Residential Interior Design: A Guide To Planning Spaces 2nd Edition

Since I am the first reviewer of this valuable book, I feel an obligation to give it its due and tell you what you can look forward to. I'm so glad I found it before I started a major remodel, including moving my kitchen - which will result in re-arranging the main living areas!This book opened my eyes to the many important concepts and details of basic layout design that can easily be overlooked or poorly planned in building a home or remodeling one. Mistakes here can be costly or impossible to fix so I wanted to make sure I don't make any major blunders before my final layout design is complete.Ch 1: The INTROBriefly discusses how homes have changed over the years and points out that bigger is not always better. Quality over quantity is stressed instead of just making huge rooms in McMansions.In addition to each chapter's main topic, Ch. 1 introduces the 5 common subjects that are discussed for each area of the home at the end of each subsequent chapter:Ergonomics & Required ClearancesOrganizational FlowRelated Codes & ConstraintsElectrical & MechanicalLighting &ReferencesCh 2: ENTRANCES & CIRCULATION SPACESCovers Foyers, entry areas and vertical movement such as stairs and where they should be placed for maximum benefit and minimum horizontal footprint.Ch 3: LEISURE SPACESLiving rooms & great rooms, media rooms, dining rooms & home gyms are discussed. Traffic flows and furniture arrangements are presented with multiple options and diagrams.Ch 4: KITCHENSI consider the kitchen the most important room in the house so I found this to be the most important chapter, by far! The authors identified 13 different very basic kitchen configurations in small, simple block illustrations. They are so easy to grasp that you can quickly see the many possibilities in designing a kitchen. It was an "Aa Ha" moment for me.The authors discuss the different ways we can cook and they make you think about how you want to entertain - or not - and whether you are a one-person cook or appreciate help and multiple work spaces. They discuss traditional and modern work flows and entertaining in the kitchen while you cook. There are 20 detailed layout diagrams INCLUDING ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS to consider, all the while showing the positives & negatives of each. They even include wheelchair design issues, if that is a concern for you. Cabinets, fixtures, and appliances are included, though briefly. The focus is always on layout.Ch 5: BEDROOMSCh 6: BATHROOMSCh 7: UTILITY & WORK SPACESCh 8: SAMPLE PROJECT AND RELATED DESIGN DRAWINGSCh 9: BASIC RESIDENTIAL BUIDING CONSTRUCTION & STRUCTUREThis covers the 2 basic platforms a house can sit on: concrete slab, and wood platform - another issue to think about if designing from the ground up. Then it delves into plumbing, doors & windows, roof types, fireplaces and stoves.THE APPENDIXES: have a lot of information involving side issues of green design, wheelchair dimensions, outdoor kitchens, European cabinets, seated & standing work surfaces and desks.MY SUMMARY:I believe this is a college textbook - written so anyone can understand and learn the basic concepts a good space-plan designer should consider.If you are lucky to have hired a top-notch architect or designer, maybe you wouldn't need this book. But I feel even the best architect or designer might not ask the right questions to know exactly what to design for your family. He or she might overlook something that is very important to you. You won't know the possibilities, what you might be missing to make your home the best it can be, if you don't read this book.

We're in the process of designing a new home. Design mistakes can be expensive to fix once the walls are up, so I thought a refresher on Interior Design would be worth my time. This book has become an essential reference throughout this process.Understand that interior design is not interior decorating. Interior design takes into account the actual layout of an interior space and how each space is connected to the other spaces. Considerations such as pubic and private spaces (and the transition between them), how the spaces are used based on the building's orientation to the sun, kitchens (and the work triangle), bathrooms, leisure area layouts including psychological aspects of each space.The book is comprised of the following chapters;1. Introduction; quality vs quantity, explanation of the graphical symbols used by designers and architects2. Entrances and Circulation Spaces; how people come into a house and how the move around in it3. Leisure Spaces; Ergonomics, flow, lighting4. Kitchens; Fixtures and appliances, storage, required clearances, organizational flow5. Bedrooms; Ergonomics and clearances, flow6. Bathrooms; Fixtures, storage and cabinetry, flow7. Utility and Work Spaces; types (garages, laundry, mudrooms, home offices, home gyms), appliances8. Sample Project and Related Drawings9. Basic Residential Building Construction and Structure; platform types, wood frame construction, plumbing, doors and windows, roof types, fireplaces and stovesIf you have to design or are considering a design for aging into, each chapter has breakout sections on accessibility considerations. For example, a range top can have open space underneath for a wheelchair where a full range cannot.Line drawing diagrams are used extensively to point out a proper designs, but also how you don't want to implement a space. Additionally, the major concepts are illustrated with easy to read diagrams and notes.Kitchens are the most expensive rooms in a house and are subsequently given a full 64 pages (out of 293 or 27% of the book). Cabinet sizing and types, ranges, range-tops, refrigerators, various kitchen designs and features are mentioned.Extensive references and additional reading ends each chapter.

I used this book for my residential design class in college. It is very helpful and easy to read. It has diagrams, dimensioning, etc.. It is worth the money and will help any student or professional with their residential designs.

It's really helpful for doing kitchen planning. There's lots of resources in this book! If you need to know about ADA measurements for kitchens, this is a great shortcut book! They give you lots of ideas about bathroom sizes and prefabricated cabinet sizes! It's definitely worth it for residential spaces!

This is a course book and as students get reading assignments based on page no of the printed book , this edition is hard to follow. We need the printed page numbers indicated as we'll.

It is always good to invest in books as resources if you are in the residential construction or design business.This does not tell you every thing you need to know, but is well organized, easy to read and helpful on basic ideas and concepts. I prefer physcial books to ebooks as reference.

After seeing Architectural Graphic Standards had been basically gutted in the latest edition, I went in search of an alternative. Encouraged by positive reviews, I scanned the Table of Contents and decided to purchase the book. I'm very happy with that decision. Yes, there are plenty of graphic tables showing recommended minimum clearances, etc-- enough to allow it to stand in for the older editions of AGS in my opinion.But, perhaps more importantly, there is also an explanation of the overall approach to designing interior spaces. I believe that developing a strong conceptual base trumps having an encyclopedic knowledge of reference data. Not that you have to choose because this book provides a balanced mix of both.