Customer Reviews

Meditations on Design: Reinventing Your Home With Style and Simplicity

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This book is a keeper. As soon as I finished it, I reread it. On the advice of a friend, some years ago I signed up for one of John Wheatman's University of California, Berkeley classes. Enthusiastic and gracious, Mr. Wheatman made decorating your home or apartment fun. And every time I move, I pull out my notes from his class and apply his principles to my new place. Those principles, 21 of which are explained and illustrated in this book, create a warm, rich, serene environment you are happy to come home to. Simplicity and elegance are the keys to his style. The book's photographs show rooms that are not "done" but rooms that evolve over time, growing with their owners. Unlike many cold modern rooms, your first reaction to most of these rooms is a feeling of warmth, followed by a desire to settle in. Even though I love bright colors, I learned to appreciate the depth he could create even in a monochromatic color scheme by the use of shadows, textures, and reflections. Again, the well-chosen photos in the book effectively illustrate this. As our "final exam", we were invited to Mr. and Mrs. Wheatman's home to see how they put these principles to work. Several photographs of the interior of their home allow you to share that experience. You'll enjoy the book. And come away with some new decorating ideas you've heard/read nowhere else.

Redo a home with added knowledge of modern design options and patterns with this book, which provides the interior designer author's basic design principles. From arranging collections and using light to maximum effectiveness to using and creating space, this is packed with practical applications.

EXCELLENT! In just the forward the author speaks volumes... There are no "rules", come to a project with an open mind rather than a list of shoulds and should nots based in showroom philosophy....it is not necessary to cast off everything you own and buy everything new...if you worry about a nameless, faceless prospective buyer and resale then you cheat yourself out of the comfort of a home that meets your own needs now....a home is more than an interior space...it needs to encompass your entry, your landscaping, the view of your neighborhood....people need to let go of the idea that a designer "does" a room and then it is "done"....a good home changes and evolves over time as we humans do...a good home is never "done"....it grows with the people who occupy it...

The book then goes on to offer 21 principles to be taken into account while you delve into the enjoyable and gratifying task of creating your own personal space.Photographer David Wakely does an excellent job of capturing the essence of the rooms. The author intentionally "included a number of David's nature photographs" so that they might inspire people to open up to the wonders of the outside world, encouraging people to reproduce such beauty in their own homes.

"Your home is your corner of the world. It should both enrich your life and enable you to share your gifts with others. Designing your space is all about who you are and what you enjoy. My hope in writing this book, is to inspire you to use home design ~ something we al must do in one fashion or another ~ as means of creative self expression..."

A lovely book for those who are open to receive....

I have a collection of books on interior design and this is one of my favorites because he covers the basics of what makes a room work for you. The simplicity of his presentation gave me volumes of ideas to work with, and I felt like I had some solid tools for creating my rooms into unique atmospheres that fed my soul. I used one of the tools right after reading the book and "edited" my master bedroom. It now has a much more calm and serene feeling to it and all I did was remove the furniture and small items that made it feel so cluttered.

This is a beautiful book! The production quality is excellent and the content reflects the subject matter. The photographs alone are worth the price, but they are just icing on the cake. Well worth it!

Among the many interior design books I've purchased, this is probably the best of the lot. It's not wordy or very long compared to other design books, but the photography is outstanding and the layout is nicely done.

Wheatman has taught classes in interior design and it shows. The book seems the distillation of all his years of teaching and private practice. Each word seems carefully chosen, like the accompanying photos and the actual design of the homes. I usually dislike authors with too many prescriptive rules, but his focus isn't on a particular style he's enamored of, but on a philosophy of how to make a home a better reflection of the individuals living in it.

Wheatman does an excellent job of using details from the photographs to illustrate concepts and his thought process. Nothing is wasted. This is also reflected in his focus on the importance of culling uneeded possessions, using what you already have in new ways, and focusing on creating a living space rather than "a look." Although it's a slim volume, this is probably the most influencial of the interior design books that I've seen, and I often refer to it for ideas.

As a professional interior designer for 20 yrs., I've unknowingly shared many of Mr. Wheatman's principles. These design principles are important today but even more so as the technological world advances around us. Visions of sparse, sterile, synthetic environments that often are presented as homes of the future are not what human beings are about; we need to open ourselves to Mr. Wheatman's philosophies and seek to apply them in this new cyberworld. Bravo on a book well-written!

I love this book because John Wheatman does not assume we all have huge houses or an endless supply of money. This is one of the few decorating books I pick up to read occasionally. Most of the others, I merely look at the pictures. John Wheatman explains how one can have a classy and comfortable house as he mixes practical and beautiful pieces of furniture. I wanted all the furniture in his book--from the chairs to the big storage chests.

Based on the previous positive reviews - in particular by a professional interior designer -, I decided to buy Wheatman's book. When the book was delivered, my secretary opened the parcel and looked through the book mumbling "what a waste of money". I have to agree: The pictures have generally no information. About 20% of all pictures show foggy/misty ponds, a flower in a vase, the ocean. Why that? To reflect the style of Wheatman's writing which is somewhat poetic, that is describing the higher ideals of interior design in a romantic manner. It reminds me on these $... books you can buy in tobacco stores at major European train stations: Cheap photographs of misty valleys accompanied by a sentence encouraging you "to rest in yourself". Definitely not what I expect from an interior design book. The remaining 80% of the book deal with variations of the cover picture: Wheatman seems to have very limited resources in his design. In summary, I suggest not to buy this book, unless you like the meditative writings available at the train stations.....

This is a wonderful book and my favorite interior design book. It is filled with inspiring but simple ideas to help make that connection between your heart and soul. The author's pictures of his own home made me want to move right in!