Customer Reviews

Christopher Lowell's You Can Do It! Small Spaces: Decorating to Make Every Inch Count

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In the past 20+ years I have researched and reviewed literally thousands of pages on decorating small spaces. This book hits the mark-especially if you have a small space and have many challenging obstacles-lack of wall space, storage space, rooms that seem to go nowhere, or misaligned structures-windows, fireplaces, doorways. I do not agree with the reviews that state that this book does not cover the way that most of suburbia live. Not in all areas of the country perhaps, but the growing majority, due to downsizing and strained budgets, are living this way. Tract housing and pre-fab construction is on the rise. I have this book, and have suggested it for preferred reading at the colleges and libraries in my area. It is one of a kind, and worth twice the price!

My chief complaint is the photographs used to illustrate how Lowell's ideas and sketches were carried out DO NOT at all compare to the photos of the empty original rooms. It is extremely hard for the eye to determine the angle and placement. Several photos I couldn't even figure out what area of the room I was looking at. The AFTER photos are too close up and it's impossible to use them as a reference or anything more than a vague idea. BAD PHOTOGRAPHY.

I did get a few ideas for small spaces. I found a lot of use of the same colors over and over again, same plush fabrics and lawrence-of-arabia style draping. A bit lush and overdone for the typical home perhaps? I like his ideas very much though about clutter and making the most of your surroundings. But please re-issue with better photographs of the results of his ideas and works! What a disappointment in that regard.

This book is a must-read for anyone attempting to decorate a small living space (no matter what part of the house it is). If you are just flipping through the book looking at the pictures you won't learn much. That's no different than looking through a magazine. However, if you take the time to read each chapter and apply his know-how, you will learn a tremendous amount from Mr. Lowell. He causes you to think about your space, how it is going to be used, and how you can make it a beautiful place all your own. The "seven layers of design" are also explained in each room decorated. Also, there are two looks for the same room. This book saved us from making costly mistakes in our decorating, sparked our creativity, and remained practical all at the same time. We love the change in our home. Loved this book!!

I agree with several other reviewers that said the rooms are overstuffed and filled with fake plants. I would like to add that many of the furniture items are not functional (dinning room chair with arm-rests that come up to the table top, and therefore block any person from being able to get into the chair... there is also no room to pull out the chair.) He also makes several benches, stools, shelving into a cubic design. These all look terribly uncomfortable to sit in and likely to poke someone in the eye (for shelving). The coffee table candles & vases tower over, so people sitting there will not be able to see each other as they try to converse. The bathrooms are so crammed with nicknacks, that a person will feel like a bear in a china shop (ready to topple things over). However, I gave it a 2 star because some of the ideas are novel, and may be applied usefully in some other setting (and smaller in proportion to the room). The colors were beautiful to look at (reds, yellow, cinnomon). I liked the French style bedroom at the end, though it looked like it will take a professional to line up the wood trims perfectly and attach the faux plaster dome without getting air bubbles.

This was a bit of a let down, as I'd loved Lowell's Dream Decor On A Budget. This one is choppy and hard to follow. Reading his descriptions and then trying to find what he's talking about in the photos is tough.
Some of the rooms are delightful and there's quite a few do-it-yourself projects included (mission style table, settee-divider, island bed).
They included too many photos of Lowell, making it seem like a fan club book rather than a serious decorating guide.

Fortunately I bought this for $5. I will take it back today for a refund!

Here are the good points:
--he uses his trademark 7 layers of design. There is a chart at the back, on a couple of pages explaining this concept. Good concept, nice short description. Now I don't have to bother with his other books.

--he discusses decluttering oh so briefly (but then spectacularly doesn't follow his own advice)

-- and he explains the poverty attitude where people hang onto stuff out of fear of the future instead of making use of what they like and letting go of the excess stuff.

--he breifly explains the Japanese method of using layers of foreground, middle and background to create depth in small spaces. Not how to do it though. Just that you use layers, that you can see bits thru, like a city skyline (his analogy, and a good one) where the skyscapers are all differing heights and you see vignettes of the city thru the gaps creating a sense of depth.

--he uses colour in a rich way. With less clutter in the photos, the blends of deep rich colour would be stunning instead of overwhelming. Reminds me of shopping at Pier One.
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NOW as to WHY NOT TO BOTHER:

----The amount of clutter is overwhelming. The man layers on top of layers with no sense of open space to let a person breathe. None of the objects show to advantage when they are as jammed and cluttered as a dime store clearance rack.

-----The man wastes a LOT of space in the book with cutsey pictures of himself with a yellowish box in all sorts of poses. Less than attractive and a real slam to the poor buyer who might actually have been hoping for more pictures or more explanations in those same spaces. Another reviewer counted 43!!!! of these self portraits. Obviously he thinks he did it all himself since the staff weren't worthy to include in any of the pictures showing the projects halfway. That would be ok if the rest of the book was worthwhile.

-----The text is confused and jumpy. He bounces around like he is on some kind of speed drug or something.

-----He invents language. It took me half way thru the book before I figured out what HE meant by the term "merchandising". Hint--it isn't about selling stuff which is the normal definition.

-----He uses dated hardware on the cabinets in the kitchens, even when he changes them out. That bright brass went out in the late eighties, and brushed nickel was a nineties look. This decade is going thru oil rubbed bronze and the newest hint of any type of gilding is a weatherd gold look. Anything but bright shiny brassy "gold".

-----He CONFUSES OPEN DISPLAY SPACE with true STORAGE WHICH IS CLOSED (to hide stuff that is less than visually appealing).

eg *** Nowhere is that worse than the master bedroom with the huge pillars. He is so delighted with his "storage" shelves in the massive headboard unit, that he decides the room won't need a dresser of any kind. A few towels, a basket or two and some books are what he stores in this master bedroom.

Most normal people might want some hidden storage for underwear and the like but not him. I presume that the cramped closet space will be sacrificed for more drawer type storage as a result.

And WHY???

so he can display a few more mismatched towels and create a straight walkway thru the bedroom to another area of the house.

Somebody tell him bedrooms are not hallways, and somebody tell that mobile home company to mke the door to the sun room off the kitchen area.

Problem solved, without creating a runway thru a private space.

THE CONFUSION between storage space and display space IS COMMON to a lot of designers but this one goes over the top. He keeps claiming that he has added tons of storage to these trailers but in fact there is very little storage added, that wasn't already there in kitchen cupboards and closets.

WHAT HE CALLS STORAGE IS REALLY DISPLAY SPACE and he does do a nice job styling the shelves full of useless but pretty stuff. Too much of it, but that seems to be his trademark design.

IF YOU TRY THIS AT HOME please remember storage space is CLOSED space, while display space is open to view and is only intended for a few spare items of great beauty. Display items are focal points, and too many simply means visual clutter.

---In every possible corner he crams fake plants, visual clutter, junk and trivia. He discusses the necessity of being able to move thru a space but then ignores such practicalities as vacuuming room. In order to clean these heavily dust collecting spaces, you need to get in there to dust, and to vacuum.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that running a vacuum thru these spaces is an obstacle course that would take days of effort.

MY CONCLUSION?
People don't live like that normally unless they have a Molly Maid who can help them clean every week and a storage unit out back where they can park the real necessities of life, that you don't want out on display such as underwear, or spare rolls of toilet paper or that truly ugly but effective shampoo bottle.

This man should do store displays for Pier One and similar home decor stores. He has the rich colour sense that is so attractive in these places, but he should leave the design of small spaces to people who truly understand them.

A good place to start is the magazine Style at Home which will give you all the richness and colour and design, without the clutter or dated combinations. I suggest a subscription to that magazine instead of the cost of this book. Their annual small space issue in in the spring, but the rest of the year they include tips for smaller spaces with each issue.

I don't watch cable tv and Christopher Lowell isn't familiar to me, but I was eager to read this book as I have a number of small rooms. I was extremely disappointed to find that all the rooms in the book were comparatively huge. I was hoping for decorating tips for rooms 12 x12 and smaller. Oh, well. Some of my friends who have bigger rooms have been happy to borrow it.

I think some of the other reviewers were overly harsh in their assessment of this book. You have to read the first chapter to get the context of the decorating he did for these two houses. Also, if you had a chance to watch his TV show when he decorated these houses, you'll see they actually turned out quite livable. He walked around and discussed what his team had done. I do agree that the book is a little over the top. Chris likes looking at himself and saw fit to include 47 pictures of himself. But I think he crammed in so much "stuff" so a reader could pick a little bit from here and there and come up with his or her own style. If he had been spartan in his design, the reader would have fewer ideas to choose from. I'm rather glad he gave me lots of choices. Even when I threw a bunch away, I still had more ideas then I get from similar books. I encourage the reader to look at it from that perspective and enjoy the metamorphosis of these two empty, bland trailers into little fantasy houses. I found his "Seven Layers of Design" book even more useful, because he spends a lot of time explaining his design methodology. If you're afraid of the investment, buy the books used from the Amazon marketplace. I bought all three for less then the price of one brand new. Cha ching! Good luck!

Gorgeous photos and clever designs seduce the reader. Could I do this? Not unless you can build and uphoster furniture and even if you purchase ready-made uphostered items and window treatments, you'd end up with so much fabric you'd have to have the whole house dry cleaned weekly.

And sadly, although Christopher Lowell's colors and layouts are tasteful, he'll never be mistaken for ace gardener and color expert Christopher Lloyd because Lowell puts fake plants in all his photos! "Even though the big bay window lets in plenty of sunlight to grow beautifully healthy plants, we decided to go with the maintenance-free artificial variety. The technology has come such a long way, nobody can tell the difference." (p. 25)

What's brilliant is Lowell's anti-hoarding advice so you can enjoy your small spaces guilt and clutter free. That's a philosophy worth adopting, as are some of his other design advice. But get some live plants, puh-lease.

Great Book with lot's of ideas. Can't go wrong with Christopher. He knows how to solve all your problems and I have lots of clutter issues.