Customer Reviews

French by Design

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you like French design, you should get this book. I really love the photographs. While this book is mostly photographs, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading about the French and their attitudes on decorating and love for their homes. Betty Lou Phillips has wonderful taste, and her style is so enjoyable. Thank you to Country Living magazine for featuring her work!

Enhanced with 130 beautiful color photographs, Betty Phillips' French By Design showcases a distinctly upscale series of interior designs. Whether displaying a storage space or an entire room, a piece of furniture or a single door frame, a decorative object d'art or a functional piece, French By Design reveals how to incorporate a exquisite French-country style motif into any living room, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, bath, library, children's room, garden or terrace, fabric or furnishing. French By Design is a wonderful addition to any personal, academic, profession, or community library interior design reference book collection.

I just did. The homes & rooms featured in this book indicate that money is no object and these homeowners want you to know it. Subtlety is non-existant. Rooms are very "we had a decorator & we spent a LOT". Most items looks too new, too ruffled, smocked, tucked and otherwise adorned. HOWEVER, if you can get past the pictures & READ THE TEXT- Phillips has a lot to say that is excellent. She lists sources & frequently shares fascinating comments on everyday details of French style (who knew about brass hardware vs brushed nickel?). If you read; buy it. If you look only at photos, don't! Charles Faudree is much better in the genre in my opinion.

Another of Philips' beautiful French decorating books. Homes presented in this book, as with her other books are high end showing us the sumptuous fabrics, and lovely French furniture she specializes in. Homes shown are mostly mansions, not the average house. Good coffee table book.

Beautiful photos and interesting commentary on French social customs. However, the featured residences are not French, but American homes decorated "in the French style," which is somewhat disappointing.

The book is packed with colorful photos which are rich in detail. I really enjoyed this book and it has become one of my favorites.

Not unlike all of Phillips' books, this book is a masterpiece of European syle and design. No detail is left unnoticed. The furniture, fabrics, antiques, architecture, artwork, and carved stone are each carefully considered and beautifully photographed. Every page is a visual delight. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

I love decorating books and this is one of my very favourites. The pictures are gorgeous, and it seems no matter how many times I go through the book each time I come away having noticed a new, wonderful detail in one of the rooms. While the rooms and the art in them are very grand, many of the photographs provide great ideas for all budgets and sizes of rooms. This book inspired me to buy her others.

Great pictures similiar to "The French Room", but the focus is on more of the French culture and attitudes. Loved the French eighteeth century gates protecting a maison.

If you want to see pictures of rooms and furnishings that look like nothing you could possibly relate to, buy this book. The pictures show such fussy, formal, off-putting rooms. Bleah. What a waste of money.