Jeffrey Bilhuber's Design Basics: Expert Solutions for Designing the House of Your Dreams

by Jeffrey Bilhuber and Annette Tapert

Jeffrey Bilhuber's Design Basics is full of expert solutions for designing the home of your dreams and features a foreword by Anna Wintour. With more than 100 color photographs, this book is perfect for the first-time decorator. In the book (written with Annette Tapert), interior designer Jeffrey Bilhuber shares both the philosophies and methods of professional design. Jeffrey Bilhuber's Design Basics demystifies the art of decorating, emphasizing...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0847825647
• ISBN13: 9780847825646
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.4" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Basic Design Concepts Explained

This book is far more than just a picture book. The instruction in basic design concepts allows you to apply what you learn to novel situations without having to simply copy an idea you see in a picture. I picked up skills from this book, not just ideas.

very fun, lots of how tos

this is a book I turn to for decorating courage and when I am insecure in my own ideas. the paint color helpful hints were very helpful once (as per advice in the book I painted a small room benj. moore black bean soup) and a little strange another time (painted a naturally brightly lit room south facing room ceiling atrium white...which made it look like my ceilings were pink during the day, but they do really look perfect at night... mind you the color is perfect on walls elsewhere, even when south facing with lots of natural light...) anyway, this book is a very fun read and contains lots of ideas. I have used it for reference about 30 times in the last year, so I'd say the book is a good bang for the buck.

This book provides the essentials and then some....

There are so few design books that really deliver. As an interior designer I am skeptical of those books that come from the "designer of the month". Jeffrey Bilhuber is not only delightful to speak with - I was lucky enough to meet him - he really lays out his book with his own flair, design ideas and interior design credos (i.e. design basics). He presents the information in such a way, with humor, that makes it approachable but not "dumbed down" so anyone, whether formally schooled in design or not, can take something away and apply it if they choose. Many designers have tried this before and never come close. This is no easy feat, quite remarkable really! Deborah in Bethesda

The Way Every Interior Should Look

Jeffrey Bilhuber's Design Basics is the greatest book on Interior Design that I have read to date, and I've read a lot. Jeffrey really does lay out the basics in an easy, comprehensible way. Although the homes pictured (which he designed)are more expensive, Bilhuber shares his tricks on how to make every space look fantastic, whether it is a one-bedroom apartment or a 14,000 square foot home. I am studying Interior Design right now, and I appreciate the ideas, aesthetic and attitude of Bilhuber. Bilhuber has a wonderful talent in mixing modern elements with the classic. From what I have read he is quite the history buff, and that is reflected through his design projects. He has a definite aesthetic as well, but he is able to show many styles for different types of people. He has designed purely modern spaces, a Morrocan-style home in Florida, and cottage-style homes on Nantucket. These are all very different styles. Chapter by chapter, Bilhuber gives many ideas on how to take these ideas and reinterpret them for any space. You have to read the text along with looking at the photos. There are hundreds of practical solutions written in the chapters of this book, like covering family room sofa cushions in leather for accidental spills. He actually has done that for a client with children. He is all about creating spaces that relect his client's personalities and needs. He has shown in this book that form and function can truly coexist. I recommend this book to anyone desiring a beautiful and practical home. Everyone can take ideas from this book. Bilhuber has shown through the beautiful photography and eloquent text that it can be easy to create the home of your dreams. I love this book!!!

Fabulous Images, Amazing Interiors

I found the interiors in this book to be very pure examples of "Interior Design as Art." -- Not to be too vague, the interiors of Jeffrey Bilhuber are examples of phenominal composition, of the interplay of light and dark, rough and smooth, curved and rectilinear. These aren't comfy meek suburban interiors. Like the recent books by Sills & Huniford and Vicente Wolf, these are Aesthetic interiors, meant to delight the eye. To those who are unfamiliar with Jeffrey Bilhuber, these interiors may appear to be "Overdecorated" or seemingly uninviting. But there you have the multilayered world of interior design -- If you love the work of such "household names" as Christopher Lowell or the Trading Spaces team, then you're looking at the wrong book. Interior Design as an art form --Yes, as rigorous in its' attention to detail, color, and composition as any other art form - sculpture, painting, collages, etc... -- is not meant to appeal to everyone, because it takes an eye that appreciates subtlety and freshness. These aren't typical "Comfy/Safe" interiors, and shouldn't be. The risk that comes with comfy/safe interiors is bland/boring design. Kind of the decorating equivalent of grey sweat pants. Nothing too risky, nothing too unusual. If we are to develop our own aesthetic senses, then we should have great examples to aspire to. Hence this book. I think that if you are familiar enough with the design world through publications like Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, House and Garden, etc., then Bilhuber's name will be very familiar. If so, you will probably love this book. If you haven't seen his name in Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens, or Womens' Day (and have looked), then you'll find his interiors foreign and unapproachable.In other words, if you want to make oatmeal, you don't look for the recipe in a cookbook on Haute Cuisine.Great Book - Fabulous Images, Amazing Interiors