Customer Reviews

Breaking the Rules: Home Style for the Way We Live Today

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4 star:		(1)
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"Breaking the Rules" is not about anarchy, although it is a rebellion of sorts. It is a call to creativity in decorating our homes in a way that breaks the stagnant bonds of outdated rules and conventionality. "Don't be afraid to let your home reflect your dynamic personality", suggests authors Palazzo and Ferer, two very talented ladies. The book explores use of color, textures, patterns and encourages us to enhance all of those neglected spaces in the house. Mixing styles of furniture is encouraged. So is the use of garden furniture indoors, and overstuffed cushions and pillows. So open the windows, let the light come in, give your home a fresh new look - one that reflects your beauty, your inner qualities and all those fantastic decorating ideas you have been afraid to try. An excellent guidebook.

The points that the author makes aren't new (I have been reading similar tips about personal style and in the other decorating magagzines and books that I have bought for years). Even though the information is not new or original, I do like having this writer's quick tips close at hand for reference. The photos leave something to be desired, because so many of them are little closeups of objects when I would rather see whole rooms.

I like the premise of the book, but the end product looks too New Yorky and bicoastal. There are better, broader decorating books around that make the same "do your own thing" point while taking a broader, truly national approach in the choice of places that are pictured. I get so tired of buying great-sounding books only to see that the people who produced them are not well-travelled and have focused on New York and perhaps California. Disappointing. I wish they would show real homes that most of the country can identify with.

Oh,my! "Breaking the Rules: Home Style For the Way We Live Today" is one visually stunning book."Breaking the Rules" doesn't just rock, it roars.Author Christy Ferrer has taken those stodgly ol' decorating rules and chucked 'em out the well-appointed window.Every page of this book is gorgeous and delightfully iconoclastic.Featured items range from a mink and lucite stool, to an artfully displayed collection of gloves (which once belonged to the Duchess of Windsor),to Bette Midler's stove.These interiors are a fun, funky, ecclectic and joyfully eccentric mix.This is not the typical decorating book that serves up a style for you to copy as if you were some kind of decorating drone. "Breaking the Rules" is an inspirational guide for letting your creativity emerge, maybe even explode.Do you like shocking pink and lime green? Go ahead. Crack open a couple of paint cans and redo that boring living room!This book not only gives you permission, but may even serve as your muse. And, finally, bravely, in the face of all that is accepted and personified as "good taste", author Ferrer even dares us to: "Think plastic." This is truly "no guts, no glamour" decor.What a spirited and breath-taking piece of work! Christy Ferrer(with Risa Palazzo) has put together one heck-of-a book.I dare you to read it!

It's called Breaking the Rules but what's interesting about this decorating book is that it explains the elements of design first so your get an education in style even while you are being encouraged to flaunt convention. Beautiful, colorful examples abound!