no further the the old reliable "Taunton's" Anything produced by Taunton's, from their books to their magazine "Fine Homebuilding" will prove invaluable. My favorite so far is "Kitchen Ideas that Work...Creative Design Ideas that Word". You will not waste your money on that one! Although not a total waste, this book is being donated to a church garage sale...no one should pay retail for it like I did.

I'm a self-professed decorating book junkie, however, if they don't deliver the goods, back they go. This one delivers. It's thoughtfully organized, full of quality pictures, and not overly verbose. (A plus for those of us who really just want to look at the pictures!) I got about half way through the first pass, and had to jump up from my chair and completely redecorate my china hutch to look like it could be in the book. It didn't stop there, I spent the next hour and a half rearranging and decluttering all the surfaces in the entire kitchen. I bought the book to glean ideas for finishing my kitchen, but it even helped me to make do with what I have. It is not just full of $50,000 kitchen remodels, there's stuff in there for us regular people too. That's what I call "Inspirational".

We are preparing for a home addition that will include a major kitchen renovation. I read the reviews on this book and ordered it hoping to utilize it in my planning phase but was greatly disappointed in it.The book focuses more on décor rather than design.I read every page of the book. It has a lot of redundancy in its text just slightly rewording certain sentences over and over again making the same repetitive points to "run the numbers" up to 500 as part of its title. Also, it actually had a couple of text mistakes that weren't caught in proofing. I don't care about the mistakes, per se; but they gave me the impression that the efforts of this book were to create a catchy title to quickly make money without a lot of substance.A majority of the ideas in this book remind me of a college student's kitchen or a starter home kitchen where the only resources available are family hand-me-downs combined with thrift store and flea market finds. If that's your phase in life (and there's certainly nothing wrong with that - most of us, including myself, live through that phase at one point or another,) you may really enjoy the book and may find it creative and helpful. If you are wondering how to utilize your great-aunt's discarded and distressed furniture, or salvage old tool drawers from your uncle's garage to use as flatware drawers, or want to decorate in somewhat of a fun memorabilia manner (which is different than chic eclectic style standards, you may want to purchase this book.One of the things I disliked most about the book was its major style theme towards a cluttered look. Research shows that to have a cluttered kitchen (or any room for that matter) leads to additional stress. My family and I enjoy life more when there isn't so much clutter constantly "shouting" at us. I prefer cooking and entertaining friends and family in a more calm atmosphere than what is shown in most pictures in this book.I'm donating this book to my local library. Hopefully, others will find more value in it than I did.Post Script of 2013:I wrote my original review of this book in late 2011 or early 2012. I ultimately ordered 12 kitchen design books from Amazon. This book was the least helpful. Our kitchen renovation is now complete and utilized many ideas from books other than this one.

I liked having the option of buying new or used. This book was used but in excellent condition which, for under $9, was a steal if a deal.

Très bon guide de décoration, pour qui veut s'inspirer ou réaliser la conception ou la modification de sa cuisine. Les photos sont de qualité et la variété des types de cuisine y est très intéressante. Je recommande!

it is the first time that a book delivers so much.I have been trough a lot of book about kitchen and this one hits them all .If you had to choose between litterature or pictures ,this one is full of pictures and bit a litterature .Love it

This beautiful book inspired by Country Living Magazine is a pictorial encyclopedia of every style, color, texture and budget to help the renovator and builder design a true country kitchen. It has been a huge inspiration for my 100 year old house makeover. Nothing disappointing about this book.

Good quality product