Chicago Home + Garden contributing editor Lisa Cregan stays busy when she’s not writing for us. A frequent contributor to House Beautiful magazine, she has written several books for them lately. The latest? House Beautiful Kitchens: Creating a Beautiful Kitchen of Your Own, ($40).

 “Everyone wants to be in the kitchen,” Cregan writes. Looking through the myriad of designs showcased in the hardback edition, it seems that there really is a style to fit almost anyone’s taste. The book includes 335 pages of style tips, pictures of celebrity-designed rooms and an index of architects to copy your favorite picks.

Designer Jonathan Adler gives tips on using color to create a chic, family-friendly space. Star of Bravo’s Flipping Out, designer Jeff Lewis gives his design philosophy for the ideal kitchen he created one summer for House Beautiful in the middle of Rockefeller Center. Chicago designer Mick De Giulio discusses how to keep an all-white kitchen from being bland, using natural light, varying proportions and a suspended plate rack to bring an air of sophistication to the room.

Cregan also includes “Stalking the Look,” where she breaks down the displayed kitchen into re-creatable elements and highlights trending themes as a lesson style guide at the end of each chapter. She will tell you when to use a marble backsplash instead of tile, what height or style of barstool needed to complete your kitchen look and how flooring can make or break a look.

Cregan is also the author of House Beautiful Blue and House Beautiful Style 101.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the fall issue of Chicago Home + Garden, featuring our own picks for kitchen and bath designs.