Customer Reviews

Designers in Residence: The Personal Style of Top Women Decorators and Designers

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A very enjoyable read. I enjoyed being invited into the private homes of designers whose work I've read/seen to see how they live. I found their designs interesting and pleasing. I'd like to see a follow-up volume with other designers, such as Joe Ruggiero, Kevin McCloud, Christopher Lowell, etc.

VICTORIA magazine's "Designers in Residence" is a nice overview of the homes of top women interior designers who are based everywhere from several big American cities to Belgium and France and everywhere in between. It's always fascinating to see how interior designers decorate their own homes, instead of those they do for their clients. You get the sense that while their homes represent sanctuary for them--as home rightly should--they also use their homes as design labs, testing this or that fabric or paint finish or furniture placement to see how it might work elsewhere.

The names are ones design mavens will recognize: Sheila Bridges, Rachel Ashwell, Theodora van Runkle (who also did the costumes for several movies, including "Bonnie & Clyde" in 1967), Isabelle de Borchgrave, Charlotte Moss, and more. There is solid, if sometimes unsurprising, information here on aging fabrics, using different decorative and trompe-l'oeil paint techniques, placing pictures on the wall, and so on. The layout of the book is attractive and uncluttered, the focus being solidly on the interiors--as it should be. This would be a nice little addition to the library of any design or interiors fan.

okay, i admit it, i am a design book junkie. this book, however, definitely does not do justice to the designers or their homes. in fact, the photos are adequate, not nearly on the same level of sophistication of "designing women" by russell - which is a terrific book on some really terrific interior designers. "designers in residence" mirrors the editorial content of the magazine which produced it - "victoria" - of which i am not a fan. if you want an inside tour of some very talented designers - buy "designing women" instead.

This book is a great tool for introducing featured designers. It should be send out to their potential clients with their resumes. However, as a design book it lacks on every front. I do not recommend it as book on desing, or even design styles.