Home: 50 Tastemakers Describe What It Is, Where It Is, What It Means

by Stafford Cliff

Intimate photographs and stories reveal the private spaces of public figures.

Whether it's the memory (or fantasy) of our childhood home, or the place we decorate, show off, work from, or take refuge in as adults, it's always rich with meaning or fraught with intent.

To understand it better, 50 remarkable people of our time, many of whom have made their mark in the fields of architecture, home design, and the decorative arts, open their homes and their hearts to the subject. Their emotional responses—rich with design ideas, thought-provoking philosophies, and surprising obsessions and eccentricities—both fascinate and inspire.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the dialogue however the editing of photographs could have been better.

[Rebecca Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by architecture, homes, and interior design. So this was a fun book to pick up and slowly explore when I wanted something fun. There are a lot of pictures of people's houses, which I liked. Sometimes, I wondered how many housekeepers these famous people with their fancy houses required. Several people did mention such personnel. But there were also some fairly normal lived-in homes. It was interesting to hear people's childhood conceptions of home and how that developed with relationships, careers, and experiences as they grew older. I would have been happy for a little more philosophical reflection, but there were snippets of that here and there too.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like 2 1/2 stars. While the book offered wonderful descriptions of place and space evoking roots and belonging - which was the strength of this collection about home - I was disappointed in 2 ways about this volume.

The first is that I expected that with the rich, personal stories & essays of the contributors, that the images accompanying each entry would then showcase the lived-in homes described. But a large number of the images showcased the contributors' work in designing i.e. restaurants and others (totally empty) spaces, not just their own habitats or even others' real homes. Thus, yes, they described what home means to them, but the photographs did not necessarily demonstrate that sense of living, inhabited spaces in many cases.

The second is that after looking at the table of contents, I realized that the selected contributors are all famous, successful, very wealthy individuals (other editions of the book on Goodreads had a subtitle of "50 Tastemakers Describe What it is, Where it is, What it Means") and thus many their ideas or sense of home are not necessarily attainable or realistic for many (the majority of?) people who may not be able to i.e. pick and order shipped across the world custom-built kitchen tables from Provence, or a specific wood from a particular region as support beams in the entry way to foster or personalize one's sense of home.

Yes, it was a fascinating glimpse into the lives and meanings of home for these "tastemakers" but not as relatable as my edition title states to "what our homes really mean to us."

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Sometimes I think that I am fighting a war for less received ideas, less aggression between people who like or do not like something. At the same time, I think design has been used for a lot of bad reasons and I regret that very much. I've never used my ideas as recipes. Many designers have one good solution, which they're comfortable with, and it's good and it's been proved to work. I'm not doing that at all. If it's a client's own home I would have to talk to them a lot. I'm not a shrink, but there's so many things you need to know. I need to know what time the sun hits their wall and things like that. For me the kitchen and the bathroom are the most important rooms in the house, especially the kitchen table, because maybe you save someone's life by being wonderful and keeping them for dinner when they don't expect it." (63)

[josaleeni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm loving these essays by "tastemakers" sharing what home means to them and explaining why they've made certain choices for the spaces they live in. Each entry is followed by one or two photos of the space they've described. I'm guessing more people flip through this than read it, but I think I'll finish it cover to cover.

[Rachella Sinclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aways searching for inspiration.