Pure Style Living

by Jane Cumberbatch

Book Overview

Jane Cumberbatch's vision is for a more balanced and simple, natural, and focused way of life. Jane Cumberbatch's Pure Style Living is a book about how to make the home a more sensual and practical... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0789480158
• ISBN13: 9780789480156
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 9.5" x 11.4"

Customer Reviews

Down-to-Earth Living Style

"What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?" ~W.H. Davies Jane Cumberbatch has a vision for a simpler existence that is more balanced and natural. She enjoys making her home more sensual, while also encouraging a practical environment in which you can really live. She is the mother of three children who thinks of her home as the heart of her daily life. To her, it is a place where she can connect with her real self. The ideas in this book are affordable and there are a few moments of pure inspiration. The contents include: Recipes Sources Living Nature Scents Texture Eating Architecture Function Order Fabrics Color Work Gardening Playing Washing Sleeping Flooring Painting This book is more about living simply than creating complicated projects. This is a book about how to make a home more stylish, sensual and peaceful. There are useful ideas like how you can grow your own produce, recycle items you would normally throw away or how to use fewer chemicals and maybe even make your own compost heap. I found the text inspirational and thought provoking in many ways. It is creative and evokes a feeling of crisp ideas, nostalgic memories from childhood and an awakening to the senses. Pictures of hanging clothes on a clothesline or sweeping a porch barefoot almost make you long for simpler times. The pictures pour themselves over the pages with sheer beauty. This is a book you will want to sit and read while comfortably snuggling on your couch (which you wish looked like the pink one on page 190 where a child is peacefully sleeping) with a down comforter and a cup of tea. The pictures are interspersed with text in the first section. This is a combination of visual and intellectual appeal which I found to be almost unique in its form. There are cute ideas like a bowl of soup decorated with a heart crouton and herbs which I really thought was delightfully fun. The pictures of making a raspberry fool look absolutely sinfully delicious. You just want to put a spoonful of raspberries in your mouth or enjoy the process of folding berries into cream. Then there are ideas for scenting your bedlinen with fragrances or protecting your clothes with natural cedarwood blocks. There is a visual directory of ideas. The last section compliments the first as it gives you ideas on the materials needed to achieve the natural atmosphere described in the first section. There are ideas for building a fire on a damp blustery day or how to bring nature into your home to increase tactile sensations. While the ideas in "play" are not necessarily that original, you may have forgotten how as a child you carved out potato art to make potato prints. There is a cute way to decorate a tree with heart shaped pastry. To find the recipes you have to turn to page 393 where you can find "mini" recipes for Chestnut soup, roast chicken with lemon and herb butter, chicken stock, sautéed carrots, mince pies, chocolate truffles, orange and al