Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61537 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Released on: 2006-09-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 218 pages

Amazon.com Review
Marc Vassallo's The Barefoot Home should come with a warning label: "This Book May Cause You to Sell, Buy, or Remodel a House within Hours of Reading." Gorgeous photographs fill this book to the brim, and every page that is not covered with photos and mini house plans called "footprints" is full of smart, helpful, inspirational text. Vassallo wants you to read The Barefoot Home as much as he wants to enjoy the stunning layout. He lays out the ground rules in the first few pages in his chapter called "barefoot dreams," in which he asks readers to "Pour yourself a tall glass of something cool, sit back, flip off your shoes, put your feet up, and dream with you eyes wide open." If that doesn't convince you to check out The Barefoot Home, our guest review from the beloved architect, author, and "cultural visionary" Sarah Susanka surely will. --Daphne Durham

Almost 10 years after The Not So Big House came out, it's reassuring to see that houses really are starting to get smaller. Over the past year I've been interviewed time and again for articles describing a growing backlash against the mega-houses that have been built across the country in recent decades.

Houses aren't only getting smaller, they're also becoming less formal, a trend picked up by my good friend and coauthor (of Inside the Not So Big House) Marc Vassallo in his new book, The Barefoot Home. Marc hits the nail on the head when he says that we no longer need formal living and dining rooms--it just doesn't fit the way we live anymore. And we’re spending just as much time enjoying the outside of our homes as we are the inside. In a barefoot home, you can feel like you’re on vacation 365 days a year, a lifestyle that's much more in tune with the way we REALLY live today--at least when we're not at work.

I was lucky enough to be one of the very first readers to receive a copy of The Barefoot Home and as I leafed through it, I could almost feel the sand between my toes. Marc has assembled and described, in his inimitable style, 20 excellent examples of houses that are both Not So Big in form, and decidedly Not So Formal in function. As Marc recommends in his "barefoot manifesto," it's time to kick off your shoes, open up, embrace the sun, live outside as well as in, and adopt a barefoot state of mind. The lessons these homes have to offer are much needed by all who are disenchanted with "too bigness" in house design; and best of all, they're easy to implement, and often less expensive to boot. Anyone who is a fan of the Not So Big House series will almost certainly enjoy this book as well.

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From Publishers Weekly
Dreamy and light, these hideaway domiciles across the country photographed with stunning serenity by Ken Gutmaker share an uncluttered effortlessness. Vassallo defines a barefoot home as enjoying informality, openness to nature, abundance of light ("helps blur the distinction between inside and outside"), and the use of straightforward, touchable textures—peeled cedar columns, exposed cabinets and framing. Vassallo's model here is clearly the Usonian house by Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as an open Japanese living room parceled into flexible spaces using screens. Many of the houses selected are located in California and the Pacific Northwest, such as a cozy bungalow in a busy neighborhood in Seattle with high transom windows and a courtyard. Other arresting structures include a summer house on Lake Martin, Ala., featuring flip-up windows rather than air conditioning; a modernly refurbished colonial in Bethesda, Md., with a fairly unconventional, detached screen porch that doubles as a clubhouse for the kids. By far the wildest structure here is a revamped Native American longhouse smack in the middle of the Kansas prairie: no curtains necessary. Vassallo, like Henry David Thoreau, whom he quotes, eschews the stuffiness and formality of the typical home. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Beach-house living - wherever you reside - now has a manual. Mark the end of a sun-kissed summer with "The Barefoot Home" (Taunton Press), a sumptuous coffee-table book by Marc Vassallo celebrating "unfussy," informal home design that emphasizes natural light; hardwood; and clean, open spaces.
"Christian Science Monitor
"
Author Marc Vassallo says we can have that feeling year-round - and it doesn't require bankrolling a second home. His new book, "The Barefoot Home: Dressed-Down Design for Casual Living" explores the design decisions that can give any house that vacation feeling 365 days a year. With case studies and copious photographs of 23 serenely beautiful homes across the country, Vassallo - who cowrote "Inside the Not So Big House" with architect Sarah Susanka - breaks down into some key categories what makes a home "barefoot."
Eils Lotozo, "The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Homes that feel like a beach cottage Homes are getting more casual all the time. Home-design writer Marc Vassallo looks at the extreme of that trend in "The Barefoot Home: Dressed Down Design for Casual Living." Vassallo's book explores the concept of incorporating vacation living into everyday life. The 24 homes he features have the laid-back appeal of a beach house, yet they're designed for year-round use. Common features include big windows that wash the homes in sunlight, easy access to the outdoors, great views and open floor plans - and, of course, decor that's fuss-free and put-your-feet-up friendly.
Allen Norwood, "Charlotte Observer"
"
"In this coffee-table book, Vassallo profiles homes he considers "barefoot": dressed-down, relaxed spaces where rooms spill into one another andindoors winds into outdoors. The trend reflects Americans' informal lives, Vassallo says. He bases a home's "barefootedness" on five qualities: informality, openness, light, texture and the meshing of indoor and outdoor spaces. Pictures of 20-or-so homes from across the country dominate the pages, while brief excerpts describe each living space. Each house gets a sidebar on what makes it a barefoot home.
KRISTINA FIORE, "Newsday" (New York)
"
"Dreamy and light, these hideaway domiciles across the country photographed with stunning serenity by Ken Gutmaker share an uncluttered effortlessness. Vassallo defines a barefoot home as enjoying informality, openness to nature, abundance of light ("helps blur the distinction between inside and outside"), and the use of straightforward, touchable textures-peeled cedar columns, exposed cabinets and framing. Vassallo's model here is clearly the Usonian house by Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as an open Japanese living room parceled into flexible spaces using screens. Many of the houses selected are located in California and the Pacific Northwest, such as a cozy bungalow in a busy neighborhood in Seattle with high transom windows and a courtyard. Other arresting structures include a summer house on Lake Martin, Ala., featuring flip-up windows rather than air conditioning; a modernly refurbished colonial in Bethesda, Md., with a fairly unconventional, detached screen porch that doubles as a clubhouse for the kids. By far the wildest structure here is a revamped Native American longhouse smack in the middle of the Kansas prairie: no curtains necessary. Vassallo, like Henry David Thoreau, whom he quotes, eschews the stuffiness and formality of thetypical home. "(Sept.)"
"Publishers Weekly"
Copyright (c) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Homes are getting more casual all the time. Home-design writer Marc Vassallo looks at the extreme of that trend in "The Barefoot Home: Dressed Down Design for Casual Living," Vassallo's book explores the concept of incorporating vacation living into everyday life. The 24 homes he features have the laid-back appeal of a beach house, yet they're designed for year-round use. Common features include big windows that wash the homes in sunlight, easy access to the outdoors, great views and open floor plans -- and, of course, decor that's fuss-free and put-your-feet-up friendly.
-- Mary Beth Breckenridge, "Akron Beacon Journal"

Customer Reviews

Barefoot Home Lover
I stumbled across this book after reading a review in Coastal Living, and I haven't looked back. I am neither a designer nor an architect, but with carefully chosen text and clear, descriptive pictures, Marc Vassallo really opened my eyes and mind what it is that I am looking in a home. I've been trying to create my perfect (for me and my family) home for years, and while I realize that is a process, not a goal, all the elements that are key for me were captured here beautifully. While so many books and magazines about US homes and designs feature mostly homes on the East Coast or in the Midwest, this one refreshinly was not limited by geography and the West and Pacific Northwest were well represented. I loved that fact that the homes were not huge palatial estates but, with creativity, had elements that were attainable for most people who are willing to take a few risks and even do some of the work themselves. This book really validated what I believe my home should and can be and reenergized me to continue to move forward. As a big fan of the Taunton Press books and Sarah Susanka's The Not So Big House, this was an immediate purchase for my home library and still is out where I reach for it at least once a day to look at and think about how to apply some of the principles to my home. As a public librarian, I know these types of books are very popular with our customers and Barefoot Home is no exception - all our copies have been borrowed since I ask the book selector to order it and it was put on the shelves. The Barefoot Home website is a great resource, too. Have fun dreaming!

A lavishly photographed interior design and decorating guide
The Barefoot Home: Dressed-Down Design For Casual Living is a lavishly photographed interior design and decorating guide, with an eye for the laid-back lifestyle. Emphasis on openness, lack of clutter, serenity, ventilation, and ease distinguish these suggestions for everything from kitchens to studios to bedroom. Full-color photographs on every page, diagrams, and extensive writing not only about specific suggestions but also general themes to promote a relaxed atmosphere fill The Barefoot Home cover-to-cover. The perfect interior design antidote to the pressures and stresses of a fast-paced world, The Barefoot Home is written in a tone akin to its subject matter - easygoing and thoroughly accessible to amateur and professional designers alike. Very highly recommended and informative reading.

One of the Best
This is an excellent house design book. It's a very functional book ,you'll probably examine your house plans in a new light after reading this.
I appreciated the content of the book; excellent pictures, floor plans for every house (you would think every design book would include this, but no)and a range of house sites from coast to coast and urban to country. The author developed his topic (relaxed house) well throughout the book, I found that the text was concise and interesting. Vassallo demonstrated again and again in various contexts his themes for a "barefoot house"-light, open spaces, texture, durable surfaces, great connectivity to the outside, and every inch of space useful and used.