Customer Reviews

East Meets West: Global Design for Contemporary Interiors

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Everything about this book is inspiring. The text is excellent and the photographs explain and illustrate Ms. Hoppen's methods beautifully. Her use of color is new to me and incredibly helpful. The pictures, which show her use of Eastern influences in Western rooms, are stimulating, yet whether simple or complex they illustrate a system of decoration that creates the background for a blissful, peaceful way of life. This book has altogether changed my philosophy about household design.

This book is quite interesting. It shows how the designs of the East can blend harmoniously with the designs of the west. It does not only show the famous Zen design of the Japanese but shows much of the deep colors of Indian and Chinese design. For someone who has no formal background in designing, this book suggests the balance of colors that is simply shown in nature--which the author herself has been inspired with. The designers English design influence though has been displayed much in her style- a little bit too elitist. But indeed, a great book to keep for reference!

Ms Hoppen does an excellent job both explaining and demonstrating her design philosophy in this very readable, very well illustrated book. She discusses origins of various influences and then provides examples of the results of the influences. She will use colors, shapes or textures of Eastern origin and then demonstrate her use of them in contemporary settings. This reader found this very heplful because it showed Ms Hoppen's entire process. If one is interested in absorbing some of Ms Hoppen's design philosophy, this is an excellent book with which to start.

Honestly, when does one come across a designer who has that kind of depth and genious to "see" in nature so vividly, imagine how that could be recreated in interiors and indeed implement it in such warm, balanced and welcoming environments, with such evident knowledge and experience in form, color and structure? You'll keep coming back to this book.