Dwellings: Living with Great Style
by Stephen Sills/James Huniford
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen Sills/James HunifordEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09
ISBN: 0821228463
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Bulfinch
Book Reviews of Dwellings: Living with Great Style
Book Review: I just HAD to add my two cents' worth, because...
Summary: 5 Stars
I was amazed by the polarity of the reviews for this book -- always a good sign, as long as the lengthier reviews are the negative ones. Having bought a copy for resale, the reviews below motivated me to heavily skim it, and here's the fat skinny as I see it.
These guys really are gifted professionals, whose approach melds formal principle with intuitive insight. Their advice taken piecemeal may read like mostly conventional wisdom, but there is a LOT of it packed into a small space. And their bemoaned "writing about themselves" (hard to avoid, really) is how you get the Be-Here-Now feel of their process. This personal, casebook approach adds considerable vitality to the link between the layered and revealing text and the superbly composed interior photos.
No, the latter are NOT huge -- discernment is a mark of these designers, and the medium is as much the message here as with the design examples and text. The real learning comes Zen-like, in the space between the words and images -- that's why some readers "get it" and others (who tend to want concrete "how to" or big, flashy pix and divertingly original text) don't. Check out a library copy if you're in doubt as to whether you're this book's kind of person. Or just take the plunge, get humble and patient, and see what -- and how -- you can learn....
On the text: sure, we all know that the floor is the foundation of any room, furniture should be suitable, luxurious bathrooms will pamper you, wall surfaces offer lots of possibilities, and colors should harmonize but need not match. But then you come upon nuggets of concentrated utility, like their three (primordial) strategies for the use of color, and such interesting observations as, "When color is integral to the material -- stone, wood, metal -- it registers less strongly".
The authors' offbeat perspective surfaces here and there like a thread in a tapestry. They liken the floor to the "face" of a room -- then survey ten classic flooring materials in a sentence, list eight functions that floor designs can serve in two more, and rattle off a dozen points of practical wisdom about carpets -- all this being reflected in the accompanying pictures. You don't read this book so much as you mine it.
The use of many transitional pages with nothing but large-scripted aphorisms and chapter titles IS a tad on the indulgent side, but even here the whole can be more than the sum of the parts. "A room's function should be paramount in determining the way it looks" (4: Living in a Room), yet "The more defined a room's function is, the harder it can be to design" (8: Functional Spaces). "Be Here Now", gentle acolytes -- these dividers are really connectors as well, functioning on the rebound as subsumers of more practical wisdom than is apparent until you've done your homework. Read that text and get your eyeballs into those pix for a couple of iterations, grok the "tell `em then show `em" paradigm in play, and go to school on these guys!
In sum, "editing, function and order" are as masterfully displayed in every aspect of the layout as they are demonstrated to be essential to the design of a room. The book is multi-dimensionally gorgeous, inside and out -- quite the bonus, really (check out the super-classic "Billy Baldwin Decorates" by way of comparison, and see what I mean). You can display this coffee table gem with pride, for its fascinating Persian-Miniature style photos, discussion-provoking koan/cliches, sheer textural delight to the eye and hand, and for the delectation of your subtler friends....
Summary of Dwellings: Living with Great Style
Two of today's most acclaimed interior designers share their secrets in this ultimate guidebook for creating a beautiful home.Crafts & Hobbies Books
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