Kitchen remodeling is one of the most expensive and intensive remodeling projects you can undertake in any house. The process involves important design decisions about cabinets, countertops, lighting, appliances, layout, and finish treatments. In Renovating a Kitchen, a collection of articles from Fine Homebuilding magazine, professional builders and designers take you through each phase of remodeling, from design to building to installation.

Written by the pros who actually do the work, these articles will help you to:

• design and build cabinets on site or from factory-made components and install them correctly
• make plastic-laminate, solid-surface, and concrete countertops
• select and install proper ventilation
• get appliances to fit into your design
• make minor improvements that have major impact

Formerly The Best of Fine Homebuilding: Kitchens, this newly revised edition features 30 percent new content, including the latest tools and techniques and updated photos and illustrations.

The original The Best of Fine Homebuilding: Kitchens is available in hardcover.

About the For Pros by Pros series
To get the best results when building or remodeling, you need advice from the best professionals in the business. For Pros By Pros books bring together the expert designers, builders, and remodeling pros who have written for Fine Homebuilding magazine.

Introduction

Part 1: CABINETS
Kitchen Cabinets from Components
Hybrid Cabinet Construction
Installing Kitchen Cabinets
Building Kitchen Cabinets on Site
Faux Fridge Front
Installing Kitchen Cabinets
Simple Frameless Cabinets Built on Site

Part 2: COUNTERTOPS
Making a Solid-Surface Countertop
Making Concrete Countertops
Making Plastic-Laminate Countertops
Counter Act
Tiling a Kitchen Counter
Tiling over a Laminate Counter

Part 3: PLANNING A KITCHEN REMODEL
An Inside Look at Kitchen Cabinets
Choosing Kitchen Countertops
Ten Ways to Improve Your Kitchen
Getting Appliances to Fit

Credits

Index

The most important fixture in my mom's kitchen was never the stove, or the refrigerator, or even the sink. It was a stool. Early in my life it was a metal stool, yellow and chrome, with fold-out steps. Then later it was a wooden stool that I screwed together out of two-by-fours with a big maple cutting board for a seat. That stool was where my mother sat to drink her instant coffee, smoke her cigarettes, and write her grocery lists. It's where guests perched to acclimate themselves to our home. And it's where I sat after dinner to avoid doing my homework.

If my mother were remodeling her kitchen today, I know she would start with the stool. But kitchens are highly personal spaces, and other people would start with the restaurant range they've always wanted or the farmhouse sink. Eventually, though, everybody gets around to the functional heart of the kitchen: cabinets and countertops. Whatever else a kitchen might be -- sanctuary, gathering place, status symbol -- it is first and foremost a culinary workshop where food is stored and prepared. Try doing that without cabinets and counters.

In this book, which is a collection of articles originally published in Fine Homebuilding magazine, you'll find practical advice about building, choosing, and installing the essential elements of a kitchen. Well, most of them anyway; there's nothing here about stools.

--Kevin Ireton, editor-in-chief, Fine Homebuilding