COUNTRY AND MODERN LIVING CONTEMPORARY INTERIORS FOR RURAL SETTINGS

A design handbook featuring full-color photographs demonstrates the ways in which rural and modern styles can be mixed to form a comfortable, uncluttered home environment, with an emphasis on light and color in relation to space, form and symmetry. IP.

Country and Modern is a study in fascinating contradictions. Espousing "rural minimalism," this photo-heavy volume demonstrates that the urbanite who seeks the spirit-renewing comfort of a country aura need not fill the home with kitschy clutter. The rugged simplicity of these interiors is derive partly from the popular shabby-chic aesthetic and partly from the timelessness of vernacular tradition before layers of artifice overtook home decor. Surprisingly, the sleek language of modernism--clean lines, downplayed color, unfussy materials such as metal, concrete, brick, and natural- finished wood, and pared-down or altogether absent accessorizing--lends itself willingly to the uncluttered rusticity of the stark, daring concept of modern country. With eloquent but appropriately minimal text, the book lets the photographs speak for themselves. What these images of wholesome sophistication say is that such country retreats would be as suitable in strictly urban dwellings as in actual country domiciles. --Amy Handy