The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes

by Monocle

This Monocle book tells us how to turn a house into a home. Both a practical guide and a great source of inspiration, The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes presents the interiors, furniture, and locations you need to know about along with portraits of the people who can make it happen. The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes celebrates the durable and the meaningful through a collection of homes that tell a story. Most architecture and interior books show houses polished to perfection, manicured to the extent that it is hard to imagine anybody acually lives there: they seem to miss the point that homes are meant to be inhabited. They should be able to take the scuffs and knocks and to be part of a community, whether in a Chicago skyscraper or on Australia's sunshine coast. So where are the best places to make a home? What are the villages, coastlines, mountains, towns, and cities that would make you want to settle down? The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes answers those questions with a global photographic survey of a wide variety of homes. Whether the focus is on a remote residence in the Swedish archipelago or a lush abode in Rio de Janeiro, or on the difference between residing in Tokyo and Toronto, this book is the perfect balance between the inspirational and the practical. The book is a survey of everything you need to know to build the residence of your dreams, providing insight into the best neighborhoods, architects, and makers all over the world. From design-store owners to green-roof gardeners, The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes introduces you to interesting people with ideas that are built to last. Monocle's signature illustrations punctuate the book's rich and detailed content. Through striking photography, The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes also gives you a glimpse into the lives that unfold in these apartments, villas, and cottages, showing that these homes are alive and that this is precisely what makes them special. This is a book that should be referred to again and again--it is a book about the quality of life.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Lifestyle, Architecture, Interior Design, Coffee Table Books, Philosophy

400 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful time. Beautifully written. Small, warm, and digestible pieces.

[Fab · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great guide for helping you creating a home that is a joy to live in. The main highlight of the book is the numerous glossy photographs of homes around the world in different settings (cities, suburbs, mountains, beaches, etc.) Like all the Monocle guides it's beautifully designed, is very inspirational and makes for an excellent coffee table book.

[Christoph Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice collection of articles out of the Monocle magazines. Gives you ideas... but as most of the featured homes are basically huge and filled with stuff like Wegner chairs, it will be hard to replicate it. Or just the feel of it: not everyone spends upwards of 3k euros on a chair alone!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh so good, makes me want to immediately move out of rented accommodation, hire an architect and surround myself with mid-century furniture. In a way heartbreaking!

[Patriciiamg · Rating 5 out of 5]

quiero escribir algo así cuando sea diseñadora

[Marysya Rudska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Чудова книжка про затишне житло. Повна натхнення, мрій, якісних фоток.

[Parsa Nazari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most beautiful book I’ve ever read

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only part of this worth spending time on are the larger scale photographs at the end of the book about light coming from windows. The rest of it could quite be called The Monocle Guide to Rich People Attempting Authentic Spaces

[Sampsa Lehtinen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While downright failing to be a guide for creating a homely place, the Monocle Guide to Cozy Homes turns out to be a mere coffee table book of pretty pictures at best, and an advertisement for branded furniture companies at worst. The texts lack a sense of a clear idea throughout the book, and chapters themselves don't link to each other coherently, creating a sense of grouping semi-random articles together, and merely creating the idea of the book at last.
Even the chapters themselves have inconsistency: as an example ch.02's (collection of showcased homes) foreword ended: "These are all out-of-the-ordinary homes because of WHO is in them, not what is in them". But multiple of the following pictured locations turn out to be anonymous, and have a lengthy explanation of the exact designer pieces instead. Personally, going deeper behind what kind of people are living in each kind of house, would help a lot better the reader defining what's an ideal (cozy) home for themselves.
The worst, but luckily a rather short, part comes in the later section of the book, presenting how different agree groups live. This chapter ends up being a gross generalization of stereotypical life in a rather Western middle-class setting, while utterly ignoring the effects of culture, lifestyle, wealth and history and so on.

Overall, the book gives a feeling of reading a rather large magazine - which shouldn't come as a surprise, considering the publisher. But being marketed as a guide, simply pretty pictures and nice paper, doesn't cut it to earn more than 2/5.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully designed and written, as all Monocle publications are. This has a great set of essays detailing every facet of home life, but I find the shopping guides section (a significant portion of the latter half of the book), is of limited value for those that don’t travel to a different European or Japanese city every weekend. Still, a fun coffee table read for the aspirational.

[A. Reiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful collection of real homes, some of professionals (architects, designers), and also regular folk. This gave me a greater appreciation for interior design, famous chairs, international styles, and a thirst for more. This deserves dedicated coffee table real estate.

[DJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice but wanted more!

[Agatha Astari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I waited pretty long to buy this book, since it was quiet pricey. The content was super worth it, they're photographed and written so beautifully, some even almost made me cry.

[Harald G · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Monocle Brand is foremost known for its monthly magazine that focuses on design, lifestyle, politics and culture and has enjoyed the attention of its rather affluent and cosmopolitan readership for 1,5 decades. During this period of time the brand has expanded into adjoining media and products such as its own radio broadcasting channel(s), add. periodicals and of course design conscious books, such as this one, to further spread the good word of lasting design.
The Guide to cosy homes, as the name already suggests, is a compilation of exisiting homes and the concept behind them, as well as general practical suggestions and products to improve any home in question. While rich in pictures and inspirations is it more than just a coffee table book, as the publisher takes the time to elaborate on the ideas and concepts behind the object and shares them with the reader. Nice to look at, but also a compelling read, not just for those about to buy or re-model their own homes.