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Decorating with Books (House Beautiful)
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| List Price: | $24.95 |
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Product Description
From House Beautiful comes a worthy addition to any decorator's library--a stylish guide on making books a part of your home décor.
Opening the pages of a book can instantly carry you off to another world. But did you realize that, open or closed, books can also make your real world--your home--more fabulous? As legendary designer Billy Baldwin pointed out, they're “the best decoration,” capable of bringing incredible warmth, color, and character to a room. From grand bookcases in home libraries to casual stacks artfully arrayed on chairs, House Beautiful presents countless eye-catching ideas for displaying and arranging your hardcovers, paperbacks, encyclopedias, and even valuable first editions. Useful tips shed light on how to organize a large collection; situate bookcases in the room for the best effect; and make the most of books' appealing visual and tactile qualities. From traditional interpretations to contemporary visions--such as putting a book on a pedestal as an objet d'art--these concepts write a new page in design.
A Selection of the Homestyle Book Club.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #40971 in Books
- Published on: 2006-06-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 144 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9781588164933
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Typically, books are valued for what's written inside them. But as a collection, they also tell us a lot about their owner, which is why Hueston, an author and contributing editor at Country Living magazine, believes they are so effective as decoration. Here, she demonstrates how a display or library of books can enhance the look of almost every room in your home. Using copious photographs to illustrate her sparse text, she captures the aesthetic appeal of books and how they add color and texture to a space. With a broad sensibility that expands far beyond traditional configurations, Hueston encourages readers to keep books "stacked on an ottoman, piled on the floor, lined up on a bench, or ... draped over a ladder," in addition to keeping books "confined to shelves and tabletops." Judging books by their covers, as it were-as objet d'art, without regard to content-Hueston includes tips for displaying, organizing and caring for book collections of any size, which should give any book owner more than one new way to enjoy their favorite titles.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
For those who adore books and all forms of the printed word, the very idea of decorating with them might seem to akin to sacrilege. Yet, after a few paragraphs, House Beautiful magazine contributor Hueston persuades with a few chosen quotes--like Jorge Luis Borges' "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." The ways in which books can become a vibrant design theme are multiple--stacked on ottomans, piled on floors, lined up on benches, and draped over ladders. Each chapter delves into specific ideas: libraries, throughout the house, as focal points, as architecture, and practical matters like shelving, lighting, and caring for books. And each features a few pages called "a closer look," a few-page pictorial examination of specific design details in a room or two, pointing out, for instance, a London antique armoire-credenza perched on a black plinth. Remember that in the most physical of senses books are three-dimensional objects possessing a variety of colors, sizes, and textures. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Customer Reviews
what to do with all those books
When you have 6000 books and counting, it is a continuing challenge to find ways of storing, shelving and displaying them without looking like you've taken up residence in a public library.
"Decorating With Books" is not my favourite book on this subject. (I preferred "At Home With Books" by Ellis, Seebohm and Sykes for the sheer volume - no pun intended -- of books shown in the illustrations). Nevertheless, "Decorating With Books" is a very practical choice for many book owners and is chock full of interesting ideas for incorporating your collection into your décor.
Who knew that a stack of books could double as a bedside table as well as bedtime reading, or that leaving piles of books on the tables and on the floor would function as design elements?
Works for me!
Books Looking Good, not Looking for Books
This is a specialized guide with lots of useful hints, photos, ideas, and sources for further help, like contractors and desginers, if your goal is to integrate your books into your home decor. On the other hand, if you want to put your books in a rational, logical order, like LC or Dewey, as I do, so I can find them easily, it is not that useful. But the photos are great show a side of book collecting that definitely has a strong appeal to some collectors.
Decorating with Books
I love this book. My husband and I are avid readers and enjoy collecting books. We have a lot, to put it mildly. This book gave me many ideas for decorating our home to showcase our books. There are tons of pictures so in addition to being useful, it is just enjoyable to leaf through the pages. I would think that anyone with even a small home library would really enjoy this book.
