House & Garden Book of Style: The Best of Contemporary Decorating

by Dominique Browning

Book Overview

In celebration of the 100th anniversary ofHouse & Garden, this fully illustrated book presents important contemporary decorating trends in stunning homes. From one-room makeovers to complete... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609609289
• ISBN13: 9780609609286
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter Publishers
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.3" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

A handsome volume from a classic magazine

Dominique Browning, editor of HOUSE & GARDEN magazine, has a triumph on her hands with "House & Garden Book of Style." HOUSE & GARDEN has long been the sophisticated cousin to the more accessible HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, and that chicness is in evidence here. The HOUSE & GARDEN cool austerity--sometimes sacrificing warmth for hard-edged style, but many times not--is amply displayed throughout.The book covers a panoply of styles, from "Country Luxe" to "New International" to "Mid-Century Modern" and beyond. The shabby warmth of English-inspired rooms is covered, as is the prissier French look--but as HOUSE & GARDEN so often does, there is almost always a visual wrench thrown into the works to get your attention and make you rethink your assumptions about a particular genre. Perfectly making the point is the photograph on p. 25, which shows an 18th-century settee decorously covered in a taupe damask, above which hangs what appears to be a piece of Spirograph art made with screamingly bright primary oil paints. The effect is jarring--but it works.The thinking which goes into the decoration of these rooms is explored just as deeply as the looks themselves. Although photographs take up most of the room--as they should, since this is a case when a picture telling a thousand words is not only desirable, but necessary for instructing the reader--the text is informative and enlightening. The end result is that these profoundly individual rooms make their own cases, and what beautiful cases they make.