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Living In Style Without Losing Your Mind
Citing the inability of most people to live lifestyles touted in magazines, a guide to transforming living spaces based on realistic budgets offers artistic advice while arguing that an open mind and individual passion is all that is needed to design a distinctive interior..
- GenresDesignNonfiction
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 15, 2011
Excellent writer--wouldn't matter the subject matter. I happen to be fascinated by interior design. This book provides you with good basic design principles along with fascinating tips. While guiding you to understand your own taste, the author helps you recognize good taste. Best of all, he gives you permission to do whatever you want as long as you have a good reason.
January 20, 2010
I love an approach to decorating and design that isn't "buy all new stuff!" or completely devoted to minimalism. I doubt anyone can truly teach good style, but Pasanella's take on simplicity and personal needs, desires, and tastes is an inspiring read.
June 2, 2019
This book was a gift to me from a person I don’t know well - who doesn’t know me well. The author’s take home messages: be true to your own sense of style. Big chain stores are fine for a few things but if you buy all your furniture there you lack... something. Sunlight is important. Don’t buy fake scented things: just whip up a simple risotto to make a house a home. I enjoyed the photos, but I’ll pass the book along to a more appreciative audience.
June 24, 2019
Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this book or this writer's style. Maybe it was that I kept thinking it should've been subtitled, and Going Broke While You Do It. But that definitely, that could just be me!
May 13, 2013
Pasanella's goal is to describe the tools you need to make a home stylish and livable. Combine this with some practical instruction, and you get a book that is unique among the books I have read about house and home.
Part one an overview of concepts. The most important concept is gathering and retreat.
Individuality makes a home your own. Living in a Crate and Barrel magazine spread might be easy to purchase (and expensive), but your home will be lifeless. Individuality comes from personal passions and possessions. Your rooms should reflect your best self.
Style "is what separates the serviceable from the sublime." Style is a little bit daring. It reflects your tastes and fits your context. Have a green wall with pink curtains, but accept that you can never have marble floors in a country cottage. (Or shingles on McMansions, my current most hated residential architecture trend.)
A stylish and livable home should be simple. I cannot say better than Pasanella that,
Living rooms sometimes must act as offices and bedrooms are sometimes used for TV. Rooms serve multiple purposes. They should have the flexibility to serve these purposes. Acknowledge that you eat in the living room and make sure your plan has someplace to put the TV trays. Use furniture to give a room zones for different activities.
Other senses are often neglected in home design. Whether it is the smell of apple pie, the feel of a leather couch, or bird song through the window, our senses affect how we experience a place. To please the other senses, you should eliminate unpleasant stimuli and add pleasant stimuli.
Rather than being a burden, constraints may be what takes your home from good to great. Constraints force you to figure out what is really important and leave out the rest. Constrains may also be what gives your home that vital bit of individuality.
Finally, you will make mistakes as you work to make your home perfect. To minimize the impact of mistakes, think ahead, keep the big picture in mind, be realistic, and be prudent.
Part two gives tips on how to apply these concepts. First, figure out your priorities. Helpful questions are "What do you have?", "What works?", "What doesn't work?", "What do you want?".
Next eliminate clutter. Throw stuff out, store it, find better ways to use the space you have. New things will not help if you already have too much. Commit to the priorities you established and get rid of things. When you do start to buy things, buy them sparingly. Look to build your rooms around a small number of strong elements.
Find the heart of your home and the heart of each room. Natural lighting and architectural clues may indicate where the builder thought things should go. Realize that you may be able to find a heart in neglected areas such as halls, stairs, and outside. Once you have found the heart of each room, make it the focus. For gathering places, this may involve a circular arrangement of furniture around the heart. Bedrooms may focus on the restful bed. Dining rooms may focus on the intimate table.
Light and color cannot be neglected. Natural lighting is best. But, as is very clear going into fall and winter, we cannot only use natural lighting. Artificial lighting should have many sources (a single source makes sharp shadows). Vary the brightness for interest (and never make it too bright or it will be harsh and cause glare). Lower placed, indirect illumination is more flattering. Finally, to make rooms flexible, lighting must be flexible.
Be aware that most color in a room does not come from paint. Furniture, decorations, and appliances provide large amounts of color; if your home has natural materials, let them drive your use of color. Lighting also affects color. Southern rooms get warmer natural light than northern rooms. This difference can be evened or emphasized, but should not be ignored. Artificial lighting also affects colors.
The details of good design often come from thinking small. Remove clutter. Add little bits of contrast and surprise. Surround yourself with objects you really enjoy. Group similar items to turn "stuff" into a collection. Give a glimpse rather than a full view. In the end, it is these details that distinguish your home, so you should put just as much thought into them as into your couch
Now I just need to get around to applying all these ideas to my own home.
Part one an overview of concepts. The most important concept is gathering and retreat.
Whether you live in a mansion or in a studio, in Boston or in Bali, there are only two types of rooms: those that bring us together (gathering places) and those that allow us to get away (retreats).Every house needs both gathering places and retreats to feel like a home.
Individuality makes a home your own. Living in a Crate and Barrel magazine spread might be easy to purchase (and expensive), but your home will be lifeless. Individuality comes from personal passions and possessions. Your rooms should reflect your best self.
Style "is what separates the serviceable from the sublime." Style is a little bit daring. It reflects your tastes and fits your context. Have a green wall with pink curtains, but accept that you can never have marble floors in a country cottage. (Or shingles on McMansions, my current most hated residential architecture trend.)
A stylish and livable home should be simple. I cannot say better than Pasanella that,
The key is to understand that simple doesn't imply spartan. Rather, it means have what you need in order to make your house a home. No less. And no more.Simplicity focuses attention.
Living rooms sometimes must act as offices and bedrooms are sometimes used for TV. Rooms serve multiple purposes. They should have the flexibility to serve these purposes. Acknowledge that you eat in the living room and make sure your plan has someplace to put the TV trays. Use furniture to give a room zones for different activities.
Other senses are often neglected in home design. Whether it is the smell of apple pie, the feel of a leather couch, or bird song through the window, our senses affect how we experience a place. To please the other senses, you should eliminate unpleasant stimuli and add pleasant stimuli.
Rather than being a burden, constraints may be what takes your home from good to great. Constraints force you to figure out what is really important and leave out the rest. Constrains may also be what gives your home that vital bit of individuality.
Finally, you will make mistakes as you work to make your home perfect. To minimize the impact of mistakes, think ahead, keep the big picture in mind, be realistic, and be prudent.
Part two gives tips on how to apply these concepts. First, figure out your priorities. Helpful questions are "What do you have?", "What works?", "What doesn't work?", "What do you want?".
Next eliminate clutter. Throw stuff out, store it, find better ways to use the space you have. New things will not help if you already have too much. Commit to the priorities you established and get rid of things. When you do start to buy things, buy them sparingly. Look to build your rooms around a small number of strong elements.
Find the heart of your home and the heart of each room. Natural lighting and architectural clues may indicate where the builder thought things should go. Realize that you may be able to find a heart in neglected areas such as halls, stairs, and outside. Once you have found the heart of each room, make it the focus. For gathering places, this may involve a circular arrangement of furniture around the heart. Bedrooms may focus on the restful bed. Dining rooms may focus on the intimate table.
Light and color cannot be neglected. Natural lighting is best. But, as is very clear going into fall and winter, we cannot only use natural lighting. Artificial lighting should have many sources (a single source makes sharp shadows). Vary the brightness for interest (and never make it too bright or it will be harsh and cause glare). Lower placed, indirect illumination is more flattering. Finally, to make rooms flexible, lighting must be flexible.
Be aware that most color in a room does not come from paint. Furniture, decorations, and appliances provide large amounts of color; if your home has natural materials, let them drive your use of color. Lighting also affects color. Southern rooms get warmer natural light than northern rooms. This difference can be evened or emphasized, but should not be ignored. Artificial lighting also affects colors.
The details of good design often come from thinking small. Remove clutter. Add little bits of contrast and surprise. Surround yourself with objects you really enjoy. Group similar items to turn "stuff" into a collection. Give a glimpse rather than a full view. In the end, it is these details that distinguish your home, so you should put just as much thought into them as into your couch
Now I just need to get around to applying all these ideas to my own home.
March 5, 2008
A great basic book on home design. Has some general principles that are easy to follow and get the reader to rethink the idea of home. I love it that the author's advice is that if you find yourself going out to buy a lot of things, something is wrong. It's about using the things you have in a new way.
September 6, 2012
This is the best decorating book ever! Not a lot of pretty pictures to inspire you, just an overview of good design techniques to make a room pop. Usually I bring home decorating books from the library to be inspired by the photos and don't really read the text, but this one was so good that I bought a copy for myself.
November 6, 2011
Some very nice pictures. It was also good to see examples of what not to do. Advice summary: follow what you like, keep it simple, a house is meant for habitation.
Best pages: 27, 44-45, 60, 121
Best pages: 27, 44-45, 60, 121
July 22, 2016
Likely one of the best basic books on design I have ever read. It lacks specifics but instead teaches you the big picture on how to do your own interior design.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews