Kelly Hoppen Style: The Golden Rules of Design [Hardcover]

Kelly Hoppen (Author), Vincent Knapp (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004

Simple, sophisticated, yet invitingly luxurious interiors are the hallmark of Kelly Hoppen's unique, award-winning style. In this beautiful decorating handbook, Hoppen imparts the golden rules she has gathered from twenty-five years of innovative designs, giving readers the confidence to bring the same serene elegance into their homes. Each chapter focuses on a different fundamental of good design. For example, the first-Function and Space-is about evaluating the potential of a room before making any decisions. It teaches you to look carefully at the room's aspect, light, size, function, and architecture as a professional interior designer would, and offers inspired solutions for creating the best design for your needs. Using examples of bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms drawn from her fabulous portfolio of projects, Kelly takes us through each room in the home and shares the secrets of her design approach.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Hoppen’s East-meets-West design aesthetic will welcome her latest coffee-table contribution, which focuses on interiors that are not "built on the wow factor," but rather attempt to be "cocoons of security and warmth." Still, the book possesses plenty of glamour. A British interior designer with a line of interior products, a London boutique and offices in London and Paris, Hoppen knows her audience and she gives them the fantasy room tour that they desire. There’s plenty of chrome, dark wood and red roses in the designs pictured, and most rooms are decorated with natural elements, like seashells or flowers. Unfortunately, Hoppen’s style can also feel quite impersonal—it varies little from client to client, so that the habitations pictured often seem more like showrooms than homes. The two sections on lighting provide some of the most useful tips in the book, and Knapp’s striking photographs do a particularly good job of capturing that difficult subject. Hoppen’s spare and innovative approach to design does not extend to her writing, however, which is flat, repetitive and clichéd. Her attempts at description are often over-wrought: "In New Zealand, it was the feeling of wind on my face that inspired curtains so gossamer light that they would feel like wind stroking the skin." The "golden rules" of the subtitle are erratically distributed throughout the book and are equally uneven in their quality and practicality. Many are really glorified captions: "Black lacquered parquet flooring makes a dramatic runner across the white marble floor." Others focus on Hoppen’s area of specialty, managing the client-designer relationship; there are five rules on handling drawings and blueprints alone. Over 250 color photographs.
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About the Author

Kelly Hoppen is a world renowned British designer who has pioneered a simple but opulent style that has resulted in her work being featured in newspapers and magazines across the globe. She has her own line of furniture, paints, carpets, blinds, fabrics, and giftware collection, as well as retail stores. She lives in Britain.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821228994
• ISBN-13: 978-0821228999
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 0.9 x 11.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit pretentious..., February 16, 2005

By 

Maggie S. (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kelly Hoppen Style: The Golden Rules of Design (Hardcover)

I realize this may not be the most helpful, or relevant of comments but... I was actually quite bothered by the tone of this author's writing. She is, in my opinion, elitist and arrogant. With comments such as "many people try to immitate me, unsuccessfully" or statements to the tune of "I'm more skilled in this than most", I had to devote a lot of energy to focusing on the message, and not the messenger.

And speaking of the message, I was drawn to this book because this style really resonates with me. I realize that most of the photographs inside the book demonstrate composition, and not necessarily the way you would find somebody's livingroom arranged on a Thursday morning after they've left for work, but I believe that, although seeing realistically decorated interiors is important to some, personally, I prefer to see design that is devoid of the truly personal touches that we should all be responsible for ourselves. After all, I don't need inspiration to figure out where to place my coffee or newspaper every morning.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Rules for Specific Styling, September 13, 2005

By 

M. LaFleur (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kelly Hoppen Style: The Golden Rules of Design (Hardcover)

I was looking for some basic good advice for smart, clean interior design aesthetics...this book met those standards in a beautiful and sensitively assembled book. My only criticism is that the styling that Kelly shows is a high design with contemporary attributes - not very relevant to many other kinds of decorating challenges. I have an early 1900s home with standard ceilings, wood trim and smallish rooms - not very similar at all to Kelly's gorgeous and mostly spacious examples. I will have to work a little harder to envision the golden rules being applied to my humble abode.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Minimalist Chic, November 18, 2004

By 

Kae (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kelly Hoppen Style: The Golden Rules of Design (Hardcover)

I found the photographs in this book to be beautifully presented. It is a minimalist's dream book, clean lines, nothing over done, with rooms full of texture, beauty, and elegance. Nothing overstated, like a fine aged wine, or great architecture. The author, Kelly Hoppen, offers refined elegance, no kitsch.