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Chez Moi: Decorating Your Home and Living like a Parisienne
Living like a true Parisienne starts at home. Interior designer Sarah Lavoine sees the quintessential Paris apartment as a stylish sanctuary from the stresses of life. Covering each room in the home, Lavoine explains her approach to using color, highlights the indispensible elements of each space, and suggests how to add unforgettable details in order to create a restful and chic environment. With vibrant interior photographs and charming hand-drawn illustrations, Chez Moi is a design handbook that introduces contemporary French style, accented by French-girl-next-door advice on everything from fashion to beauty to cooking to shopping. Moreover, Lavoine’s in-the-know list of Paris addresses allows visitors to traipse through the arrondissements like locals—or even purchase items from abroad. With her original and useful advice, Lavoine reveals how to create a truly French, meaningful, fulfilling lifestyle, no matter where you live.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published October 11, 2016
1 person is currently reading
99 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 8, 2016
The pictures are nice. A lot of what the author tells us is what she does. Since I don't want to be her, I find her comments a little condescending. If you love all things Paris and France, it's probably the book for you. Since I'm just looking for ideas the book was just meh . . .
September 19, 2017
Meh. Seeing as how I'm about as un-French as they come, maybe I should stop picking up these books about how to live like a Parisienne. The style of decor here just did nothing for me, even though I had high hopes after seeing the cute cover. Oh well.
July 7, 2017
Nice photos and helpful addresses if you visit Paris a lot (which I do, so I appreciated that...not sure how helpful those are if you don't).
September 21, 2019
Total waste of money. Should be titled “Chez moi: decorate and live like me because I have the incredible style of a chic Parisienne and piles of Euro to prove it and you don’t”.
Lavoine’s handy tips: forget classic Oriental rugs (because ... they’re classic, I guess) but kilims are okay; mount everything (and she means everything) on the walls; candles, candles candles (she REALLY likes candles, the more expensive the better. Her own brand is best, natch); kilims make a kitchen cozy—to degrease them, occasionally toss in the washing machine on the “wool setting” (I’m guessing this magical setting chooses the right soap or cleaning product for that wool kilim, too? Simple!); do everything on your bed EXCEPT sleep: read, play with the children, talk on the phone, watch tv, prepare for meetings, design furniture, eat, work on the computer (and do all these activities EXCEPT sleep on an expensive Tempur-Pedic mattress); an armchair in the bathroom is just the thing (to compliment your big Italian marble shower and stylish mirror); install a swing, a climbing rope, a hammock and basketball net in the kid’s bedroom (they’ll never have to go outside to play again!) Et voilà, you’re not only a genuine Parisienne, you’re exhausted, frustrated and broke.
Lavoine’s handy tips: forget classic Oriental rugs (because ... they’re classic, I guess) but kilims are okay; mount everything (and she means everything) on the walls; candles, candles candles (she REALLY likes candles, the more expensive the better. Her own brand is best, natch); kilims make a kitchen cozy—to degrease them, occasionally toss in the washing machine on the “wool setting” (I’m guessing this magical setting chooses the right soap or cleaning product for that wool kilim, too? Simple!); do everything on your bed EXCEPT sleep: read, play with the children, talk on the phone, watch tv, prepare for meetings, design furniture, eat, work on the computer (and do all these activities EXCEPT sleep on an expensive Tempur-Pedic mattress); an armchair in the bathroom is just the thing (to compliment your big Italian marble shower and stylish mirror); install a swing, a climbing rope, a hammock and basketball net in the kid’s bedroom (they’ll never have to go outside to play again!) Et voilà, you’re not only a genuine Parisienne, you’re exhausted, frustrated and broke.
February 15, 2021
Living, but not necessarily decorating, like a Parisienne, IMHO.
Yes, decorating is a very personal thing and after all Lavoine (Poniatowski) is a 'leading' interior designer. Born in France from French parents. Her designs brush the retro side of things. In this book it's very much about Lavoine herself and her lifestyle. If you are into that, you are in for a treat.
If you, like me, expected a somewhat more Parisian look and feel, you'll be somewhat disappointed.
There are good addresses for restaurants and shops in Paris (and elsewhere in France) though. And it's still a nice book to flip through.
Yes, decorating is a very personal thing and after all Lavoine (Poniatowski) is a 'leading' interior designer. Born in France from French parents. Her designs brush the retro side of things. In this book it's very much about Lavoine herself and her lifestyle. If you are into that, you are in for a treat.
If you, like me, expected a somewhat more Parisian look and feel, you'll be somewhat disappointed.
There are good addresses for restaurants and shops in Paris (and elsewhere in France) though. And it's still a nice book to flip through.
April 1, 2019
Frankly don't understand why some readers are giving it such a poor rating. I thought it was a fairly nice book filled with practicable advice on how you can decorate your home, particularly if you're trying to achieve a parisienne vibe. Sure, the book is less useful if you don't live in Paris, but the rest of it is filled with Sarah's tips from her knowledge of working as an interior designer. The pictures are also a nice visual aide to go alongside the content. To me, the book achieves what it's title promised and I learnt stuff. Good enough for me.
August 29, 2024
Agree with one of the other reviewers: meh. I love most things Francoise, and enjoy decorating so picked this up out of a book swap. Not a great fit for me. Too self-focused on the author and her opinions about decorating, shopping and life. Not very interesting to read and the photos were, at least to me, of unattractive settings.
This one goes back into the swap pronto!
This one goes back into the swap pronto!
June 28, 2017
Great images and some good ideas but the concept wears thin.
January 6, 2018
This was a neat decorating book. Well written, but it ended up being far far from my lifestyle and decorating style. If you live in a city and like the look this would be a fabulous book!
February 16, 2019
I really liked the book.I was looking for a interior design book that is minimalist and uses bright colors i thinks she has a great style and tips how to decorate your home in a modern and chic way.
June 20, 2019
If you like bright and modern this book is for you. There are some good recipes too.
October 5, 2020
Some idees interessant ... mais un petit peu por moi, anyways ...
January 6, 2024
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January 6, 2024
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February 13, 2017
*I should say that, though I didn't care for the book, it isn't a bad book per se.*
Well, I don't know if I didn't read the description carefully enough or what, but this is NOT what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a book about how to decorate your place like a Paris apartment. And yes, I realize the title kind of gives it away (now), but I thought "Chez Moi" was just a clever name for a book about French design.....call me crazy..........The book is about how Sarah Lavoine decorates her apartment and country house. It also includes some of her recipes peppered throughout, and a lot of companies she likes at the end of each section (all of which I expect are way out of my price range). There were some other random things. To me, it felt like a blog in book format. Again, while not bad in and of itself, it wasn't what I wanted.
If you're curious what this one person thinks, then you might like it. If not, then you can probably skip it.
Well, I don't know if I didn't read the description carefully enough or what, but this is NOT what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a book about how to decorate your place like a Paris apartment. And yes, I realize the title kind of gives it away (now), but I thought "Chez Moi" was just a clever name for a book about French design.....call me crazy..........The book is about how Sarah Lavoine decorates her apartment and country house. It also includes some of her recipes peppered throughout, and a lot of companies she likes at the end of each section (all of which I expect are way out of my price range). There were some other random things. To me, it felt like a blog in book format. Again, while not bad in and of itself, it wasn't what I wanted.
If you're curious what this one person thinks, then you might like it. If not, then you can probably skip it.
November 12, 2016
Sarah Lavoine's decorating style is not to everyone's (or at least my) taste, but there are takeaways here that I see as universal, like using color and wallpaper strategically to give the space some character and balance. I love how she incorporates personal style, etiquette tips, interior décor, entertaining suggestions, and cooking tips to make it one whole package. I'll definitely be looking into some of the links that she posts in the book for ideas and inspiration!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews