The Comforts of Home: Creating Relaxed Rooms With A Romantic Feel [Hardcover]

Atlanta Bartlett (Author), Polly Wreford (Author, Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000

The Comforts of Home offers the inspiration you need to stamp your own style on your surroundings, to showcase your personal taste and so create a relaxed, welcoming environment in every room of your home--and even in your garden!

Taking you through the home room by room and out onto patios and terraces, Atlanta Bartlett shows--in five unique chapters--how to introduce a comfortable look. "Relaxed Simplicity" explains how to soften and update a stark, cool interior by adding bright splashes of color, interesting textural effects and clean, curving lines. Pretty floral fabrics make a subtle comeback in the "Relaxed Romantic" chapter. Used sparingly and combined with pale, uncluttered interiors, these fabrics add a fresh new feel to any room. Those who crave the unashamedly sensuous-embroidered silks and satins or crisp cotton sheets--will love "Relaxed Sensuality," while glamour aficionados who long to surround themselves with elegance will revel in the fin-de-siecle carved wooden mirrors and crystal in "Relaxed Elegance." And if you can't stop collecting-junk shop finds, holiday mementos, beautiful antique clothing--"Relaxed Eclectic" will show you how your treasures can become the inspiration for a truly chic interior.

Full of achievable, affordable decorating ideas, The Comforts of Home provides ideas for an enjoyable retreat no matter what your style preferences--a haven that is a restorative for all the senses.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

We all want true relaxation when we come home--a place to put our feet up, close our eyes, and ignore the world outside. Too often, the "stuff" of day-to-day living interferes with that relaxation, but Atlanta Bartlett is determined to help us all create a personal space where comfort and peace are the focal points. In The Comforts of Home, the gorgeous photos, specific suggestions, and unique styles work together to get you started creating a special haven. Five different decorating styles are highlighted. Whether your taste runs to elegant or eclectic, you're sure to find one that resonates. Bartlett encourages the use of color on walls and ceilings as a focal point--when walls are a delicate blue or pale pink, additional art becomes unnecessary. Unusual uses for items are also encouraged: a bright sari drapes a bedroom window to beautiful effect, while plain and chunky glass tumblers work nicely as vases. Collections of beloved items are shown off to advantage in settings such as wide staircases, kitchen walls, and fireplace mantles. Neutral colors are enhanced with a variety of textures like velvet, leather, satin, rough concrete, and sheepskin to present a living room that combines luxury and simplicity. For every room in the house, Bartlett shows that "less is more" when the "less" has special qualities and sentimental value. With a cozy blanket, family photos, and your favorite chair arranged in front of a sunny window, you may find it difficult to do anything but relax! --Jill Lightner

About the Author

Atlanta Bartlett is a leading stylist whose hallmark is her accessible approach to interior decoration. She regularly contributes to a major British magazine as its interiors editor and numbers Harrods, Habitat, and Laura Ashley among her clients.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Hearst Books; 1st edition (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688171869
• ISBN-13: 978-0688171865
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,375,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous photos, not much else, October 21, 2000

By 

"kangarex" (Keokuk, IA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Comforts of Home: Creating Relaxed Rooms With A Romantic Feel (Hardcover)

When I got the book I was very excited, it's beautiful to look at, and a simple style is what I like in home design. Unfortunately when I sat down to read I found almost nothing helpful in actually creating a simple, useful room design. Instead there's page after page of beautiful photos, with some interesting but not useful accessorizing tips. For instance, leaving a pair of oriental slippers on the staircase strikes me as more of a navagation hazard than a decorating statement. Also the author's idea of simple seems to have very narrow limits, like using all neutrals with only touches of blue and pink. Or using 1950's style furniture (anybody ever heard of Shaker? Mission? apparently not this lady). If you run into it in a library, leaf through the photos, don't bother reading it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The sames photos everywhere!, August 29, 2001

By 

"luciahelena" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Comforts of Home: Creating Relaxed Rooms With A Romantic Feel (Hardcover)

I was known that it would not be a decorating book -- but I was expecting a lot of inspiration to make my home an enviroment of peace and relaxing. And, finally, I was upset and disappointed. I think the author registered only one house's interior -- the same furniture, rooms in different angles every page. There was a pair of pink shoes that appeared three times in different positions, as if their owner was relaxing in same place of this house! Three times! Maybe the photographer wanted to use all the pictures he took, without editing the material very well. I felt the I lost money and time. Sorry.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what the title suggests, February 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Comforts of Home: Creating Relaxed Rooms With A Romantic Feel (Hardcover)

I give this book 3 stars for lovely photography. But it does not contain many real-world decorating tips and certainly not those in what I would call the romantic style, as the cover claims.

Mostly, it is about how to inject a little color and freshness into extremely minimalist and modern rooms. The author does this by using things like a pair of glittery shoes on an old stairway. She's also found of huge gilt mirrors leaned on walls and dressmaker's dummies.

The pages are beautiful, but the ideas are not practical. And with the cold minimalist backdrops, not what I would consider romantic either.

It's an interesting read, if you like interior design, but the style is not very accessible. It is nothing like Shabby Chic or Cottage. I found it pretentious, impractical, and not at all relaxed.