Product Description

Decorating decisions for today's living and dining rooms are rooted first in our lifestyles. How the room is going to be used will govern everything from the type and style of furnishings, window treatments and lighting, to the colors on the wall. No matter what your situation, formal or casual, open concept or divided spaces, bestselling author and dynamic TV host Debbie Travis offers enduring styles with 60 stunning projects that will transform your living and dining spaces into the favorite rooms in your home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #783911 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-16
• Released on: 2001-10-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From the Inside Flap
Decorating decisions for today's living and dining rooms are rooted first in our lifestyles. How the room is going to be used will govern everything from the type and style of furnishings, window treatments and lighting, to the colors on the wall. No matter what your situation, formal or casual, open concept or divided spaces, bestselling author and dynamic TV host Debbie Travis offers enduring styles with 60 stunning projects that will transform your living and dining spaces into the favorite rooms in your home.

About the Author
Debbie Travis is the coauthor of the award-winning Debbie Travis' Painted House, Debbie Travis' Decorating Solutions, and Debbie Travis' Weekend Projects.She lives in Canada.

Barbara Dingle is a former magazine editor and coauthor of Debbie Travis' previous books. She writes in the decorating and design fields.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction

Decorating today is not just about style, it?s about lifestyle?your lifestyle. It?s about how you live, the people with whom you live, and the colors, textures, and patterns that you love; a look that makes you smile each time you enter the front door; and a place where your family and friends are comfortable.

Traditionally, a home was divided into a series of rooms, each with its own purpose. But the diverse needs of today?s homeowners have had a profound impact on home design, altering not only the layout of the rooms but also the way we use them.

No other rooms in the house have evolved as dramatically as the living room and the dining room. Often reserved only for guests, they have always been the most underused rooms in the home, but now that role has changed. The design of modern homes has been revolutionized to capitalize on the practical use of more limited space. But many of these layout changes, such as combined living and dining areas or barrier-free open-concept plans, create major decorating challenges. If the kitchen is small, the dining area is used not just for special occasions but for every meal. Whether used for work or for celebration, the dining room is where some of our happiest memories are created. Homes with large eat-in kitchens may eliminate the need for a separate dining room, except for more formal feast days and important occasions. The space can still be used to great advantage, however, as the size of the dining table makes it an obvious choice for other tasks, such as home or office work, or spreading out a project. Domestic life has become less formal, and the living room has become exactly that?a space to live in, where the whole family gathers after a busy day to watch television, work at the computer, and play games. But it is still the room that asserts our style and the way we live, the place we use for entertaining friends.

Living and dining rooms are public rooms; they are on show to your visitors in a way that is either informal or more structured. They are the perfect places to display what you hold dear, and how you like to spend your free time. A favorite collection of dishes, frames, or wooden sculptures; the art on the wall; a handmade quilt thrown over a comfy couch; an easy chair with a perfectly poised reading lamp; or a music system with just the right speakers?all are clues to what is important to you. And because you have chosen to put these accoutrements in the open living areas of your home, your guests can share and enjoy them as well. They become a very personal and welcome gesture.

Your Lifestyle

We all go through many stages in our lifetime, and what may be perfectly suitable for us in our twenties when we are just starting out will soon change as we share our living space with a partner and then children. More time passes and the family structure changes again, perhaps with the addition of elderly parents to our home and the departure of grown children. Our lifestyles are in continual flux, and thus so are the ways we use our home space.

Decorating decisions for today?s living and dining rooms are rooted first in our needs. Ask yourself what these rooms mean to you right now. Do you want a living room where you can relax and recharge by yourself, or a place where the whole family gathers? Is the living room furniture comfortable? Is there something interesting to look at when you sit in different areas? Is there a good reading light? Have you planned any ambient lighting? Can you view artwork easily? Are there tables nearby on which to place a drink or a snack plate?

Is the dining room reserved for parties and celebrations, or is it your everyday eating area? Dining rooms are marvelous spaces to use drama, but make sure there?s enough light to see your dinner and enough padding on the seats to withstand a leisurely feast. The table is the focus of the dining room, but a rich wall finish and lighting details will help you enhance the mood.

In an open-concept design, the living and dining rooms are combined and become the central focus of the home, often used more for informal relaxing than for formal parties. The challenge is how to visually separate this large space and create a cozy, more intimate atmosphere.

How the room is going to be used will govern everything else, from the type and style of furnishings to the colors on the wall. So think about your plan and then write it down. It?s your mission statement, and all your decorating decisions revolve around what you want that space to do.

If you are just starting out, it is a good idea to have a long-term plan for some of the decisions you will have to make. It is easy to apply a fresh coat of paint, but furnishings such as a white couch or a glass-top coffee table may not be practical when children come along, and these are expensive to replace.

There has never been a better, more exciting time to design and decorate a room. We are no longer dictated to by strict rules, a particular style, or a correct color. Today?s home decorating emulates the fashion industry?anything goes! Mass media, the Internet, and knowledge of and influences from different cultures have created a global village of products, designs, and styles that are accessible and readily available to everyone. Paint manufacturers have produced lines in every possible shade and finish. Hardware stores have become design centers with easy-to-use materials and tools, all designed to help you personalize your home, and there seems to be a never-ending variety of furnishings, accessories, and fabrics.

The freedom to choose from such a broad spectrum of styles and products can create its own design dilemma. It forces you to think about what you really like instead of what?s popular at the moment. But it?s a wonderful feeling to create something that nourishes your spirit, which is what home is all about.

Customer Reviews

Eye candy and inspiration
I love color and Debbie Travis' books are full of it! Don't pay any attention to the people who discount her books as garish. She is very even handed when it comes to her color schemes--this book includes a whole room done in very pale sea-foam green; an airy, almost monochromatic "zen" room; and even some white walls here and there.

But the focus is on the daring, the new, the experimental and exciting. There are traditional rooms, in which she incorporates elements based loosely on historical architechture into a very livable modern room. I especially liked the Georgian room, in which she not only shows you the typical colors used in the period, but a wall technique, how to create an inexpensive freize, and a fireplace surround.

Each room includes much the same--a wall technique and two or three other projects to tie the room to the theme. Along with historical rooms, find also contemporary, country, and themed rooms. The photography is excellent (although sometimes does not fully show the detail of specific aspects of the project).

Overall the best thing about this book is that is shows color on the walls, something a lot of decorators seem to be afraid of. Once you look at the beautiful tones of the raspberry, burgundy, ochre, and umber Travis uses long enough, you start to see that maybe that might look good in your house. Hey, maybe not for everyone or for every room--but it makes an impact.

This is a balanced overview of different styles and colors, as well as an awesome how-to book. Even if you hate the colors she picks, you can learn more practical skills in two or three pages of this book than in all of Christopher Lowell!

Great Project Walls for the Entire House
This book has many of the walls shown on her Painted House TV show. I tend to TiVo and tape the shows I enjoy. Debbie has some great wall designs and very innovative wall treatments. What I like about her is she does the entire room decor. The problem that I see with most of the designs in this book AND on the TV show is how VERY TIME-CONSUMING they are. I know these designs get done because she has a team of painters, but I don't. Even though most of her designs are beautiful, they would take A LONG time to actually implement. For example the three marble dado on page 122 and the Elizabethan dining room on page 94. I remember this show, there were soooo many steps and it was all done on the ceiling. That in itself creates a totally different set of challenges.

I think this is a beautiful book with some gorgeous walls, but realistically I would not have the time to do over half the projects in this book so I gave it a 4-star.

I do have some favorites that do not seem quite as much of a time-hog:

~ Fornasetti dining room, pg 38
~Suburban update, pg 44: love the wide horizontal paint stripes
~Faux silk panels, pg 56
~Georgian Living room, pg 64 and the classic dining room, pg 76: has a tuscany feel

If you have the time, skills and help to do some of Debbie's more ambitious techniques this is a great book. If not, it's still a good book for some of the less time-consuming projects. I would also recommend Painted Illusions by Melanie Royals which have some absolutely beautiful techniques. Don't let the subtitle of Stencils throw you off. Melanie's techniques are also easy-to-follow and don't seem quite as protracted.

LOTS of Unique Ideas to Style Home
Want something different for your home, this books has LOTS of unique ideas that make you want to start right now! The directions are clear, consise and easy-to-understand. Ideas for young, young at heart and older people. Very pleased with this book and highly recommend it!