Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home And Life Each Day (Harperresource Book) - Softcover

Stoddard, Alexandra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380731444 ISBN 13: 9780380731442

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2000

Synopsis

For nearly forty years and in numerous books, Alexandra Stoddard has shared her keen eye for design and sure sense of style. Now this renowned decorator and lifestyle philosopher teaches you hoe to see with the expertise and clarity of professional designers.

First, Alexandra helps you become more attuned to your surroundings-as you set a table, straighten out a linen closet, stroll through a garden, or browse in a thrift shop.  Then, through personal anecdotes; examples from masters; a rich array of ideas, tips, and techniques, she reveals hundreds of ways to see and solve problems or proportion, pattern, color, and composition.  Her simple suggestions-whether it's changing a lampshade, rearranging treasured objects on a table, or moving a chair-will yield dramatic results.  Filled with practical solutions offered with warmth and encouragement , Open Your Eyes helps make each day a visual feats as it deepens your understanding not only of what makes something beautiful but what makes something beautiful to you.

About this title

About the Author:

Author of twenty-four books, Alexandra Stoddard is a sought-after speaker on the art of living. Through her lectures, articles, and books such as Living a Beautiful Life, Things I Want My Daughters to Know, Time Alive, Grace Notes, Open Your Eyes, and Feeling at Home, she has inspired millions to pursue more fulfilling lives. She lives with her husband in New York City and Stonington Village, Connecticut.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Seeking the Ideal

Proportion and Scale

Beauty and art pervade all the affairs of life like some friendly genius, and embellish with their cheer all our surroundings. -HEGEL

Making the most of our lives, preserving harmony in our surroundings, and loving what we have and see is the most satisfactory way to live. Just as the satisfactory relationship of one person to another results in comfort, peace and joy, so does the satisfactory relationship of ideal proportion and scale. As in relationships, there is stability in proper proportion and scale that leads to pleasure and sensible living, health and ease. My aim in this chapter is to transform the way you see everyday life, as well as what you do and how you live as a result.

The difference between living and half living is seeing well, looking for associations between things, seeking the connections, being aware of scale and proportion. If it is true that what you seek you find, then it is also true that what you see you find. When you see well, you enjoy the beauty of the world rather than seeing only half the treasures around you.

Proportion and scale are the tools for achieving this harmonious ideal. Their benevolent effects are all around you. Not too much, not too little. Not too high, not too low. Not too fat, not too thin; not too sweet, not too sour; not too loud, not too faint; not too busy, not too bland; not too garish, not too dull; not too extravagant, not too stingy. We know the world is not perfect. But if we can see ideal proportion -- the relationship of things to themselves -- and if we can see scale -- the size of objects on their own -- we will be better equipped to see that a rich life is out there, ours for the seeing and learning. When you seek the ideal, understanding the relationships among people and objects around you, beauty is wherever you are.

Let scale and proportion help you to become a seer; with your eyes and brain answering to your own highest conception of the ideal.

Copyright (c) 1998 by Alexandra Stoddard

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0380731444
• ISBN 13: 9780380731442
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336