No comments about Terence Conran's Inspiration.

1 comments about Knoll Furniture: 1938-1960.

1. If you love modern furniture, you will love the history of Knoll. This book provides excellent photos, with all the history on the family of designers that made this company what it is. Every interior designer needs to read this one!

3 comments about Cottages.

1. "Cottages" is the latest collaboration between writer/sylist Brian Coleman and photographer Douglas Keister. They profile fifteen homes including beach cottages, urban bungalows, historic houses and a cutting edge structure in Canada. Coleman's copy is rich and the photographs are gorgeous, but there could have been more diversity since eight houses are on Georgia's Tybee Island. Still, "Cottages" offers an abundance of fresh and invigorating decorating ideas, especially with use of color. It's the perfect book for for lovers of small homes and/or empty nesters looking to downsize with style.



2. It was easy to sit down and read a "cottage a day". Of course, I was not impressed with all, especially the non-traditional cottages. I was able to fine tune my likes and dislikes more with the book as there were beautiful pictures of insides and outsides and a nice write-up of history and descriptions.
   Most spoke "money" or were vacation/second homes. Many of the cottages featured were preserved and restored which I admire. I loved the simple furnishings in some and occasionally would catch a new idea for myself. I just wish that I could afford them. The book made a nice advertisement for Tybee Cottage Rentals. It is a great book for people who like to drool over those who "have".



3. I am all over any type of cottage themed book, so this was definitly going to be on my bookshelf. the pictues are really nice but the only thing that stood out when I first sat down with this book is how the author pretty much limited himself to one particular island on the east coast. There are about 5 or 6 cottages all from this one island, and all were fixed up by the same lady who rescues run down houses and breathes new life in them. Very cute and quaint for sure, but I almost felt like the book should have been titled "Cottages of " " Island". Because I ordered this book without being able to look at it first, I was a little disappointed, but all in all the cottages profiled are dear and sweet, so regardless of how many are within a few miles of each other, I will hold onto the book for decorating and color ideas.

1 comments about New Asian Home,The.

1. I borrowed this book from my library and loved it so much I bought it. Although most of the homes are actually in the USA there were plenty of details in the styling that gave me inspiration.
   M Fountain NZ

2 comments about Rooms Outside the House: From Gazebos to Garden Rooms.

1. What beautiful photos and illustrations! There are many unusual ideas...saunas and studios as well as pool houses. I have a vivid imagination, so I had no trouble envisioning a lower budget version of these ideas. I think the visions are inspiring and can be adapted to fit your budget with a little ingenuity. If you don't have the space for 1000 square foot structure, adapt to 500 square feet! The pictures alone are worth the purchase of this book. Of particular interest to me was the music room...perfect for an artistic retreat!



2. If you are planning to entertain a cast of thousands (or at least a few hundred), own at least ten acres of land, and have unlimited funds (including hefty fees for architects and engineers), then this book offers a few good ideas. Unfortunately, I was looking for something more down to earth, such as ideas for a modest gazebo or shelter that would blend nicely into the back of my modest half acre piece of land - a place for thinking or reading or conversing with a few god friends, a place to escape the rain, or a place for star gazing. This book didn't even come close to my expectations.

5 comments about Art Deco House Style: An Architectural and Interior Design Source Book.

1. This is a lovely book, but I bought it for the interior part and it really is mostly external architecture.



2. I ordered this book for a friend who has an Art Deco house and is planning an extension with a new kitchen. It sounded ideal but proved less than useful. It is really a historical reference for Art Deco elements which may be interesting to some but is not so useful if you want to use your house in a more modern way. The average 1930's kitchen just does not cut it these days. This book showed original Art Deco kitchens but no new kitchens in Art Deco style. I would recommend this book to design students and ardent enthusiasts of the style but not to someone who is not so fanatical. There are better books for integrating old and new such as "Old House, New Home: Stylish Modern Living In A Period Setting".



3. This book is exactly what I was looking for! The reviews I read on amazon.com convinced me to buy it because they said it was great for someone who owned an art deco style house and they were right. I would recommend it.



4. Many of the Art Deco reference books are very high quality "coffee table" productions that highlite museum quality Art Deco creations. They are fantastic books but as the owner of middle class Art Deco home, I know that objects presented in these books are way beyond my economic means. I can admire them but never afford these iconic art pieces. The beauty of Ingrid Cranfield's "Art Deco House Style" is that it concentrates on more modest homes and interiors. Nearly every page is filled with period photographs of house exteriors, furniture and other household objects. At $16 new or $10 used, this is a very reasonably priced reference book more suitable for the book shelf than the coffee table. A good value and highly recommended for the regular person with a 1930's home.



5. I really like this book a lot of pictures, it is helping my to decorate my thirties house. I surely recomend it.

3 comments about Brothels of Nevada: Candid Views of America's Legal Sex Industry.

1. This excellent book is more of an exotic voyeur's tour of the legal whore houses, actually trailers, of Nevada's brothels than it is a portrait of the prostitutes working in these houses of ill repute. Only a few or the working girls are seen in the book and in those cases they are only blurred fleeting figures, seen from the back working their Internet sites or practically invisible behind barely open blinds and screen covered windows. This is an architectural photographer's color documentation of what is probably a disappearing remnant of the Wild West. The photographer has won numerous Architectural awards including the "Architect's Honor Award." The book's publisher is the Princeton Architectural Press. It's important to know these facts if you are interested in the book, which is masterfully done in every way, but may not be what many potential readers are searching for. The title may suggest more eroticism than is actually in the tome. It's more a fancy coffee table art book designed to peak the interest of guests and spark some interesting before or after dinner conversations. It's contains only a hint of raciness. It's also a dark portrait of decay and human weakness.
   Alexa Albert, M.D. writes a very brief introduction to Timothy Hursley's photographic studies of many of Nevada' s working, some now closed, brothels. Alexa Albert wrote "Brothel: Mustang Ranch and It's Women" about her lengthy study of prostitution and public health while attending Harvard Medical School. The books are somewhat like two facets of the same story. One is about the workingwomen, their safe sex practices, and the other is a comprehensive portrait of the same women's places of business. However, the two facets remain totally independent of each other.
   "Brothels of Nevada" very much resembles "Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan" both in style and subject matter, although the Love Hotels of Japan are not brothels and are merely convenient meeting places for lovers from all walks of life.
   The rather boring, Spartan, but occasional fancy trailers of Nevada's brothels are only a faint echo of the grand style of the Love Hotels of Japan, which are much more sophisticated and accepted fantasy worlds in every way.



2. From a skilled architectual photographer one might be surprised to find the legal brothel as the subject of this elegant collection. First, the movies have created quite a different image of brothels. As opposed to the pleasure palaces of Victorian Chicago or the upstairs at the saloon, the real brothels of today's Nevada are mostly double wide house trailers singly or in groups (since in the beginning they had to be mobile because of changing zoning ordinances). The excellent large format images shown are not girly pictures and in fact there almost no human figures to be seen. Rather they are a demonstration of a part of America seldom seen and even less understood..
   The economics of brothels is not well studied. Naturally owners are intent on the greatest possible profits from the least investment. Since the women work on a piece work basis (no pun) it is difficult to increase the throughput of the operation. To construct a spledid brothel is almost a conflict in terms. Instead, brothels are constructed as a compromise in tastes. What is the minimum place attractive to clients who by definition are unsophisticated but that will not affect business? The women in turn concoct their living-working rooms intended to demonstrate their own taste or lack of it.
   For all the housewives with their fanatasies of escaping their bloated husband and being paid for those services thy have contributed in the past, the alternative of those clusters of double wides may be sometimes attractive.
   Hursley has captured a lonely and wistful collection of images that are classic Americana. I urge you to read the companion book, "Brothel" by Alexa Albert to form your own conclusions.



3. It's a big jump from the lively paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec of prostitutes in Montmarte to Timothy Hursley's interesting coverage of America's only legal sex industry and the one big difference you'll notice is the understandable absence of people in the photos, consequently they offer a rather detached view of this very human activity.
   
   The photos date from the mid-eighties to today so several of the buildings are no more. The five chapters geographically cover Nevada and Hursley seems to have visited most of the State's sex industry. He has tried to cover everything, the wire fenced entrances, parlours, bedrooms, recreation areas, kitchens and the rubbish bins outback. Several kitchen photos show cooking timers, used for obvious reasons. The Shamrock went to the trouble of making a custom unit to house their fourteen timers. The exterior shots suggest that these brothels are rather isolated (parking would never be a problem) though the Chicken Ranch, in 1986, thoughtfully provided a runway, shown on page forty-three.
   
   Overall an interesting book of photos, good color and well designed. As a visual record of this particular area of American life Tim Hursley will probably retain his monopoly. I doubt anyone will do it better and just the book, in the bookcase, to sit next to Barbara Heyl's 'The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Management in House Prostitution' (ISBN 087855211)
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

No comments about Dream Homes Pacific Northwest: An Exclusive Showcase of the Finest Architects, Designers & Builders in Oregon & Washington.

No comments about Feng Shui Style: The Asian Art of Gracious Living.

3 comments about The Ultimate House Book: For Home Design in the Twenty-First Century.

1. Book store (and Amazon) shelves in the architecture section are filled with coffee table books with large pictures of homes we can never afford to own, or homes that look more like a museum show case than a place where people actually live. This book is different.
   
   It gets you in the right mind set for starting to think about designing your own home. Practical, with lots of images that contain useful suggestions. Start with this book, then buy others.
   
   This edition is a comlete re-write from the version I bought in 2002.



2. great resource information mostly for UK though (i think)
   pictures and ideas are solid i just like to skim thru it for ideas
   everything you can imagine related to the home is in there somehow



3. This book is an excellent reference for decorating a private
   home. It describes flexible living quarters, work at home and
   family quarters. There is a basic budget model, as well as
   provision for more elaborate and expensive customizations.
   The work contains an extensive materials directory which is
   useful for deciding upon the material components and pricing
   structure. Both form and function are described in detail.
   There are contrasting arguments for employing vulcanized
   rubber, plastics and marble. The book is excellent if it is
   utilized wisely in connection with planned home designs.