Kitchen Thinking... My review of Kitchen Think, by Nancy Hiller.

I bought this book almost a year ago, but I'd consciously avoided writing this review. Quite simply, I wasn't really sure if the world really need a blond-haired white guy praising a woman for writing about woodworking. Wouldn't that seem kind of oblivious? Doesn't her work stand on its own? (YES. YES IT DOES.)  #metoodoesn'tneedmyopinon.

But then I remembered working at Rockler, and Woodcraft, and seeing Woodworking for Women magazine on the rack, with its cover headlines boasting "Easy projects you can make for your home or garden!" But it seemed like simplistic, 5th grade arts and crafts projects. At the time I thought this was perhaps the latest peak of sexist bullshit, that the best the publishing industry could come up with for women was to offer them pink frilly hammers and treat them like children.

I could only think of three articles that should be in a woman-oriented woodworking magazine, anyway: 

'Learning a trade that's dominated by men: Yes, they're sexist, gaslighting jerk-offs. Don't believe the hype. You're doing fine.'

'Working with Men in a workshop: Yes, they're sexist, gaslighting jerk-offs. Don't buy into their nonsense. Just continue running rings around them, like Ginger Rogers; backwards, in heels. Yes, it's annoying. You're doing fine.'

'Managing the Men who work in your woodshop with you: Yes, they're sexist, gaslighting jerk-offs. But if you can use their own blind spots to convince them that what you need done was their own idea, then at least they'll get the job done. Obviously you don't need me to tell you how you're doing, Please Persist. God speed on your road to mastery and excellence.' 

This last would have been written by some of the (admittedly, few) women that I'd talked to in the stores where I worked. (When I brought it up, they explained that they didn't usually come in to the store because they were tired of being talked down to by some of my coworkers. FML.)

Frankly, if a woman can (more than) hold her own in a shop environment, while simultaneously running a PsyOps mission, and still deliver a quality product to a client, maybe the publishing industry should aim a lot higher (Talking up, instead of down) when they approach that particular demographic. I digress... but remembering all of those experiences was what broke the mental logjam over whether or not I should write about this book.

Once I started thinking about Woodworking for Women magazine, and everything it wasn't, and Kitchen Think, and everything it is, I felt ashamed for keeping my mouth shut. At the end of the day, Kitchen Think has no truck with gender politics at all. It's simply the best book I've found about how to design and build a kitchen.

And, it was written by a woman.

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Most of the 'woodworker-oriented' kitchen books that I'd seen put out by the usual suspects (Popular woodworking, Taunton Press, and other tool industry shills) are all variations on a theme: Use this jig, make drawers. WOW, see dovetails? Pinnacle of good work, they are. Use this jig to install these hinges. Here are a bunch of solutions to squeezing more storage space into awkward, and marginally effective spaces. Straight and square layouts of straight and square kitchens that, frankly, didn't look that exciting, and nuts-and-bolts descriptions of how to make plywood boxes with doors and drawers. A little attention to visual design would have gone a long way.

But from the design direction, I wasn't really sure where to turn. But one of my pet peeves with the kitchen 'design' blogs I found is that most of them also feel like they're shills, but now for the gadget and hardware producing industry. The kitchens on display are so enormous, and ostentatious, or over-run with stupid gadgetry, that I couldn't help but wonder if the bloggers involved knew anything at all about cooking. At one point I was reading a design post on houzz, and was so annoyed that I signed up to the website, specifically so I could comment on how ridiculously stupid most of it was. I felt bad later, because it was nothing more than a knee-jerk, full-throttle flame job. (I ended my diatribe by suggesting they get rid of their kitchen entirely, save their money, and order take-out. I was in rare form.) But I also got regular notices for years afterwards, that people were still clicking 'like' on my comment. So maybe I wasn't alone. (The original post, and my comment, are still up... if you're that bored, just scroll through til you find 'username: jwatriss')

Nancy does talk about tips and techniques, but it's not the dominant theme. Most of it's been exhaustively covered elsewhere. There's a strong emphasis on design, because that's as important, or more, than simply doing a good job of executing that design. If the end product flows in an uninterrupted way, the skill involved shouldn't need to stand out, because the goal is to make something the homeowner can live and cook and relax and eat in comfortably. It's not a Goddard high-boy, you don't need to masticate in awe. So there's plenty of space in the book that's spent on good ideas, and how to tie them all together. There's also plenty of time that was spent on how she found a solution to various problems... some specific to those kitchens, but some that are applicable to almost all kitchens, or to negotiating many homeowners' utter insistence on maximizing every possible cubic inch of storage space, even if they won't actually use those inches, and couldn't easily get to them anyway.

Most of the book falls under one of two categories: Design, but problem-solve, because some spaces are problematic. (More than half of the book) And Build, but problem-solve, because some spaces are problematic. (And who honestly knows what you'll find when the demo work is done anyway.) I get the biggest kick out of the problem solving part, personally. Just reading someone else's process around that really spins the gears for me, because this is the land where there are no jigs or pre-determined solutions.

And sandwiched between those two big themes, is details, details, details. Painted and/or illuminated cabinet interiors, floor pattern layouts, using color to tie a room together, hardware tips and tricks, half a dozen different spice racks, here's how to disguise a really uneven ceiling, and on and on and on.

There was no 'typical' kind of kitchen in this book. One example was mostly black and white, and designed to fit the original vintage style. Another looks vaguely like it was inspired by a diner, with a riot of  sculptural details and color. She also includes gushes over (justifiably) the kitchens of Johnny Grey, and Wharton Esherick, to provide some more inspiration. 

If there was anything that really came through as a possible Nancy Hiller trademark, it's her ability to track the details, so that they work. From big strategic things like laying a design out in a way that flows, to the finer points of execution, like continuous veneer grain around a prominent cabinet door, there are no obvious loose threads. Out in the day to day world, I've seen so many cabinets that almost fit, or almost line up, or almost took a sloping floor or ceiling into account, solutions that were shoe-horned in, but created other problems, potentially good ideas that didn't pan out... And none of that is on display here. Hiller clearly has an eye for what will work, and how to plan accordingly, but at a higher resolution than most.

She's a thinker, clearly. (In case you didn't get that, just from reading the title of the book.) 

Actually, there's one other thing I should add as a potential common theme in the kitchens that she's displayed here: They look like good kitchens. I'm not talking about glossy design mag flash, because they don't look like monuments to consumerism. I mean that they look like people live and feel at home there: They simply look like rooms for people to come in, hang out, make some food, and talk. Each has very individual character, none of the layouts look remotely similar, some are modern, some are vintage, but they all look comfortable, workable, and... like home. I don't have a good way to put a finger on what makes that happen. Clearly Nancy Hiller does. 

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I'm the primary cook at my house, and I love seeing other people's kitchens to experience how they work. (Or, more usefully, how they don't.)  Given that, the only thing I would have liked to see is a floor plan for a few of these kitchens. Work flow fascinates me, and it's pretty clear that she had it in mind. It would help me 'see' these kitchens better if I knew where everything was, in relation to everything else. Then I could close my eyes and 'walk' around in them, and try to imagine how she approached it.

As my kids grow older, I'm also trying to find new ways to set things up so that the work still flows well with more than one person. So I was (am) idly contemplating a kitchen overhaul. With that in mind, I ordered this book a year ago.

I haven't been able to put it away. It's just too good. I see something new every time I look. And I can't recommend it highly enough.