Customer Reviews

ADOBE! Homes and Interiors: of Taos, Santa Fe and the Southwest

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I purchased the book I thought that it would present a modern overview of southwestern interior design; however, it offered a historical overview complete with hundreds of black and white photos of ancient architect. If your looking for a history lesson without going to the museum, then this is the book for you. Incidentally, I returned it immediatly. It does have a fancy title though.

This book is a historical archive of what are referred to as homes. Mostly black and white photos of Indian dwellings that does not lend to actual interior decorating. This title belongs to the history section in a high school library. I had purchased and returned this work in the same breath.

This book offers all one could want in the way of Santa Fe style home building. Seeing the interiors of actual Southwest homes is a huge inspiration when decorating. Filled with many informative photos.

Any architect or serious interior decorator exploring, or deeply into, the southwestern style will not be disappointed with this book. It is filled with hundreds of photos of interior and exterior features, including wide-angle views encompassing entire rooms, showing southwest fine art and artifacts in a domestic context. Don't be surprised that most of the photos are black and white--although there are dozens of color photos too. Instead, appreciate the play of light and shadow that finely crafted adobe structures have at their command. Black and white photos show this in high contrast. But don't let the photos overshadow the text that will provide an education to adobe architects of all levels. Anyone iiving in a true adobe, and wants to follow a classic southwest theme, will find lots of inspiration--and then the hunt will be on to find the kind of indigenous southwest decor seen here.

This should be titled Architectural Details of Adobe Homes of New Mexico." The author has lived in Santa Fe and clearly loves it. The reader will get many ideas from the photographs of existing New Mexican homes to incorporate into their adobe home. However, I must say that after awhile, everything being wonderful, unsurpassed, great, wears thin.

I'm in the initial stages of building an adobe house, and this book is the best I've come across so far. The book breaks down into various chapters ranging from fireplaces, to floors, to ceilings, to bathrooms, to living rooms, etc.

What really appealed to me is that you can see how different people (including Georgia O'Keefe) incorporated some of these ideas into their homes. The illustrations aren't simply House Beautiful-type photos created by showhouse designers. They illustrate the reality rather than only the ideal.

I had so many ideas to convey to my architect that he decided to order it too.

If you are working on an adobe or thinking about it, this is the book you need. It's not as glamorous as many others but it is loaded with detail and design and ideas. Some might make it a coffee table book, but it is really more of a reference work for design ideas when you are working on specifics, like design and style of fireplace. It also surprises the reader with many historic pictures of, almost always, women doing the mud plaster or other aspects of construction. My favorite is the section with specific instructions on how to build one of the typical rounded fireplaces. An excellent book.

If you can find this book in the library, you will be rewarded. It is a beautiful book lovingly done, by people who actually have lived in and grown up appreciating the Southwest style.