Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) [Hardcover]

Sarah Susanka (Author), Marc Vassallo (Author), Ken Gutmaker (Photographer)

Book Description

Series: Susanka | Publication Date: September 20, 2005

In her latest book, best-selling author of "The Not So Big House" Sarah Susanka teams up with architectural design writer Marc Vassallo to expand upon the message that has resonated with over a million homeowners and builders across the country: opting for personalized, well-crafted, thoughtfully designed spaces over superfluous square footage results in a home that comforts and nourishes those who live there.
In "Inside The Not So Big House," Susanka and Vassallo focus their lens on the tangible and sometimes intangible details that bring an otherwise ordinary home to life. Incorporating such details as dropped ceilings, built-in shelves, pocket doors, window seats, and well-placed alcoves infuses a home with the character of its owners and conveys a uniqueness that's mising in many homes built or remodeled today. From Rhode Island to San Diego, the 23 homes featured here illustrate exceptional attention to detail. Each offers inspiration for those building or remodeling to transform their home into an expression of all that is important to them. "Detail is everything in design. Sarah Susanka proves it again with this, her latest book."
--John Wheatman, author, "Meditations on Design" and "A Good House Is Never Done"

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sarah Susanka has teamed up with design writer Marc Vassallo to help her readers incorporate the details of not-so-big living into their decorating schemes...As the 25 homes featured in the book demonstrate, such additions combine good looks with function to unify and enhance interior spaces.""- Boston Globe"
"Susanka has become the poster girl for an architectural movement that worships scale and simplicity. Here she and Vassallo go inside 23 not-so-big houses to illustrate the details -- built-in storage, diverse ceiling heights and materials, color, simplicity, tricks of the eye -- that not only give a house personality but also make it more livable."
- Lynette Evans, "San Francisco Chronicle"

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Author, architect, and cultural visionary Sarah Susanka has emerged as the leader of a movement that continues to shape the future of the American home. With her first book, The Not So Big House (1998), she launched a revolution in residential architecture and changed the way we think about our homes. The Not So Big House and her next three books, Creating the Not So Big House (2000), Not So Big Solutions for Your Home (2002), and Home By Design (2003) have inspired over one million readers and continue to receive international media attention. Fast Company named Susanka to their debut list of "Fast 50" innovators whose achievements have helped change society, an honor preceded by her selection as a Newsweek top newsmaker in 2000 and a U.S. News&World Report innovator in American culture in 1998.
Marc Vassallo received a degree in architecture from Cornell University, interned at a small architectural office in Colorado, and designed and built his own energy-conserving house in Virginia before turning his attention fully to words. He has since published numerous magazine features and short stories, and was awarded an NEA fellowship for his fiction.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (September 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561586811
• ISBN-13: 978-1561586813
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Small Homes & Cottages

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for Everyone, February 22, 2006

By 

Charmed Life (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) (Hardcover)

This book follows up on the other books by the author, The Not so Big House, and Creating the Not so Big House. When published, those books created a sort of mini-revolution in the "bigger is better approach" to homes.
This book follows up to the original idea of a not so big house by offering attractive and functional details one can add to it.
There is nothing overtly wrong with this book, it is beautifully photographed, but I did not gain a whole lot from reading it. As the title indicates, it's about detail, the stuff that is extra to an already well built house, (ie built in bookshelves, window seats, etc.). Because the possibilities with detail are nearly endless, the author chooses some of her favorites and devotes the book to exploring them. If those details are exactly what you are looking for in your plans, this book is probably worthwhile, albeit pricey, but if the details are not suited to your lifestyle or aesthetic consider skipping it.

120 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living Well in a Little Space, November 7, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) (Hardcover)

There was a time when I wanted and even could say needed a McMansion type house. At the time I had a wife and a house, a boy and a girl, a dog and a cat, a car and a pickup. But the boy and girl grew up, the dog and cat passed on, wife went away and the house wasn't where I wanted to live (or clean, or cool, or heat). So I moved to a less than 1,000 foot house whose age was listed by the tax assessor in 1942 as 'old.' And now I'm in the remodelling mode.

This book is a fairly typical architecture picture book. What makes it unique is that it is filled with houses about the size of mine. It shows the interior treatment that some 23 small house owners have used to get the most effective use out of the small space available.

What I wanted, and what I got out of the book was a lot of ideas about how to do things. I haven't decided just yet what I'm going to do, but re-doing the floor is next. Then the kitchen. I think I want to do something like page 56 of this book.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yet Another Winner from Susanka!, March 1, 2006

By 

Reed Clark (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) (Hardcover)

This book (as all of Susanka's books) is ideal for both the home owner as well as the house hunter.

Regardless of whether you have a large or small home or an expensive high-end or sheet rock box, this book will help you turn your house from a place where you reside into a home where you LIVE.

My only complaint about this book is the lack of floor plans. However, you can download most of the floor plans of the projects in this book by going to Susanka's web site (if you can't find it, just google "notsobighouse").