Product Description

In her newest book, Villa Décor, Betty Lou Phillips discusses how to mix styles, furnishings, inspirations, and colors from different eras and locations to create the looks for which the French and Italian people are known-wisps of elegance, hints of regal color, textures that delight and inspire. Villa Décor illustrates the mastery of the fabled French way of melding the past with the present so each is seen in the best possible light, as well as the uncanny Italian knack of linking rooms effortlessly with patterns and palettes without detracting from the furnishings or objets d'art, capturing a trend in American decorating. Betty Lou Phillips demonstrates how to virtuously juxtapose various periods and styles in widely diverse, satisfying rooms that are never dull or predictable. Quiet French elegance, Italian romance, and the simplicity of sweet life-la dolce vita.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39433 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Review
2002 Nonfiction Book of the Year Award Winner -- Foreword Magazine

From the Publisher
Betty Lou Phillips demonstrates how to virtuously juxtapose various periods and styles in widely diverse, satisfying rooms that are never dull or predictable. Quite French elegance and Italian romance combine to create the simplicity of sweet life - la dolce vita.

From the Inside Flap
Westerners have long admired France and Italy as the European seats of exquisite high style. Now, renowned designer and author Betty Lou Phillips shows how we have blended these two traditions by mixing styles, furnishings, inspirations, and colors from different eras and locations to create the looks for which the French and Italian people are known. With wisps of elegance, hints of regal color, and textures that delight and inspire, our homes exude a rich European taste, too.

Villa Décor illustrates the mastery of the fabled French way of melding the past with the present so each is seen in the best possible light. It demonstrates the uncanny Italian knack of linking rooms effortlessly with patterns and palettes without detracting from the furnishings or objects d'art, capturing a trend in American decorating.

Betty Lou Phillips demonstrates how to virtuously juxtapose various periods and styles in widely diverse, satisfying rooms that are never dull or predictable. Quiet French elegance and Italian romance combine to create the simplicity of sweet life-la dolce vita.

Customer Reviews

Not Really What I Expected ...
I expected a book filled with photos of French and Italian villas - houses and estates outside cities, perhaps some at the seashore, for passing leisure time. Instead, it is a book filled with text on French and Italian style as applied to USA decorating. ALL the photos seem to be of American homes, most in Texas, some containing some pieces "found in a Paris flea market..." etc., and ALL done in beautiful taste and with very generous-(Texas oilman?)-sized budgets! Having said that, however, I assure you that the book is filled with excellent photos of absolutely beautiful kitchens, bedrooms, gardens, baths, living rooms, porches, filled with great fabrics, elaborate window treatments, chandeliers, sconces, wonderful wrought iron, porcelain, ceramics, woods, rugs, marble and all the things you either love or hate about French and/or Italian style. The text is also very helpful, although occasionally a little gushy, and I could have lived without the recital of so many details of European History. (Okay, I admit it, I'm an uncultured swine. So sue me.)
If you want a book of vacation villas on the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, this isn't it; but if you want ideas for beautiful, comfortable homes for "gracious living" -- then this book is a gold mine.

Quiet French Elegance & Italian Romance
"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are looking for a rich European style to inspire you in your own decorating, "Villa Décor" is a warm and comforting experience.

Betty Lou Phillips demonstrates decorating secrets, like linking rooms with patterns and palettes with out detracting from the furnishings. Her work has appeared in Southern Accents, Traditional Home & Bath, Window and Wall, and Decorating as well as many magazine covers. She is a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers and also has a penchant for quotes.

There are six main areas to explore:

Old World Elegance
New World Excellence
High-Minded French
Italian Panache
Points of View
Magnifique in America

The minute I opened this book, I was in love. The lush carpeting and tapestry pillows, the piano in a sunlit room with the sun casually falling on an eighteenth-century buffet a deux corps. It was a music room of dreams.

Not only do you enjoy the aesthetic elements, you actually learn the names of a variety of decorating techniques and Italian and French furniture names. You could also recreate a room by finding similar items. The bedroom on page 74 is to die for: Lavish comfort with sensuous linens and goose-down duvets, not to mention bed hangings (looks like a four poster bed).

My main thought while reading this book was "All these rooms look like good rooms to read in." One picture does show a rather elegant two-story library with a spiral staircase and many of the rooms have fireplaces and cozy couches.

I've been dreaming of redecorating my bedroom and this book gave me quite a few dreams.

~The Rebecca Review

Simply stunning mediterranean interiors and exteriors
I am so glad that I ordered this book. I have been reading it from cover to cover since it arrived and everytime, I find something new to consider. This book is perfect for anyone interested in mediterranean interiors, both French and Italian-influenced. I even found some ideas for mediterranean style exteriors that I am considering for incorporation into my own home's exteriors. I highly recommend this book!