Grey, Johnny

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GREY, Johnny

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—England. Office—Johnny Grey Studios, Fyning Copse, Fyning Lane, Rogate, Hampshire GU31 5DH, England. E-mail—info@johnnygrey.co.uk.

CAREER: Johnny Grey Studios (architectural design firm), Rogate, Hampshire, England, owner.

WRITINGS:

The Art of Kitchen Design: Planning for Comfort and Style, Cassell (London, England), 1994.

Kitchen, Home Design Workbooks (New York, NY), 1997.

The Hardworking House: The Art of Living Design, Seven Dials (London, England), 2000.

Kitchen Culture: Reinventing Kitchen Design, photographs by Alex Wilson, Firefly Books (Buffalo, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Architect Johnny Grey has focused much of his career on kitchen design. As the nephew of cooking writer Elizabeth David, he has developed a design style that emphasizes the kitchen as a social space. Grey now owns the architectural design company Johnny Grey Studios, which provides design services and project management for interior spaces including kitchens, bedrooms, and media rooms.

Grey' first book, The Art of Kitchen Design: Planning for Comfort and Style, outlines the history of kitchens, beginning in the seventeenth century, and then details his personal philosophy of kitchen design. The author calls special attention to the use of freestanding cupboards, pane decorations, hanging racks, and inlays. The Art of Kitchen Design met with favorable reviews, as many critics recognizing Grey's unique and creative approach to his subject. Booklist contributor Barbara Jacobs commented that the author "has produced some of the most innovative yet comfortable all-purpose rooms around."

Grey has continued to write about and design interior spaces. In 1997 he published the workbook-style volume Kitchen, which allows readers to develop ideas and designs for their own kitchens. Grey's more recent effort, Kitchen Culture: Reinventing Kitchen Design, presents the author's updated vision for kitchen design. It includes chapters on kitchen storage, ergonomics, cooking tools, lighting, floors, and work surfaces.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 1995, Barbara Jacobs, review of The Art of Kitchen Design: Planning for Comfort and Style, p. 1371.

Library Journal, January 1997, Gayle Williamson, review of The Art of Kitchen Design, p. 96; September 15, 1997, Gayle Williamson, review of Kitchen, p. 73; January 1, 2005, Gayle Williamson, review of Kitchen Culture: Reinventing Kitchen Design, p. 106.

Reference & User Services Quarterly, winter, 1997, Carolyn M. Mulac, review of Kitchen, p. 227.