Kitchens for the Rest of Us emphasizes kitchens that place function, craft, and intelligent design over grandeur and extravagance. By showing you twenty newly remodeled and hard-working kitchens built within typical-sized spaces, you'll be inspired to pursue your own mix of dreams, hopes, and needs.

Along the way, you'll pick up fresh ideas from the inspired minds of the homeowners who have been through the process: the professional cook in Wyoming who holds classes in his kitchen; the emergency-room nurse in California who designed her kitchen to replicate the efficiency of a hospital; and the Texas couple who got rid of the obligatory kitchen island to simply have more space.

These kitchens represent a highly informative cross-section of what is happening right now in kitchen design, material choices, style trends, appliance selections, and clever new storage strategies. But more importantly, these stories give you a truer sense of what goes on in real kitchens and a clearer sense of what is truly possible in yours. The author has chosen remodeling projects where all of the choices have grown out of a desire to create smart, good-looking kitchens rather than out of a need to impress and awe the neighbors.