Classic Interior Design: Using Period Features in Today's Home [Hardcover]

Henrietta Spencer-Churchill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2003

This beautifully illustrated guide from top interior designer Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill reveals the best of architectural and furnishing detail from England and America's most enduring decorating styles of the last 400 years.

A companion volume to her 2001 Classic Design Styles, this book focuses on architectural details from seven distinct historical eras and identifies the vital details of each period. Carved stone fireplaces, marble columns, tapestry wall hangings, eighteenth-century windows, and plain and painted plaster wall finishes, as well as cushions, tassels, and curtains are all detailed with an eye to applying them to our homes today.

With in-depth historical surveys of each period, illustrated feature by feature, the book is filled with beautiful photographs and hundreds of creative ideas accompanied by insider tips, practical advice, and inspiration from one of the world's top interior designers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill is the daughter of the 11th Duke of Marlborough, whose family home is Blenheim Palace. She lives in London and runs the highly successful design company Woodstock Designs. She is the author of six books, including Classic Design Styles, Classic Entertaining, and Classic English Interiors.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (October 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847825582
• ISBN-13: 978-0847825585
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 0.9 x 12 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,192,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mislead by Its Sub Tittle & Cover, March 20, 2006

By 

Asri A. Adityawardhana (Jakarta, Indonesia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Interior Design: Using Period Features in Today's Home (Hardcover)

I guess, I'm a bit dissapointed w/ the book as I got mislead by its cover and sub tittle "Using Period Finishes in Today's Home". I thought I would find samples of classic interior design which applied in "today's home = non stately home", but the fact was - most of the pictures shown models of classic interior in the grand estate houses. I was hoping to get samples on how we can decorate our "non manor" home w/ classic interior objects. Also, lots of pictures are repetition from her other books and some are dated.

Unless you have that kind of mansion, then this book might please you. Otherwise it might only perfect as a coffee table book - not for someone who is looking for inspiration for their "regular/non stately" home. Perhaps, it would be great for someone who wants to learn on interior details in some periods of era.

For my next time purchase - maybe I should buy a book with some reviews on it?.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beware: Only Fit for a Palace, July 26, 2007

By 

Tamara Fleming Goulden "TFG" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Classic Interior Design: Using Period Features in Today's Home (Hardcover)

First, I'd like to agree with another review that I read that this book is definitely not for decorating the average home. And if you're thinking that this book applies to you because you live in a million dollar neighborhood or an estate home, still wrong. This book is a classic example of you write about what you know about. Written by "Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, the daughter of the 11th Duke of Marlborough, whose family home is Blenheim Palace," the book is meant for decorating a palace, resembling homes you'd find in "Unique Homes Magazines."

Second, The taxonomy in the book was disappointing. You'd think that a good writer would be able to to gather thoughts well and organize them before putting them on paper. Instead of categorizing by interior/architectural structure (fireplace, lighting, furniture, etc.)and then by period (Georgian, Victorian, etc.), the author did the reverse and by doing so wasn't consistent with interior/architectural structures by period; lighting was left out of some periods and fireplaces was left out of others, among other things.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Examples of Classic Interior Design, March 1, 2009

By 

Classicdude (River City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Interior Design: Using Period Features in Today's Home (Hardcover)

CLASSIC INTERIOR DESIGN, Henrietta Spencer-Churchill's 2003 book, is one of her best despite the misleading subtitle USING PERIOD FINISHES IN TODAY'S HOME. The book offers wonderful photo examples from Europe as well as the United States, mostly by Fritz von der Schulenberg, in seven chapters: BAROQUE & QUEEN ANNE STYLE, GEORGIAN STYLE, COLONIAL STYLE, FEDERAL STYLE, AMERICAN EMPIRE STYLE, REGENCY STYLE, and VICTORIAN STYLE. Although the interiors are not identified as to location, nor is credit given to interior designers or architects, this book greatly benefits from the diversity lacking from other books by Lady Spencer-Churchill which showcase her own design work. Wisely, the particularly chic Manhattan apartment of the late Bill Blass was chosen for the dustjacket cover as it serves as bait; sadly, there are only two additional photos within the book and minimal captions provide the only text as a reference to the grand Sutton Place apartment decorated with the help of Mac II. A couple of shots of Blass's charming Connecticut home also appear elsewhere in the book.

Not really fulfilling the promise to be the guide of how to use period details in today's homes, it is an attractive collection of interior photographs none-the-less. Professional decorators and talented amateurs will find inspiration, but those looking for a do-it-yourself manual will be disappointed.