Product Description

Bringing Paris Home invites the reader to re-create the panache of French interior style in an American setting. Author Penny Drue Baird shares her love and knowledge of French history and decorative arts and describes the design elements essential to an elegant French interior—architectural details, furniture, paint and wall covering, fireplaces, lighting, and tabletop settings. A special chapter on shopping offers tips on finding treasures in the famed Marche aux Puces in Paris. Penny Drue Baird's highly engaging text, filled with reminiscences and anecdotes, brings the charm and pleasure of Paris to life. Lavishly illustrated with Parisian scenes and completed interiors by Baird, Bringing Paris Home is an essential resource for capturing the atmosphere of Paris.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #267019 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-07
• Released on: 2008-10-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Review
"I could eat this book even without crème fraîche!"
—Gael Greene

"Penny Drue Baird is a classicist and at the same time a modernist. Her work is always fresh but still relates to the past, bringing European history to the twenty-first century."
—Mario Buatta

"Penny Drue Baird is the only designer who can ferret out flea market finds to make rooms look like Versailles."
—Wendy Moonan

"In this book, Penny Drue Baird gives you a glimpse into how to create a beautiful home, blending classic design with a true modern elegance. I am sure you will come to admire her natural talent and sophisticated eye, and her ability to entertain like a real Parisienne!"
—Daniel Boulud

About the Author
Penny Drue Baird, one of Architectural Digest's Top 100 Designers, is renowned for her knowledge of French decorative arts. Her firm, Dessins, is based in Paris and New York. Her work has been widely published in Architectural Digest and other prestigious magazines. The author lives in New York, NY.

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

An indescribable feeling greets us when we step into the streets of Paris. What is it about just being there that creates such a stir within us? All at once, we are surrounded by physical beauty and by ethereal stimuli—the smell of the streets, the sky, the street signs, the light. Can the air really be that different? Europe in general, and Paris in particular, fills us with a tingling feeling; our senses are constantly titillated. This heightened sensual experience stays with us throughout our visit. Can we bring it home?

When I was a young girl traveling to France and Europe the first few times, I had a physical reaction to being somewhere foreign. This strangeness or foreignness wore off over time; the feelings are so ingrained in me that they have become part of who I am.

. . .

Living in Paris presents an array of everyday chores made nicer by the surroundings, the choices, the attitude, and the idiosyncratic Parisian lifestyle. Parisians are greatly influenced by intangibles like the seasons. Food, wine, colors, habits all reflect seasonal differences. Parisians rarely leave their arrondissements. Each one supplies all they need—the marché, the bistrot, the café, the school, the doctor, and favorite stores are all there.

. . .

I became an interior designer by happenstance. Trained in child psychology, I found myself doing interior design. I was influenced by Barbara D’Arcy’s design book as well as by my parents and by friends already in the field. I dabbled with my own apartments, first in Chicago and later in New York, supplementing my instincts with courses at the New York School of Interior Design. As a young girl, I had watched as my parents decorated their home with the help of an interior designer. They chose Spanish-style furniture when all their friends chose faux French. The effect was chic and tasteful, so much so that when they moved some thirty years later, my friends couldn’t wait to buy the furniture. The pieces I kept are chic and in style even today.

Bringing Paris home is not as simple as adding lace curtains or provincial pottery to your décor. It is something much more subtle and much more personal. It has to do with the philosophy of European living and many characteristics. To understand those characteristics, we need to take an exploratory stroll through the streets of Paris, eyes and ears open, to see what we observe . . . bringing home both the intangible as well as the tangible treasures that abound.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful photos but little information
This is a great coffee table book and the photos are interesting. However, it is filled mostly with American houses that have tried to look European rather than the real thing, and there is absolutely nothing to teach the reader about what distinguishes one period from another. I'm glad I bought it, but it missed an opportunity to be much more valuable.

Wishing You were in Paris?
If you can't get to Paris, this book will satisfy a little of that urge. Beautiful photographs of lush homes furnished and accessorized as only Parisions do. Especially intriguing is the window fabric on the cover and in the inside pages. Exactly what is it, and how was it made? So very ooh-la-la!

Fabulous
Just by looking at the pictures, you are with Penny in Paris, seating outside with a "cafe" and a "croissant"
It is a wonderful book.
Thank you Penny, for taking the time and the research about our Paris.