The House in Good Taste

By Elsie De Wolfe

Book Overview

I know of nothing more significant than the awakening of men and women throughout our country to the desire to improve their houses. Call it what you will-awakening, development, American Renaissance-it is a most startling and promising condition of affairs. It is no longer possible, even to people of only faintly sthetic tastes, to buy chairs merely to sit upon or a clock merely that it should tell the time. Home-makers are determined to have their houses, outside and in, correct according to the best standards. What do we mean by the best standards? Certainly not those of the useless, overcharged house of the average American millionaire, who builds and furnishes his home with a hopeless disregard of tradition. We must accept the standards that the artists and the architects accept, the standards that have come to us from those exceedingly rational people, our ancestors.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1517159733
• ISBN13: 9781517159733
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

not trite

I bought this book when it first came out. I tried reading it, was (too) quick to call it 'trite' and gave it away. Later my boyfriend gave me a copy (not knowing that I'd tried it before) so I had to slog through it. I am so very glad I did. Ms. DeWolfe has a unique style of writing that must be understood before you will truely enjoy the book. She has a wit and charm that is backed by such sincerity that few designers today could pull this level of writing off. The book will make you want to find more by or about this stylishly pragmatic decorator

what a joy

Elsie De Wolfe is acknowleged as the first woman to make a fortune as a decorator and can be called the first life style maven of the 20th century. Her opinions on home decor were eagerly seized upon by millions of aspirational women around the country. She wrote The House in Good Taste 90 years ago but it's just as fresh and suitable now as it was then. I can't bring myself to agree with her on patchwork quilts, lace curtains or rocking chairs but she's absolutely correct in her advice on wallpaper, paint and apartments. It's amazing how much this delightful and informative book still has to teach us.