Extraordinary Interiors: Decorating with Architectural Salvage & Antiques

by Brian Coleman

Architectural salvage is all about saving and reusing unique bits and pieces of the past--whether from old buildings, businesses, or homes--and preserving them as beautiful reminders of the talent and artistry of yesteryear. Extraordinary Interiors shows how architectural elements and antiques--such as a 200-year-old solid-oak door, an Arts & Crafts fireplace mantel, a Victorian stained-glass window, or an Art Deco lamp--can impart character and heritage to any home, even if you never got around to buying that perfectly restored historic home of your dreams. See how vintage sinks, hardware, and lighting are perfectly blended into new environments, giving the items a new lease on life, and in the process, preserving them for future generations to enjoy.
From a Manhattan brownstone to a Marin county barn-turned-cottage, Coleman has documented an exquisite array of homes in locations across the country. See how a large Arts & Crafts apartment is restored to its original 1916 décor with salvage finds and a little sleight of hand, a San Francisco row house is reborn with glamorous salvage, and a tranquil, Vermont retreat is enlivened with salvaged, nineteenth-century architecture in this beautifully photographed new book.
Brian D. Coleman, M.D., is a practicing psychiatrist in Seattle, Washington, and the author of several books including Luxurious Home Interiors, Classic Cottages, and Vintage Victorian Textiles. His articles on historic home design have been published in a variety of magazines such as, Old House Journal and Period Living (U.K.), and he is the West Coast editor for Old House Interiors. He divides his time between New York and Seattle. Dan Mayers is a New York-based photographer whose work appears regularly in Country Decorating Magazine's Cottage Style, Country Collectibles, Country Victorian and Old House Interiors. His work has been included in books such as Luxurious Home Interiors and The Ultimate Kitchen.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 6, 2005

Reviews

[R.B. Lemberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth picking up for the author's extraordinary and outrageous redesign of a tiny tenement apartment. "We began, room by room, restoring the apartment to how it might have been in the 1880s if a more affluent tenant had resided here." - a MUCH more affluent tenant, and that tenant wouldn't have ever resided in a tenement building. Still, it was gleefully over the top and I'd like to have read a whole book about that process. Other interiors were much less interesting to me.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely browse of a book, full of the most creative ideas on re-use and refurbishment. Design eye-candy at its best!

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets an extra star for its use of Arts & Crafts antiques, otherwise I'd deem it 3 stars.

If you're looking for useable tips and hints, this book doesn't have many. The homes featured are pretty much exclusively those of the extreme rich or at least upper class who can afford to gut their homes and make large-scale improvements and alterations. But as eye candy? It's lovely.