5 comments about Domicilium Decoratus: Hillcrest Estate, Beverly Hills, California.

1. i loved modern glamour but domicilium decoratus is my favorite. physically,the book is well made, the photos are simply beautiful. every single page is a pleasure - the colors, the details, the objects...are just mouthwatering and they were all put together in a thoughtful way with taste, style, design sensibility, intelligence and humor. i have to disagree with reviewers who dislike kelly's ball gowns and prentending to be domestic.... i especially love those photos as they inject great humor and great joy of life into this book(whether it was intended or not). with almost no text, the pictures in this book worths a million words.



2. Brilliant display of Kelly Wearstler's style and aesthetic put to work in her own personal space. I am always fascinated to see inside designers'(that I like) homes. This one is really interesting and fanciful. Wearstler also enjoys shoving herself into the pictures which I think is fun. She is beautiful and obviously loves to dress up and glam it on. How can you not love her?



3. I loved her first book and was excited to receive the second but I was very disappointed. I quickly sold it. When the first book had various ideas, this one only shows a few rooms from her own estate. The house is set up to sell her as a decorator and she poses in various gowns on every 10th page. Sort of blah.



4. While I very much enjoyed Miss Wearstler's first book, I found Domicilium Decoratus to be borderline obnoxious. Rather than show great decorating, the book focused mainly on close up shots of objects in her house that took up the whole page.In addition, I feel that as the viewer of the book I do not need to see fifteen entire pages of Miss Wearstler dressed in ball gowns pretending to be domestic.



5. I loved modern glamour.
   Kelly Wearstler's sleek design is truly inspirational,
   but this new book takes you to places one can only dream of-
   bold, dramatic, luxurious, and exotic is the only way to
   describe her ever evolving style. At first I was a little shocked
   because it wasn't the glamourous 3 color minimalism I was expecting,- but after studying the pages over and over for the past few weeks I see how brilliant she truly is, and why she is one of the most progressive, sought after designers today.

5 comments about Flowers, Flowers.

1. Paula Pryke is an artist is every sense of the word. Coming across this magnificently and luxuriously illustrated book is like discovering a famous artist new to you. The topic is 'Inspired Arrangements for All Occasion' and both the writing and illustrations certainly prove that claim to be true.
   
   But what is so very different in this rich volume than in other volumes on flower arranging is the unique approach to the medium. Pryke's keen eye combines not only flowers of every possible kind (from simple wild garden blossoms to the most exotic of species from strange lands), but she also sees vegetable, seeds, gourds, branches, twigs, moss, vines - all are of equal importance to her choices for synthesis of her amazing creations.
   
   Some Floral designers elect to create books about their craft that are limited to beautifully photographed final arrangements. Paula Pryke, with a winning writing style, takes us through the puzzling mysteries of how she finds and assembles the components of her art. She also separates the book into simple works, arrangements according to a unified color scheme, and arrangements and accoutrements that are celebratory for holidays and special occasions.
   
   Whether this book is added to the library as a coffee table adornment (sure to be admired by all discerning guests) or as a guide to creative floral design, FLOWERS, FLOWERS! is an artwork containing some of the most exquisite floral you will encounter. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, August 06



2. This book has all you would like to know about flower arrangement. Starting from how the flowers make it to the market(from the growers) ,to the Common names and Latin names of the different flower species. There are superb pictures of 100s of arrangements for different occassions and step by step descriptions of how to do some of them. What I liked the most , was the last chapter called techniques, it has a thorough description of all the equipment one needs to do these elaborate arrangents. However, for a complete beginner like me , this book might seem too intense as the arrangements are quite elaborate. At any rate, it makes a good coffee table read.



3. 
   There is no need for a lengthy review of this book. Quite simply, it contains photos of the most beautiful floral arrangements I have ever seen. I enjoy it often with a sense of awe and envy.



4. I have been running my own floral design business for parties and special events for two years now, and this book has proved itself to be one of my most valuable resources. A very diverse collection of arrangements is found throughout the pages of this book and I would rate it as a definite asset to the library of both professionals and flower lovers alike.



5. This book is a wonderful resource for anyone who uses flowers. The author presents wonderful and original ideas and the photography is excellent. I've never seen one better. I wish it was again in print!

5 comments about Living in Morocco: Design from Casablanca to Marrakesh.

1. This is a beautiful book. Unfortunately, the cover broke away from the binding after only a couple readings.



2. BOOK ARRIVED IN POOR CONDITION WITH THE BACK UNGLUED. OTHERWISE IT IS A BEAUTIFUL PHOTO ESSAY



3. The photography is inspirational -- whether you are a shutter bug or trying to grasp the details that make this part of the world's interiors so beautiful. Striking colors, well-chosen compossions -- this book is a must have. My only regret is the lack of printed information that would educate me on the fine details and intricate subtilies of this design form.
   
   Still, a must have for anyone with interest in photography or the striking vistas on can create for their home or garden.



4. This book is really very beautiful. I have transgressed Asian and southwestern design and this book is just what I wished for.



5. I really liked this book, as well as Moroccan Style. I felt this book was a little more comprehensive on the styles by region of Morocco and showed more traditional design.

5 comments about Home: A Short History of an Idea.

1. May be of interest to househunters trying to envision what their happy home to be might want to be. It's basically a selective history of the concepts of home and comfort, related to changing forms of the family, over the last four or five hundred years. It's full of interesting factoids, probably ultimately of less significance than Rybczynski had hoped, but he's a good writer and charming (a hair too warm and fuzzy for me). It's a light, easy and pleasant read. It didn't leave me with anything of substance that stuck in my memory, but I definitely enjoyed reading it. It's the type of book you curl up with next to a fire with a skim mocha nutmeg and cinnamon whatever when you need to give your brain a break but can't quite stoop to watching American Idol. Okay, sorry - it's a much better book than that. And it's fun - and we all probably need to have a little fun now and then (in between reading all these serious books and growing our big, fat brains). But in the end it's not really substantial.



2. You probably have notions about what "home" means, and those notions probably revolve around your immediate family, domestic comfort and convenience, with a dash of nostalgia. Most likely you share my sense that home has been thus for a long time, subject to the whims of fashion and demands of social hierarchy. What I learned from Witold Rybczynski is that those are very near-sighted suppositions. The modern (Western) idea of a home is very new, historically. Even the notion of "family" that occupies so much of modern political cant, and seems so central to our social organization, goes back no further than the early 18th Century. Households before that time were comprised of groups of working adults, house owners and employees and servants, plus infants. Children were farmed out as apprentices at a tender age -- even in the wealthiest households where fortunate youngsters were placed as servants to courtiers and nobles in order to learn the ropes of oligarchy. Privacy was rare. Beds were built to handle 6-8 adults and work tables often tripled as dining boards and sleeping platforms. Rybczynski artfully traces the development of the modern household, decor and furnishing, to enable a deep understanding of why we live as we do, what works and what doesn't. As an architect he reserves some of his harshest criticism for his fellows, and neatly shoots down such icons as Le Corbusier and Wright who were too hung on their brilliance to notice that things weren't working. (As I reported in my review of Stewart Brand's excellent HOW BUILDINGS LEARN, Viking, 1994, most -- if not all -- of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses leaked, badly. HOME reports that they didn't work as living quarters either.) This author's highest praise falls to the women who invented household engineering in the late 1800s, stepping into the architectural void, inventing home economics, and shaping the modern home to suit the needs of a servantless woman charged with housekeeping and child rearing. Catherine E. Beecher and Ellen Richards come in for particular commendation. Modern furniture also falls under the author's verbal axe. Designed for style instead of comfort, he describes its advent as a foolish embrace of creativity above function, and offers the detailed research in France under the Louises (Louies?), which erupted as Chippendale and Hepplewhite designs: templates which carefully noted dimensions and proportions that actually fit a human body and allowed for the constant movement necessary to ongoing comfort. The only modern chairs which come near to the standard set in those classic designs are found in the best mechanical chairs, made to be adjusted to the user's body and to flex with movement. (More often to be found in office furniture than in a home.) Altogether an illuminating look at the circumstances of our lives. For this reviewer, who spent 20 years inventing an "alternative" house from scratch, it is greatly amusing to learn that I have spent a lot of hours reinventing wheels rounded out a hundred years ago. Talk about being forced to repeat history one has failed to learn! Been there. And so it goes.



3. Home is an articulate, rapid reading book about the developements leading to the current concept of "home". Tying history, architecture, sociology and technology together the emerging concept of home and comfort developes in clear visualizations.
   After reading this book I now appreciate the evolution of the contradictory outlooks over time and how they affect our current drives in creating our personal living spaces.



4. Witold Rybczynski's Home: A Short History Of An Idea, is an historical and informational text following the devlopment of the concept of home and discusses the psychological effects of different types of dwellings and personal space, architecture, and society. Home is a well-structured and planned tracing of society's development of the concepts of home and comfort and relates to today's audiences with a new perspective on where and how they live. One of Mr. Rybczynski's strengths as a writer is his conversational writing style and the flow of the organization of his main ideas.
   Home instantly dives into the development of society's ideas of comfort and home with an almost staggering jump into a strong comparison and analysis of the four style lines of the Ralph Lauren collection. Mr. Rybczynski highlights the different aspects of the setting that Lauren creates to entice the public and the different props he uses to create this feeling of home. Home utilizes the time line approach, begining in the medieval era, to explain Ralph Lauren's heightend understanding of the public's ideas of comfort. Mr. Rybczynski also examines the work of Le Corbusier and relates the modernist movement with current modern trends.
   Mr. Rybczynski's book remeinds architects and interior designers that even in today's society it is easy to get caught up in what is in style or what would make a statement rather than what is comfertable for occupants to inhabit. I recommend Mr. Rybczynski's book to anyone who would appreciate seeing their home in a whole new way.



5. So, I am predisposed to like Rybczynski -- his biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, "A Clearing in the Distance," is one of my favorites.
   
   Sure enough, I liked "Home" as well. It describes the invention of the concepts of "home" and "comfort" and "domesticity." Those are not things I ever thought of as having been invented; but if Rybczynski is right, they were, and relatively recently at that.
   
   Worth noting: My favorite chapter was the one on the Netherlands in the 1600s -- a really, really interesting society, it turns out, for a lot of different reasons.
   
   Also: The book has lots of interesting notes on the history of furniture, especially the chair.
   
   Finally: Above all this is a book that makes you look at familiar surroundings with new eyes.

4 comments about Modern Country.

1. Seems very repetitive to me -- and really nothing "new".
   But the photos are attractive and colors are soothing so I'll leave it out in our spare room so guests can browse. Very ordinary - but I got it at a good price so no commplaints.........



2. I've been looking for something like this to update my tired looking country decorating. When I moved to my new house, somehow my collections of baskets, antique spice tins, vintage quilts, etc. suddenly seemed lost in the too-new house.
   I read about this book in the Orlando Sentinel and liked what it said. The authors use a "Mix it up and pare it down" philosophy. The book tells how to get a country look without the clutter formerly associated with country decorating.
   I've started using my collections as special displays in the entertainment unit that covers the whole wall of our great room. The book recommends this rather than having everything out all the time. This way I still enjoy them, but don't have lots of clutter.
   I also want to put beadboard and a chair rail in my dining room. Lots of ideas and I appreciate this book getting me started freshening up my country look.



3. Good-bye gingham, hello French linen. This book is pretty terrific and very inspiring. For one, it defines modern country in most of the photographs, although there are a couple of rooms that seem very dated, perhaps "country" in the 70's, which is the reason I gave it 4 stars rather than 5. As an intuitive stylist, I definitely got a lot out of the way items were displayed, as well as the mix of color and texture in many of the rooms. This is definitely one of my favorite decorating books. I wouldn't recommend it for the novice decorator, but for anyone looking for inspiration to "freshed up" a room, this could be helpful.



4. If you are dreaming of the country or want to redecorate your house...or even just find a few new decorating ideas, this book is filled with charming style and chic appeal. Classic and comforting designs warm the pictures as antiques add mystery and a sense of the past.
   
   A granite washbowl is perched atop a antique wooden cabinet, modern lamps blend with wicker chairs, an indoor grass garden adds calm and outside tables find their way into the living room.
   
   The antique, teal-painted cupboards even have sight wear and glass containers filled with breakfast cereals. The ideas in the kitchens are "on display." The teacups are not hidden and country fruit dinnerware highlights the country appeal. Baskets are found throughout whether they are wicker or metal.
   
   The bedrooms have Victorian style with plump down comforters and upholstered chairs for reading. A laundry room doubling as a workout room - now that is something new. This book is filled with unique ideas like chalkboard paint on cupboards so you can leave notes. They even have chalkboard painted mugs.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review

1 comments about Interior Design (4th Edition).

1. I purchased this book for my Interior Design Class. There is just a lot of great information . The History of Design, architure, decortive art, mordern history; noted designers, different eras of design, dating back to the 1700's. Just a fablous texbook reference tool.

2 comments about A Philosophy Of Interior Design (Icon Editions).

1. There are very few books out there that combine "philosophy" with "interior design." For this reason alone, Abercrombie's book is a worthy contribution to the literature in interior design. One trait of philosophical works is their tendency to identify broad but fundamental categories that, together, describe a particular reality. I take this approach to be what the author means by "a philosophy of" interior design. That is to say, Abercrombie provides a menu of basic categories (plan, room, planes, levels, ornament, furniture, art, details, etc) and parses the reality of an interior built world through these lenses. His examples are good, and the book is well illustrated (although some of the magic of interior experience is not conveyed by the black and white pictures). Another good aspect about this book is this: the author is subtle in not making an arbitrary line of demarcation between "interior design" and "architecture." Even though his categories serve to focus on the topic of interiors, it does so without disconnecting interior design from the domain of architecture in some artificial way - and I think that is as it should be. In other words, this is a worthwhile book for both architects (who sometimes forget about interiors) and interior designers (who sometimes forget about architecture). As one who teaches design and has been in practice for many years, I would consider this book a good fit for those just starting to learn about interior design and/or those who are seasoned designers looking for something of a refresher on the fundamental nature of interior design. As the title implies, the book is not meant to be a "nuts-and-bolts" reference text for the practitioner; it is more of a meditative reflection about the nature of the worlds that the design practitioner can create for others.



2. There are very few books out there that combine "philosophy" with "interior design." For this reason alone, Abercrombie's book is a worthy contribution to the literature in interior design. One trait of philosophical works is their tendency to identify broad but fundamental categories that, together, describe a particular reality. I take this approach to be what the author means by "a philosophy of" interior design. That is to say, Abercrombie provides a menu of basic categories (plan, room, planes, levels, ornament, furniture, art, details, etc) and parses the reality of an interior built world through these lenses. His examples are good, and the book is well illustrated (although some of the magic of interior experience is not conveyed by the black and white pictures). Another good aspect about this book is this: the author is subtle in not making an arbitrary line of demarcation between "interior design" and "architecture." Even though his categories serve to focus on the topic of interiors, it does so without disconnecting interior design from the domain of architecture in some artificial way - and I think that is as it should be. In other words, this is a worthwhile book for both architects (who sometimes forget about interiors) and interior designers (who sometimes forget about architecture). As one who teaches design and has been in practice for many years, I would consider this book a good fit for those just starting to learn about interior design and/or those who are seasoned designers looking for something of a refresher on the fundamental nature of interior design. As the title implies, the book is not meant to be a "nuts-and-bolts" reference text for the practitioner; it is more of a meditative reflection about the nature of the worlds that the design practitioner can create for others.

5 comments about Classic Cottages: Simple, Romantic Homes.

1. This is a lovely book offering beautiful photographs of various types of cottages that can be found throughout the country. The author organizes the selections into several different types of cottages (see an earlier review for a great break down of the categories)and offers some history on each. Perfect for getting comfy in your favorite chair and passing a pleasant hour or two!



2. This book does not contain much cottage background material. I was expecting some photographic history from England...none to be found. Many pictures from subdivisions in the US. A cottage is not just what looks cute.



3. My favorite part of the book were the pictures. Nice selection of both the interior and exterior elements of a wide range of cottages. Not an idea book, but an inspiring and relaxing read.



4. If you love driving or walking through towns with charming cottages, then you'll probably love this book. However, I was disappointed that the book is 90-percent exteriors and very, very few interior photographs. This is NOT a book on how to decorate in the "cottage style" but rather how to identify and possibly re-create the cottage look in the shape, form and garden of the house. Many of the homes featured are more unusual examples, such as the storybook or "gnome" style houses.



5. Simple picturesque bungalows, quaint thatched stone and stucco huts, or elaborate marble and plaster palaces - all types of homes have been called a cottage. ~pg. 8
   
   Dreaming about a hideaway bungalow or Victorian mansion seems equally appealing. In "Classic Cottages" an entire world of intricately decorated homes await. The interiors are fascinating on their own and could give you many ideas for decorating. The room from a Seattle, WA home is stunning and the remodeled Victorian home has creative gardening ideas.
   
   The houses are divided into specific categories:
   
   Gingerbread Gems
   Bungalettes
   Gnome Sweet Home
   Rolling Bungalows
   Enclaves
   Contemporary Cottages
   
   If you are dreaming of an escape to simpler times or have been dreaming of a rose-covered romantic bungalow, this might be the book for you. I loved the historical information and the following pictures:
   
   Anne Hathaway's Cottage
   Gothic Rose-covered cottage
   1883 Cape May Homes from New Jersey
   The Lyford House, Tiburon, CA
   Queen Anne jewels with gingerbread ornamentation and stained glass
   Mediterranean-style brick bungalows
   Covered Wagons
   Fairy Tale Cottages
   
   While looking through this book my heart just felt like it was melting. These houses are adorable and it is like a fantasy book of dream houses for the true romantic. I want a castle, but maybe I'd settle for a cottage like the one in Spokane Washington with ivy growing all over the walls.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review

No comments about Hotel, Restaurant, Bar, Club Design.

5 comments about Sensual Home.

1. I have owned this book for about 3 years now and it by far the most helpful home book I have ever owned. I think this is a book for people that are very aware of their five senses and want a home that is intimate, simple, nurturing and pleasurable. Crawford cover the five senses, examining how to enhance your home experience with fabrics, textures, smells, sights, sounds, tastes and sights. She focuses on using natural materials rather than chemical ones. Cotton, silk, cashmere, natural stone, aromatherapy, flowers, etc. are all discussed. There is a great directory towards the end on what businesses she recommends finding the best, natural materals discussed in the book. I also love that the cover of the book itself is textured. I always ome back to this book for guidance on what I really need in my home to make it a warm, intimate, senual, pared down and happy place.



2. i have many, many home decor books and this one by far and away is my most favorite and has the best philosophy. and the cover is fuzzy and pleasant to handle AND nice to look at.



3. And the text makes you think about things that you are probably never going to think about in today's madcap and rushed society, simple things like natural lighting, linen textures, plants for detoxifying your environment, etc. There is just one thing that frustrated me about this book. On pages 54 and 55 there is the most amazing sofa I have ever seen, but there is no mention of where it came from or how to get one like it. Some of the references are clearly European and cannot be found in the States. But the overall philosophy is simple- we are animals and we need to slow down and rediscover our sensual being. And once you have found this simple mindset, you will see ways to make it happen all around you.



4. I love this book. I found it on a small interior design store in Italy,and It was love at first sight.I judged it by it's cover(and thought the idea of the velvet cover was great) but when I read it I was transported by its contents.Its absolutly great! Everyone should have it!



5. This book teaches us how to feel calm and organized, how to embelish and refine our senses with the best home arrangements. I loved it!