The New City Home: Smart Design for Metro Living

by Leslie Plummer Clagett

Here are creative, city-tested solutions to meeting the challenges of metro living. In The New City Home, Leslie Plummer Clagett provides you with design ideas for a wide variety of urban living... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561584614
• ISBN13: 9781561584611
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Taunton Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 2.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.3" x 11.5"

Customer Reviews

Design Your Loft

Need some ideas for your loft apartment? This book is full of great decorating plans you can put into action.

Outstanding Book for the Modern Loft Dweller

My dream is to own a loft one day and I have been to open house tours and read many books about this subject. I have a very defined taste, concerning how I want a loft to look and how I want to decorate my loft. I have a very contemporary taste in furnishings and I like an open and airy loft. When I first received this book in the mail, I almost quit breathing. It was if the authors had looked into my dreams and thoughts to create this book. This book truly represents the contemporary feel and look that I like so well. I can guarantee you that if you are interested in a contemporary look to your loft, this is your book. I know that I will probably wear this book out, because it is truly an inspirational vision of a modern loft. The photos are beautifully done, the writing is sharp and concise, and the overall quality is outstanding!!

Home, or something like it

Young people today aren't keeping to the small-town or suburban lifestyles of their parents. They're going to the cities to rent studio apartments. Once there, they're likely to end up moving into family-size spaces.City planners and administrators are taking this back-to-the-cities trend into consideration. They're trying to make city living appeal to young future owners. One way is by business building up a neighborhood around it, in brownstones; floor-through flats; high-rise apartments; lofts; offbeat converted places such as autoshops and stables; rowhouses; and townhouses.Likewise, architects are thinking about the loss of peace, privacy and quiet that usually comes with city living. They're coming up with designs that meet young needs for shelter and express young personalities. The result really is personal space inside, even with such impersonal space outside as "shadowy" concrete buildings.This is done by clearly-defined lines, hand-worked materials, soothing planes, and unusual details indoors. It's also by putting in balconies and terraces and opening up roofs and windows to light and views onto deliberately planted small, green spaces. Similarly, not much space inside looks bigger, for example, by using the same materials in and out, such as cedar flooring, fencing and decking.THE NEW CITY HOME even brings working spaces inside, while keeping them attractively and cleverly separate from living spaces. In one case, for example, the outside has cottage-style clapboard cladding for the first floor. Indoors, the kitchen and living spaces have a cozy look, what with simple cabinetry, low ceilings and boldly painted colors. The second floor has plywood panels on the outside. Inside, spotlights, skylights, and high ceilings show the upper level to be for work.What if the two can't always be separated, as in bathrooms or kitchens? Space isn't clearly personal or work, if it brings in universal design. This means, for example, lever handles to doors and faucets, rocker-panel light switches, and textured non-slip flooring.Leslie Plummer Clagett's book is organized and written in an understandable, user-friendly way. Her choice of illustrations works perfectly with what she says. This practical help to city living is rounded out with Elizabeth Franklin's THE FRANKLIN REPORT, NEW YORK CITY 2003: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO HOME SERVICES.

One of the best in this class

I've browsed about twenty different contemporary interior books, and I've found this to be most interesting and slightly more inspiring.One piece of advice: I don't think any of the contemporary interior books have as much variety as one might expect. Make sure to browse the physical books before making a final decision - don't base you decision on these reviews alone. I've done this with many book on interior design and I've been disappointed.

Wonderful

This book has wonderful photography and covers a broad range of city homes including renovations and lofts. The style of this book is modern and contemporary. Very nice ideas!