Guest Blogger – Ivette

Our friend Ivette lives near Washington, D.C. She has wonderful ideas and is a super DIY renovator who is amazing with a paintbrush. Ivette also collects design books as a hobby and summarized every single volume on her shelves for us! Those reviews can be found on our Home Decorating Books page. These new reviews cover some of her recent acquisitions.

House Beautiful: Colors for Your Home – 300 Designer Favorites.
Hearst Communications Inc., 2008.
ISBN: 978-1-58816-739-2.
This was a hostess gift from a friend who shares my passion for paint, and I really enjoyed it. Lots of swatches and pictures of lovely rooms with a focus on color with comments by designers on what they like about them. I think, however, this is really only a book for those crazy, paint/color obsessed types. I recommend it to you if you’re one of them.

Mlinaric on Decorating.
Cecil, Mirabel and David Mlinaric. Francis Lincoln Limited, 2008.
ISBN: 978-0-7112-2541-1.
Exquisite, like the designs of the man himself. This is basically a love treatise to the talents of one man, the specific homes he’s touched and the beauty he leaves behind. Extremely informative and detailed text; beautiful photographs of spaces decorated in a far reaching range of styles. Mlinaric is definitely not an English Country one-trick pony. And neither is this book. I highly recommend it.

The Home Book: Creating a Beautiful Home of Your Own.
House Beautiful. Spier, Carol, Hearst Communications Inc., 2008.
ISBN: 978-1-58816-603-6.
This is terrific! I totally expected it to be very basic information but while it is an introductory primer, it is a very thorough one, filled with great ideas and insights into the design process, both from the author and from numerous contributing interior designers. The pictures in the book are the best part, as they run the gamut of styles and are great for inspiration. The kitchen section, in particular, is one of the most beautiful assemblage of kitchen designs I’ve seen in one place.

Your Home, Your Sanctuary.
Clodagh. Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 2008.
ISBN: 13-978-8478-3160-9.
A bit of a disappointment. Not because it’s bad necessarily but because it brought nothing new from Clodagh’s first book, which was frankly better and more informative. The rooms are lovely, of course, and tranquil but I do feel the photography focused a little too much on details than on entire rooms and the process that went into designing them. There are lots of photos of glasses on a shelf for example, or a pebble by the bath. I realize how important details are, especially when trying to show a way of achieving a Zen look, but the book falls short. There isn’t nearly enough text, and I found myself wanting more of Clodagh’s insights, versus just looking at pretty pictures of her pretty rooms. I did feel relaxed though!

Tags: Clodagh, David Mlinaric, decorating book reviews, House Beautiful books