Product Description

America's top interior decorators share their secrets on everything from transforming an entire home to finding the one simple, elegant finishing touch for a certain room. Elegant and Easy Rooms reveals the surprisingly simple, inexpensive, and creative ideas that the designers use on their wealthy clients' home--all in a sophisticated format.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #860914 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-08
• Released on: 1997-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.com Review
It's easy to see why this nifty little book is already a bestseller in the crowded home-decorating field. If you're put off by--or just need a break from--all those plush design books filled with gorgeous but intimidating photos of rooms you can't afford, Elegant and Easy Rooms can help you meet your decorating needs as it gently but firmly shatters common decorating myths and offers countless specific alternatives. For example, white walls aren't the best neutral or the ideal way to maximize space, but there are plenty of other "safe" choices; a tiny wallpaper pattern won't make a small room seem airy but a bolder motif actually will. Those color coffee-table volumes are great for inspiration but often require effort to extrapolate specific, usable ideas. Here you can open any page at random to find concise, terrific advice drawn from the author's own considerable knowledge and from noted designers and design publications. You'll also find strategies for working with a professional designer even if you're on a tight budget. There's so much excellent and readily accessible information that even seasoned do-it-yourselfers will find themselves spurred to spruce up their decor after perusing this book. --Amy Handy

From Library Journal
Each of these books gives a different view of some of the major issues in home decorating. Interior designer Hanby-Robie has written an easy-to-read workbook to be used by the do-it-yourselfer. She discusses furniture, wall and window treatments, fabrics, flooring, interior design accessories, and planning. For all topics she never advocates a particular style but gives practical advice to enable consumers to make knowledgeable home-decorating choices. Landis, a contributing editor to Metropolitan Home, takes a "helpful hints" approach to interior design, much like Leslie Linsley does in her 15-Minute Decorating Ideas (LJ 5/15/97). The "workable (and) designer-tested" tips are divided into chapters for topics such as color, windows, and display. Appendixes provide information on hiring an interior designer and a helpful list of mail-order resources for home furnishings. Stoddard, the interior designer and much-published writer, updates Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman's classic The Decoration of Houses, first published 100 years ago. More style conscious and less tip-oriented than the authors of the other two books, she gives her own comprehensive interpretation of how to decorate a home in the last years of the 20th century. All three titles would be excellent, broad-interest additions to every public library.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
Dylan Landis has an inside track with the decorating pros. Elegant and Easy Rooms will tell you their opinions on everything from how to arrange furniture in comfortable and imaginative ways to how to choose a color to create a certain mood or period (in the 1940's a particular shade of yellow was the most popular). The chapters include: Paint and Color, Walls, Windows, Problem Rooms--Great Solutions, Home Furnishings, The Art of Display, and Telling Details. There will also be an incredibly useful and valuable appendix listing all the best mail order resources for everyone's decorating needs. It will be illustrated with charming, elegant black and white drawings that will further entice you to upgrade your decor.

Customer Reviews

A terrific investment!
I've seen a lot of mixed reviews for this book, and I can understand that it's not for everyone. What I like about it is that it not only gives you ideas but tells you how to carry them out. The skill/expense level can vary, but there is a broad range of ideas to choose from. There are no photographs in this book. I think the idea is that you have looked elsewhere for inspiration, and now you receive the practical know how to make it happen. If you are a creative person who has ideas of your own and wants to learn how to create a highly personal environment, this is the book for you.

Designer attitude...
...what this book is full of... the snobbish attitude of an interior design journalist, bent on showing her knowledge of design terms. The back cover of the book reads "..Create welcoming rooms that exude confidence, polish, and style (whether your budget is lavish or small)." The only thing small budgeted about this book is its price and the lack of usuable pictures.

The book talks constantly about using antiques and custom furniture and how guests won't be fooled by "new machine made Oriental rugs". Of course not! That's not the point to a book that is supposed to be about *affordable* design solutions. Mentioning and recommending "designer" paints as opposed to paint of the same quality found at Home Depot isn't "budget minded". The examples of art pieces (eg. authentic African tribal stools) given are not pieces that the average person can lay their hands on, let alone afford. The author would be better placed to say that "reproduction type pieces are available from import stores such as Pier One and Cost Plus".

The book gets three stars as there are some decent concepts and ideas presented once you get past the author's attitude, but if you're looking for real inspiration, instruction, and personality in a design book, get "Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design". He is far more helpful and practical in creating truly "easy and elegant" rooms. And, he shows *how* to create them for us visual types, instead of using cute illustrations that give little inspiration to the content.

Not a do-it-yourself book
Had some very good ideas, but the author assumes that the reader has a lot of money and can hire an interior designer. In many instances she also suggests so. It would have been better if tailored to the DIY homeowner - after all, if you can hire an interior designer, why buy a book?