Interior Design Books

This book is a joy! If you are stricken by the incurable disease of collecting, you will love having this book on your shelf and refer back to it often. Entertaining and inspirational, and very well photographed.

This subject is limitless, and in fact there are an endless number of books on the subject. This book is a brief but beautiful approach to give an overview. To a modest collector it does a good job of covering what can ce collected,why collections are made and the things to consider when deciding how and where to diplay them.
It is of very large, high quality (10" X 13") book with many excellent color photographs and makes a fine coffee table book. The photos are almost all of high end to museum type collections. That, however; does not suggest that the same principles cannot be used in displaying personal collections of moderate objects. The one thing you won't find in the book is anything about how to go about assembling a collection.
You will find some very imaginative ideas in displaying collections of a small number,a large number and even mixing very different objects.
Probably the strongest part of the book is in how it shows how importrant the lighting of the collection really is.It has pictures showing the same objects displayed with different lighting; and the differences are startling. At the back of the book, you will find an extensive list of sources and suppliers;conservation organizations,conservation references,consrvators and restorers,suppliers of display units,materials,installers, framers and security.There is also a list of books the authors used as references in writing the book.
A delightful book by anyone who has a collection or just enjoys looking a one.

...that really work together. The photography of the rooms is beautiful. The back section shows swatches of the colors used in the room photographs. Very useful. This book can be used as a reference beyond home decorating -- it will be of valuable whenever you need to work with color.

What a treat!! The color schemes in this book are wonderful. I have several different books on color and this is by far one of my favorites. From deep browns to pale pinks, this offers something for everyone. And the photography will blow you away...

Help! My cousin in Brazil is trying to contact the author of this book. The letter he sent was returned to him as the address being no good. He had gotten the address out of the back of the book. Does anyone know how to contact the author?

This is an excellent book. It's very interesting and was the first book of it's kind that I have read. I gives color and light suggestions for different environments such as schools, office spaces, etc. It gives detailed scientific information about why these colors and types of light are good to use in these environments that is easy to understand. I think this book is a must have for all interior designers who care about the effects the environment they design will have on the people that will be in it!

Michel Biehn records in loving and sensuous detail the customs and culture of his native Provence, using color as an ingenious organizing theme. The book goes far beyond the cliched lavender. It reveals the purples that fill Provencal gardens at Easter: lilac, iris and wisteria; the deep indigo that dyed the "jute de Nimes" exported to the United States as "denim" (de Nimes) by Levi Strauss; the hot saffron that flavors bouillabaisse; the orange coral marketed at Marseille; the white-on-white boutis embroidery on quilts and linens for the traditional trousseau; the red stone villages rising from the red earth; the yellow of sunflowers, straw hats and bright silk petticoats. Biehn's particular interest, and expertise, in traditional Provencal fabrics and costumes provides a logical palette on which to juxtapose these dramatic colors. Filled with memories, history, folklore, poetry, garden wisdom and mouthwatering recipes, The Colors of Provence is illustrated with ravishing color photos of Provencal landscapes, homes and objects.

This book has very much enriched our journeys in Provence and prodded our memories when we reminisce about them. Michel Biehn's idiosyncratic list of his favorite places to visit in Provence has led us to wonderful restaurants, shops, tile works, fabric stores and museums. We found it a valuable resource for understanding the significance of artifacts in village museums in Provence, and especially the collections of the extraordinary Provencal folk museum - the Musee Arlaten - that poet Frederic Mistral established in Arles with his Nobel prize money. A lovely and lively book perfect for planning a journey to Provence or dreaming about one.

I was given this book as a gift upon returning from a trip to France, and this more than any of my travel photos will remind me of and make me yearn to be back in Provence. Very beautiful!

I really enjoyed reading and learning to decorate It is the most informative book on decorating I have ever read. I really would like the author to update her book for the late 1990's.

One of the best books on the topic I've read. The author clearly explains major design principles, teaches you how to apply them, and then encourages individuality and innovation in designing your own home. I've read many decorating books and this is one of the best.

This is a terrific book on using rubber stamp techniques to decorate your home. It shows how practical and creative stamping can be for things other than just making cards. The projects are artistic have a sophisticated look and for the most part they are not too cutesy. Though sophisticated looking, with a little time and patience all the projects are fairly easy to create.

The book starts out with stamping basics such as masking, embossing, purchasing supplies and even making your own simple stamps. Principles of color and design follow. Stamping on various surfaces such as paper, wood, fabric, pottery, glass, clay, metal and leather are next. Then it is all put together in decorating your rooms. There is great information on assessing your room, making samples and working with patterns as well as creating borders, wreaths, and painted floors.

Over 15 projects follow including chest of drawers with elegant swirls, butterfly embossed velvet throw, lemon wall vine, paper mache bowl with leaves, orchard mini-chest and leather portfolio. My favorite project was the gorgeous Africa theme mica collage table. There are excellent step-by-step instructions accompanied by clear demonstrating photos for all the projects. A large photo the finished pieces as well as a complete materials list is also included.

A few patterns and a resource directory are located in the back. This book is a great source of inspiration and ideas for decorating and makes the perfect house-warming gift for the stamper in your life.

This a book that puts you in control of the look you want with decorating projects. Whether you are working on placemats or living room walls, there are ideas for making your own stamps out of everything from polymer clay to foam to natural objects.

Looks range from cute country to modern and mica flecked. Photos are very clear and the processes in the projects are described in detail. A source directory is included.

Great buy! Got Almost all the contemporary books series.
Arrived on time!

Truly modern asian style. All the pictures are beautiful and full of inspiring ideas. It's definitely worth rading.

i was most impressed by this truly valuable publication - a must for anyone's library interested in efficient design, architecture and entertaining.

This book is consistently wonderful. As a collection of small scale architectural works, it illustrates that small in size can be large in ambition and accomplishment. Sirefman uses the guest house to represent an important cross section of contemporary architecture, and the book is a gem.

The guest house (as a "type") is generally considered second string to the main house architecturally, but this collection argues that it doesn't have to be. The guest house's transitory, secondary nature allows it a freedom that a primary house does not have. The projects in the book have playfulness, eccentricity, quirks, and drama (sometimes all at once) that are immediately compelling. But the dialogue between main house and guest house is not the primary emphasis of the book - instead the best projects here are visual essays about the guest house's place in the garden. Many projects here play with the question that F L Wright asked Philip Johnson at the Glass House: "Well, are we inside or are we outside?"

High points include the luminous and dazzling Mountain Tree House by Mack Scogin, or the brooding, poetic entries from two Japanese architects (Satoshi Okada, Atelier Hitoshi Abe).

The selection of projects is refreshingly international. Although weighted toward the New York area, the most compelling projects are far from the madding crowd - coming from Mittagong, Australia, Dillard, Georgia, or Duluth, Minnesota. It's an interesting statement on the current dispersal of design talent that what's shown here from Oklahoma City, for example, is more accomplished than anything on the pages by New York architects.

I have alot of books on interior design and style. This is the one I would grab if my house was on fire. If I could crawl in between the pages, I'd take up permanent residence there. This is mostly a picture book. There's little text but tons of awesome photos that speak volumes. I give it my highest recommendation. Spend the money.You won't be disappointed.

the natural materials inspired homes of many creative artists around the world - this is a beautifully photographed book of the talents of many people who use natural materials & forms as their medium to express themselves in their own surroundings - absolutely one of my favorite design books !!...

Mark-Anthony Falzon has produced a fine multi-sited ethnography, focusing on Sindhi businesspeople settled in Malta, London, and Bombay but evoking through their eyes connections to kinsmen and business partners in many other places. He uses his geneologies and interviews skillfully to establish the changing patterns of trade and residence before and after the 1947 partition of India that sent Hindu Sindhis out of the towns and villages of Sindh (now in Pakistan)and made Bombay the new heart of this cosmopolitan community; he uses them as well to theorize about business communities, showing how the Sindhis bridge the global and the local and link the scholarly fields of "merchant diasporas" and "immigrant entrepreneurs." The Sindhi relationships with nation-states and with each other could both be drawn upon, the latter especially in times of hardship when politics disrupted the former. This is a fascinating, highly competent study that will be of interest for both empirical and theoretical reasons to anthropologists, sociologists, and historians. It should also interest a more general readership, as it is well and accessibly written.

"Falzon's is a rich ethnography of the Sindhis and an exemplar of the anthropological method. He meets the challenge of producing a translocal ethnography of a business community by using interviews and observations, and charts genealogies that map the spatiality of Sindhi social relations. The major challenge for him as an ethnographer was that the work became a multi-sited ethnography, in three places - Malta, London, and Bombay ... By locating his ethnographies in these three cities, Falzon uncovered a large amount of data on Sindhis all over the world. Falzon's work is not only useful for students of the Indian diaspora, it can also serve well in courses that seek to understand business and trade relations through an anthropological lens."