Product Details
Sister Parish Design: On Decorating

Sister Parish Design: On Decorating
By Susan Bartlett Crater, Libby Cameron

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Product Description

Comfort is the essential element of a successful interior and the hallmark of the Parish-Hadley style. In Sister Parish Design, Libby Cameron, Sister’s last protégé, and Susan B. Crater, Sister’s granddaughter, explore this aspect and much more in a series of conversations with the leading decorators of today.
Sister Parish is the iconic American decorator of her generation. Her use of flowered chintzes and overstuffed armchairs combined with unexpected items, like patchwork quilts and painted furniture, is credited with popularizing what is known as American Country–style during the 1960s. Her passion for bold color and mixed patterns invoked charm, imagination, and a lived-in look to her rooms. Her philosophy was to be unafraid and to put things together because you liked them--not because they matched.
Filled with beautifully-rendered watercolor illustrations, Sister Parish Design is more then just a stunning book—it is an inspirational resource that all decorating aficionados’ will want to add to their bookshelf.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #10187 in Books
  • Published on: 2009-10-27
  • Released on: 2009-10-27
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 272 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Imagine the pure bliss: eavesdropping on thirty of the best decorators sitting around a table, candidly sharing ideas and secrets and dreams, talking about what they love the most." William Ivey, Tony Award winning costume designer for The Producers"

About the Author

SUSAN CRATER is the granddaughter of Sister Parish and co-author of Sister: the Life of Legendary Decorator Mrs. Henry Parish II. LIBBY CAMERON worked for Sister Parish and now runs her own design firm. In 2001 they started SISTER PARISH DESIGN, a fabric and wallpaper company based on designs from the Parish-Hadley archives. Their products are frequently featured in magazines such as Architectural Digest, House & Garden and House Beautiful.

Customer Reviews

Twisted Sister4
The title of the book refers to the name of a fabric and wallpaper company, not to the work of legendary designer Mrs Henry "Sister" Parish, II. The authors, one the grand-daughter of, and the other, the former assistant to, the late decorator, developed this book as a clever promotion for their business venture, Sister Parish Design. With contributions from 25 decorators, including Albert Hadley and Bunny Williams, and magazine editiors, such as Mitchell Owens and Carolyn Englefield, various comments are grouped together in chapters and sub-chapters as a chatty how-to book of sorts, for lack of a better description.

There is a Forward by Albert Hadley and an Introduction in three parts by each of the authors and the illustrator. The chapters are Our Rooms, Beginnings, Elements, Furniture, Color, Materials & Textures, Collections, Outdoor Rooms, and The Courage to Decorate. A section titled Recommended Reading lists two pages of books on interior design. The section, Contributors, gives a very brief and vague 3 or 4 line c.v. on the designers and editors. A one page Acknowledgement thanks those who helped with the book, ending with the woman they only refer to as Sister, who provided the inspiration, they say.

The watercolor illustrations are an odd sort by Mita Corsini Bland, wife of popular Manhattan art and antiques dealer Gerald Bland. Similar in style to those by the late interior designer Mark Hampton, they lack the benefit of his understanding of what best to show, however. Most are not illustrations of Mrs Parish's work, but rather a somewhat muddy assortment of the contributors' work. They apprear to be largely taken from snapshots because only details or corners of rooms are shown. The benefits of using drawings instead of photographs were not generally exploited here. The exception is the dustjacket, with the fabric on a prominent bergere in Mrs Parish's living room changed from her trademark chintz to a blue & white print from the authors' fabric line!

There are many typos and inaccuracies, too numerous and perhaps too tedious to list here. There has been some criticism that many of the contributors had never even met Sister Parish. But this reviewer does not agree; I never met the 16th century architect Andrea Palladio, but he has been a great inspiration to me!

This is not a bad book, and generally rather attractive. But many will be disappointed in most aspects of content. All except the most devoted fans of Sister Parish should just wait until the book is further discounted. The definitive book on Sister Parish remains to be written.

A little bit of heaven.....5
If you could only have one book on design, this should be your choice. What a delight to sink into! This book reads like a novel, yet, one has the ability to jump from area to area, and not lose track. I found it to be inspiring, like coming home after a vacation, and seeing familiar sights in a new light.

Without a hint of aloofness, the message given is to follow and trust your instincts, enjoy your home or space, yet helps by pointing out some basic proportions, etc. This is an energizing book that can be referenced again and again, or simply read for the pure pleasure of it!

An absolutely charming and delightful book!5
An absolutely charming and delightful book! The relaxed and honest insight from designers and editors is a treat to read. Mita Corsini Bland's watercolors are a feast for the eyes. Lovely to look at, the watercolors capture the warmth of a room and provide an intimate perspective as no photograph could. Very enjoyable!!