3 comments about Terence Conran Kitchens: The Hub of the Home.

1. I was a little sceptical as there were only two reviews, but they were both 5 star so I went ahead. What I got was a beautifully put together book with nice paper and photos... of absolutely nothing that was useful to me.
   All of the kitchens appear to be European (all of the electrical switches and outlets were European). All of the designs were very modern, high tech, contemporary, and... different. They were also very "designer" as in perhaps not very practical, but very different and put together. If you are looking for something unusual along these lines for a city loft or a very modern space, this might be a great find for you.
   There was not a single photo of any kitchen you would consider normal here in the States. Although I read the entire book (faster as I went) there was not a single feature, design, or anything that was potentially useful in my project. There was also very little information, very much an idea book with lots of pictures and little text. The book was not cheap, and it was a complete waste of time for me.



2. I love this book and found it very inspirational when I designed my kitchen. I had already thumbed through the various decorating house and kitchen magazines one might see at Barnes and Nobles. Most of those showed your typical cheesy American kitchen with lots of over-the-top materials badly paired together in one space. The kitchens in this book appealed to me because, as a generalization, they were a little arty, sophisticated and unexpected, without being kooky. I even borrowed a color them from one of the examples. Granted some of the kitchens didn't work but the majority did - and there was a lot of variation among those that did.



3. I am design professional and found this book to be very inspirational when looking for contemporary kitchen ideas for my personal kitchen.

5 comments about Color Rendering: A Guide for Interior Designers and Architects.

1. I can't say enough about this book--and I can be a pretty tough critic when it comes to Interior Design resources. Are you an absolute beginner at rendering interiors? Intimidated to start? No problem. Wei Dong walks you through the process from beginning to end, starting with step-by-step instructions on how to render various, common materials like wood, metals, and even marble with different media, including markers, pencil, watercolor, and gouache. There are several pages featuring a table of the different techniques, so you can see what the same material looks like when expertly rendered in different media. I found this helpful in deciding which media I want to try. The techniques offered work with other media as well; I used oil pastel with great success using Dong's techniques.
   
   I also found it helpful that in the beginning of the book, you work on rendering materials in very simple shapes, like cylinders and cubes. This allows one to begin to understand how the shape of an item informs how it is rendered, and also works as a lesson on how light and shadow affect rendering. As the book progresses, you see more complex examples (i.e. plans and elevations), and an extra neat feature is that many of these images are reproduced in the back of the book without the rendering applied to them, so you can photocopy them and use them for practice.
   
   Although this book would be especially helpful for beginners, I think it would be helpful to others who want to try different media or who want to work on rendering a specific material with greater flair and confidence.



2. I am a senior interior design student and this book was recommended by one of my instructors. It gives good, very basic step-by-step instructions for rendering common building materials with different mediums (watercolor, color pencil, and markers). One issue that I did find was that some of the illustrations don't exactly follow the written instructions, but because of the format, that's a pretty small issue. This is a book that I'd recommend for beginning design students, but more advanced students may find this book a little too basic.



3. I was introduced to Wei Dong's book in an Interior Design class on Presentation Techniques. It is an excellent book for all but the most experienced Interior Renderer. It focuses on the use of color markers and comes complete with practice exercises that help build your skill and confidence. I highly recommend it!



4. i recieved this book this book in the mail and had been eagerly awaiting its arrival. i don't know how else to express it other than i was very dissapointed. i have see Michael Doyle's fist edition of his Color Drawing and my original intent was to buy the second edition of that, but when i saw this book with its raving editorial review i decided to try this one instead. i mean who could turn down a book with a review like "the most complete guide and study of color rendering of interiors ever compiled" and "exhaustive in its coverage" i thought that this book was going to be wonderful. i think that i might have found it useful if i had never even picked up colored pencils and markers before. There was very little rendering of total interiors just objects or things that might go in an interior. If you are really looking for a complete source then i really wouldn't recomend this book, only a just starting out beginner might find it useful.



5. An excellent reference book for all designers. It gives great advise and tips for all forms of rendering both interiors and exteriors. The step by step instructions were not as informative as they could have been, but overall an excellent book for any designer.

5 comments about New Spaces, Old World Charm (Elements of Living).

1. I'm enjoying New Spaces, Old World Charm very much. I like how the design work in it is of high-end homes (with the exception of the Gissler-designed house) but the author presents what the designers did in the spaces by technique (as well as listing sources) so that no matter what your budget, you can duplicate what is seen in the book. I also like how she presents a variety of design styles, demonstrating 12 individual designer's approaches to transforming new spaces into ones with richness and character. As I pinpoint the style I like best for my own home, I need a book that gives a good overview of different ways to achieve the look. And although this book is about recreating antique and vintage styles, the design pictured in the book is fashionable and eclectic. The spaces don't look like exact duplications of an antique styles.
   
   I also like the resource section, which goes into detail about why the sources are valued by top designers. Even though the book was published in 2004, the sources are still timely. People hire designers to learn the secrets the author gives in the book. I also like that author obviously went out of her way to list trade only and retail sources in each resource chapter to help the readers. She wants the book to appeal to those who can afford trade only and hire interior designers and those who want to spend less and buy on their own or do a combination of the two.



2. Too much space is not a problem for me but maintaining a classic style for my home is, or was before I found this book. Ms. Sample's book didn't overwhelm me as many of the other design books I looked at did with impractical ideas. While it is beautiful enough to suffice as a coffee table book, my original copy is dog-eared and highlighted throughout with ideas and suggestions I was able to use and customize for my own needs. Highly recommended for anyone with classic, old world style!



3. I purchased this book in the hopes that it would assist in my transforming a newly-contructed house into a charming, old-style home. Without a doubt, it did! Sample's guide offers a variety of styles, all of which are inspiring. I particularly enjoy the featured designers sources listed after each home (especially my favorite, Elissa Cullman's Revival Chic) and the trade tips that accompany each chapter. I find Sample's book to be inspirational yet practical, user-friendly and concise, and beautifully photographed. It has a permanent home on my coffee table.



4. I have to concur with S. McCoy who dissed the purple house, I mean blue house. Yes, it was not purple but the color was in overkill. Remember Barney, the purple dinosaur? Well this is the Barney of houses.
   
   On the show Top Designer which airs on Bravo TV, interior design hopefuls are presented with various design challenges. One show asks contestants to pick a color and their challenge was to design around that color. If memory serves me correctly, every student literally designed spaces much like the Barney in this book. Most of the judges harshly critiqued the contestants for literally taking the color challenge and overdoing it.
   
   This book is so so. If you ocassionally pick up a copy of some of the high end mags like Architectural Digest, Traditional Homes, etc., most have resource guides in the back that you could access. This is nothing new.
   
   Also, the designers in New Spaces seem to have conflicting design philosophies. To wallpaper or not, that is the question. To have clean spaces or bric-a-brac. To have the lived in look or a showcase home.
   
   I think the best advice for me came from Ann Leconey, on page 131. Under the header "Use Architectural Shells," she basically set the stage for a well designed room by first, as she puts it," designing the interior architectural shell." According to Leconey you start by choosing the wall finishes, followed by the window treatment, and finish with the flooring.
   
   According to her, you are then ready to move forward with your color scheme, fabric, etc. At least she gave me something that I could work with.



5. There are some beautiful pictures and wonderful ideas in this book. However, it is not what it appears. It "features" the work of several designers, and purports to provide "resources" which are actually thinly disguised advertisements for the listed vendors. I would not have spent $34.95 for this book had I known what it really was. I have no theoretical objection to such a book, but I'd like to know what I'm getting before buying. This was a disappointment.

No comments about Miami Style (Icons).

No comments about The Inspired Workspace: Designs for Creativity and Productivity.

5 comments about Colefax & Fowler: The Best in English Interior Decoration.

1. The grace and epitome of what we all have come to know and love as "English Country House Style". This book begins with the very beginning of Colefax and Fowler, and documents the evolution of "the look". Many wonderful color photos and sketches to refer to as well as beautifully written descriptions as to what makes this all work. While we may not be able to live in such grand houses, many of the concepts and designs work as well in contemporary and smaller settings. There is something for every one in this book, very desirable!!



2. The color photos of many completed projects done decades ago still resonate as the top in English design. Lovely traditional chintzes coupled with good furniture are the usual ingredients yet seeing the old photos of Nancy Lancaster's and Roger Banks-Pye's designs, one is reminded that these rooms are truly timeless. Understandibly,Colefax and Fowler is the benchmark for English decoration. The book does a fine job with both an overview and an exploration of specific areas. A must for designers.



3. "And there you are!" says author Chester Jones. That's all you need to set eminent decorators, Colefax and Fowler to work. The "few good pictures" are preferably old masters and the "several nice pieces" should be priceless antiques, but if you aren't already blessed with such bounty, C&F will see to it.

   This is a beautiful, delightful book! I bought it used, and it was pristine. There are 264 gorgeous color plates of excellent photography and the prose is a lively mix of C&F history (particularly John Fowler) and description, tips, and information about the homes/castles/estates decorated. There is a wonderful Glossary for those of us who are vernacular-challenged when it comes to elegant decorator terms. I for one was pleased to learn that a "fauteuil" is a "French salon armchair with carved decorations, sometimes gilt."

   Put bluntly (which Mr. Jones wouldn't dream of doing), Ms. Colefax provided the money and contacts, and Mr. Fowler provided the inspiration and brains. And contacts were desperately needed for this venture. To achieve casual, elegant nonchalance required great outlays of money not to be had from your everyday man on the street. Colefax and Fowler became expert at the tactful handling of the temperamental, sometimes eccentric foibles of the very rich. If Mr. Jones is any example, I'm sure he would take it right in stride when I announced I'd like less "balance" on the mantel piece please, and I really didn't care much for massive curtains that puddled on the floor.

   There are useful tips and diagrams that can be put to use in much more economical settings. For instance, a maxim of Mr. Fowler's was, scale of furniture should be relative to height, not width. In other words, a large low-ceilinged room would not call for big important pieces of furniture where a high-ceilinged room would.

   This is a book of which you will never tire. The color schemes, the placements and the sheer beauty will call out to you again and again. A fine investment of your time and pleasure.
   -sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer




4. No one tops the eye of John Fowler for colour or design. In a world of designers trying desperately to jump English country style few get it right. The distinguished firm of Colefax and Fowler always got it right, as one known Italian-American aristocrat said "The English style is one that few truly comprehend as well as John Fowler did at Colefax and Fowler." Elegant, high style, not mistakenly frilly foolish as many others are, this book highlights the very best of what this regional genre is all about.



5. I bought the original edition of this book over 10 years ago and was blown away by the gorgeous design depicted in page after page of mouth-watering English country house interiors. All these years later, it remains my favorite decorating book, that I constantly refer to for inspiration. The rooms are timeless. Most were created 20-40 years ago, but good classic design does not date. Although the antiques and handprinted wallpapers, etc., are far out of the range of most of us, the sense of comfortable elegance is one to strive for in any home.

2 comments about Naomi Leff.

1. I like the written overview of the designer Naomi Leff and the unique themes in each project. Photographically,
   it could not be more beautiful or well put together and I give this book a five star and above rating! I have recommended this publication to many colleagues and friends with an interest in design. The attention to detail
   both in Naomi's designs and the book is exquisite.



2. The book has wonderful commentary about a true design icon-Naomi Leff. The photographs of her work are fabulous and capture all her creativity in both residential and retail store design and display. An AD 25 top designer,, her work no matter what the style,is most exemplified by her beautiful are deco interiors.

1 comments about Window Treatments for Every Room.

1. This book has a lot of great ideas. I found the perfect idea for my living room. Thanks Better Homes.
   
   Candice B.
   [...]
    

5 comments about Southern Style.

1. I was purchasing home plan books and this item popped up as a "you might also like" item. So I received it but was disappointed there were no plans just decorating/style ideas. It was not what I was looking for.



2. The best way to learn, the easyest way to order, and best after sale service, are only availbale with amazon.com.



3. I have been an avid reader of Southern Accents for years. I found their book to be well written and filled with the beautiful photography I've come to expect from the magazine. Chapters are broken out room-by-room, making it an easy reference guide. The book is one that you'll not only keep out on the coffee table, but also will refer to often for great decorating ideas.



4. I found Southern Style a great compedium of how design in the South has evolved. As an editor at a competing magazine, I wish more publications would give us a backward glance at their previously featured work. This book shows not only where southern design has been, but the way past photography and styling techniques have changed. I wish more magazines would publish such a compendium. It would save us all a lot of space with hoarding decorating magazines. Oh admit it,we all do it. Also great text, with deep insight into it's subject matter.



5. I eagerly awaited Southern Style's release ll/l only to find that the content was repeated from past issues of Southern Accents. I was looking forward to new pictures/content but found very little that wasn't in old magazines. I think the editors could have at least given us different camera shots of those same rooms. Big disappointment.

No comments about L'Agronomie De LA Mesopotamie Antique: Analyse Du "Livre De L'Agriculture Nabateenne" De Qutama (Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East, Vol 5).