Michael Smiths Elements of Style

by Michael S. Smith, Diane Dorrans Saeks

Acclaimed designer Michael Smith has earned a reputation as the thinking celebrity's decorator, with a client list that includes Cindy Crawford, Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Pairing lush interiors with dynamic insider advice, Michael Smith's Elements of Style beautifully captures the essential building blocks of good interior design. Smith covers in depth the most common decorating decisions everyone faces: working with color, selecting the right paint, choosing window treatments and floor coverings, creating a luxurious bed, and building a furniture collection over time. Illustrated with stunning color photography, including a dozen homes presented in depth to demonstrate how rooms work alone and together, the book also includes practical sidebars on learning how to buy antiques and attend auctions, how to ready your home for sale, and how to create a house that can evolve over time. This invaluable, idea-filled resource is about polished, fresh design that is both aspirational and attainable.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 22, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Michael Sean Smith (born 1964) is an American interior designer.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Michael Smith's decorating philosophy: he doesn't have a signature style. He works with the clients and the location and makes the place livable and comfortable. Unfortunately, to do that you have to have a LOT of money. Not just for the items but for the travel to find the items: London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Brussels. You also have to be able to afford custom designed beds & chairs and the time that it takes for everything to come together.
In addition to the interiors themselves, he has a section on his ideas of: the process of design, finding and working with a decorator, buying antiques, the joy of auctions, the virtuoso antique dealer, paint as style enhancer and mood maker, windows, flowers in interiors, appraising a house to buy and staging a house to sell. There's also a list of resources for his favorite choices of antiques, paint, fabric, though some are only "to the trade."
Some of the knickknacks and artwork I love. Others I couldn't stand, especially the gigantic painting in the bedroom and the large tiger hunt painting in the dining room.
I like that he works with the clients to come up with a home for their style and their way of living. Apparently some designers impose their ideas on clients, but he's not one of them. I really like that he doesn't insist on white everything. Walls can have color.
Decorating books are good to help you get ideas of what you like and also of what you don't like.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One wants to be friends with Michael Smith. Very approachable, great design theories - love his treatises on paint and drapes.