Make way for yet another kitchen-and-bath magazine. November finds Fine Homebuilding jumping into the fire pot–and the whirlpool too.
In spite of the crowded field, this magazine manages to be different. Like the bimonthly magazine from which it sprang, Fine Homebuilding Kitchens & Baths is written by architects and builders who mix nuts-and-bolts information (the kind of stuff you should know before you start a renovation) with creative design and building ideas (the kind of stuff about which you hope your architect has ideas). An added plus: The editors here are more impressed with ingenuity than big bucks.
Find a wonderful primer on kitchen cabinets–learn why one costs a mere $115 and another $700. Find a clever system devised by a Rhode Island builder for making the standard refrigerator in his own kitchen look like a built-in Sub-Zero.
One of the best features is “Great Ideas,” a forum for sharing clever solutions. A builder and architect/woodworker from New York shared their design for a freestanding pizza island–the builder loves to make homemade pies and have the neighbors over for Friday-night feasts. A couple of architects from Washington submitted their idea for a curved shower wall covered with galvanized-steel roofing, which is waterproof.
Find Kitchens & Baths in bookstores and home-center stores for $6.95 through January. Or call 800-888-8286.
Hit “Enter”: Got a small house or condo with no entrance foyer? Check out David Kleinberg’s solution for his own apartment in the November issue of Elle Decor. The New York interior designer never intended to live in a 1980s Manhattan highrise, but he wanted a building with a uniformed staff and an apartment with abundant light–both of which could not be had in the older architecture he coveted.
Kleinberg did an enviable job of instilling his glitzy digs with a quiet elegance, care of a finely edited assortment of 20th Century Modern furnishings. His most stunning addition is a shoulder-height wall that etches a formal entryway where there was none without blocking views of the skyline.
Bits: Read about California restaurateur Alice Waters in the November issue of Garden Design, where her work with the local school district in establishing The Edible Schoolyard, a garden and curriculum for the kids to learn how to cook the produce they grow, is profiled. . . . Learn how (and what) to grill in your fireplace this fall/winter in House & Garden. . . . See how (and where) Martha hangs chandeliers–an accouterment she adores–in the November issue of her Martha Stewart Living. . . . And, check out space, a new lifestyle magazine from retail venue IKEA and published by John Brown Custom Publishing. Look before you shell out the $2 or $2.95, though. The quarterly costs less if you buy it at IKEA stores, although it is sold on newsstands and will be available by subscription. It’s more of a hip-looking vehicle for showcasing IKEA products than a genuine design book.