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House Beautiful 750 Designer Secrets: Exclusive Design Ideas from the Pros
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| List Price: | $24.95 |
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Product Description
Even those of us with great taste and a natural talent for decorating know that there are certain insider design skills and secrets accessible only to professionals with years of experience. House Beautiful: 750 Designer Secrets gives everyone access to this precious knowledge. This spectacular, expansive collection of more than 400 photographs leaves no doorknob unturned, as some of the country's most creative decorators reveal their design know-how. They'll help amateurs understand scale and proportion, as well as how to decorate with color and pattern, add atmospheric lighting, shape the shell, hang and showcase art, and fix up small spaces. There is ample advice on creating family-friendly areas, bedroom basics, smart storage, and outdoor rooms. Take advantage of House Beautiful's unrestricted pass to the world of interior design! A Main Selection of the Homestyle Book Club.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #83631 in Books
- Published on: 2005-09-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 439 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
It's hard to decide if the elegant color photographs from House Beautiful or the snippets of wisdom from a selection of interior designers are more instructional. The answer? Let your senses decide as you leaf through this showcase collection, with secrets clearly numbered and visuals just as patently coordinated. However, these tricks of the trade are definitely meant for the hoi-er polloi, since most readers can't afford to subscribe to, for instance, this sample dictate: "If you're on a tight budget, splurge on a superbly built sofa--everything else can come from Pottery Barn." On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to dream, does it? Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Customer Reviews
Informative and Inspirational
I love looking at House Beautiful books. I find the pictures to be inspirational. However, I usually don't think the text is very informative. I was pleasantly surprised to find House Beautiful 750 Designer Secrets to be an exception to the rule. It does contain beautiful photographs, but the "secrets" are useful and/or inspirational comments by designers. I have to admit I don't recognize the names of most of them, but I find the information to be consistent with other interior design/decoration books I have read. The quotes may not always be particulary earthshattering, but there were enough good ones to justify giving House Beautiful 750 Designer Secrets a 5. Out of 750 quotes you are bound to find something that is useful to you!
Now, just to give you a clear picture of what the book does and does not have to offer: no where is there a set of explicit instructions for how to incoporate the comments dirtectly to your home, but that is not the intention of the book. It is suppose to make you think for yourself how to add your own sense of style to your house. The book is set up so that there is a picture or two on a page and quotes by several different designers. The pictures illustrate the comments. I choose the following quotes because I thought that they are good advice and/or they made me rethink how I decorate my rooms.
"The most important thing is what you feel when you walk into a room." Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz
"Not interfering with views is decorating 101." Scott Salvator
"You don't need a lot of elements to create a dynamic effect." Jeffrey Marks
"Anchor a large room with a sense of symmetry." (quote from the author).
"I edit rigourously for scale, form, and color." Celeste Cooper
"Incorporate a common thread-such as a neutral color-to unify electric furnishings." Kelly Harmon
The one drawback to the book for some people might be that the pictures portray a similar style of decoration. If you like a mix of modern and antique, you will probably like the book, but those who like other styles, may or may not enjoy the pictures in the book. However, I think that the information given by the designers applies to any style.
Pretty pics, not much else
The book is lovely, but it could've been so much better if it had more desciptions of what you're looking at. Instead, it's full of little phrases that may be helpful, but they are also somewhat pithy. I wish I had purchased a couple of magazine subscriptions instead.
Top designer secrets revealed
House Beautiful Magazine specializes in award-winning interior design presentations, so you know that when they lend their name to a collection, professionals are involved. Their top designers reveal secrets, provide room makeovers, and pack in over four hundred color photos from selected superior interiors. Utility blends with art in 750 DESIGNER SECRETS: EXCLUSIVE DESIGN IDEAS FROM THE PROS, which tells how to shape and tailor a design project for maximum efficiency and best visual results.
