New Decorator: How to combine well-being and style in your home - Hardcover

Barnard, Julia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1552094308 ISBN 13: 9781552094303

Publisher: Firefly Books, 1999

Synopsis

Our homes reflect our individual tastes and personalities and provide a welcoming haven from life's stresses. Not only is a well-designed living space pleasing to the senses, it is also necessary for our physical and emotional wellbeing. With these holistic aims in mind, design consultants Julia and Nicholas Barnard have produced a truly inspirational guide, enabling you to create a restful living environment. Sections on space, light, color, surfaces, and sound demonstrate the basic principles of successful home design and show you how to become an imaginative, informed, sensitive, and adventurous homemaker. Over 20 step-by-step projects guide you through a wide range of tasks, including wood liming, making and hanging curtains, glazing and texturing walls, and combining lighting effectively. Packed with over 500 breathtaking color photographs and bursting with essential advice, New Decorator allows you to select the most appealing styles and elements and to use them as starting points in creating your ideal home.

About this title

Review

A home is more than a place to eat, sleep, and do the laundry: it can be a "calm haven in a hectic world," according to author Julia Barnard, "a state of being" that can be tailored to appeal to all five senses. Because we human beings experience the world around us through our senses, New Decorator devotes whole chapters to strategies for using space, light, color, surfaces, air, sound, and home comforts to create a home that's both sensuous and practical:

Remember that light and air are necessary for your well-being, and that a house must breathe to be healthy. Use color to set the tone of a room.... Choose natural and sustainable materials, such as bamboo and jute, and appreciate their surface texture and variation of color. Acknowledge that silence is sometimes golden, and buy appliances that have the quietest sound.

More than 500 color photos of such sensuous rooms show that this novel, commonsense approach to interior decorating can be realized with thoughtful decorating decisions. The beginning decorator will appreciate sections on such basics as combining primary and secondary colors, using light to create atmosphere and mood, and working with patterns. Do-it-yourself projects include a double-sided screen, rolled beeswax and pressed-flower candles, homegrown milk paint, and a leaf-printed wall, all of which give designers the chance to "enter into the give and take of homemaking." --Stefanie Durbin

About the Author

An internationally famous designer and stylist, Julia Barnard is the author of DK's Soft Furnishings, part of the 101 Essential Tips Series. Nicholas Barnard is a widely traveled design consultant who has written several books on home decorating and folk art, including DK's The Complete Home Decorating Book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1552094308
• ISBN 13: 9781552094303
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192