Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home [Hardcover]

Julie Moir Messervy (Author), Sarah Susanka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2006

In this groundbreaking book, noted landscape designer and award-winning writer Julie Moir Messervy and bestselling author Sarah Susanka reveal how to bring house and garden into perfect harmony. After all, who doesn't yearn for a landscape that is as well designed as the interior of their home? In "Outside the Not So Big House," Julie and Sarah teach you everything you need to know about the design concepts essential to extending your home beyond its four walls.
Lushly photographed and illustrated with vivid drawings, "Outside the Not So Big House" explores how to build pathways and journeys in your gardens; how to make the most of your site; how to use details to bring it all together. Twenty homes from across the country aptly illustrate these easy-to-grasp design ideas. Fans of Sarah's previous Not So Big books will be pleased to discover not only Julie's clear, concise prose but also a new vision for creating home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

There are gardening books that tell us what to plant and where. And there are architectural design books that tell us how our homes should look. But never the twain seem to meet. At least not until recently, when the two spaces -- home and garden -- wed harmoniously in the new book, "Outside the Not So Big House" by Sarah Susanka and Julie Moir Messervy.
-- NINA A. KOZIOL, The Chicago Tribune

This beautiful book combines the best qualities of coffee-table attractiveness and excellent advice. It pairs Susanka - author of previous "Not So Big House" books, which emphasize the trend toward smaller homes - and noted landscape and garden designer Julie Moir Messervy. They label their landscaping concept "opening up the relationship of indoors and out," and encourage readers to make the most of each.
--JUDY LOWE, Christian Science Monitor

"Outside the Not So Big House" by Julie Moir Messervy and Sarah Susanka deals with landscaping, planting and hard-scaping everything from entrances to pathways, arbors, patios and streetscapes to make the most of tight spaces. Planting sketches, lush photographs and specific problem-solving advice make it a handy reference, complete with plant names and diagrams. It's a pretty coffee-table topper, too.
--JOY CRAFT, Cincinnati Enquirer

The premise of this book is that home landscaping should be special to bring out the residence's best features (or hide its drawbacks). On my scale of one to 10, this outstanding new book rates a solid 10.
--ROBERT J. BRUSS, Miami Herald

With its plentiful photos and plans, this beautiful book is a useful tool for learning to look at the familiar in new ways.
- JARRETT SMITH Minneapolis Star Tribune

In 'Outside the Not So Big House, ' the authors describe many ways, both large and small, of connecting a house intimately to its land.
--ANNE RAVER, The New York Times
"This perfect collaboration between the talented and articulate Julie Moir Messervy and Sarah Susanka proves what a huge pleasure the landscape of a 'not so big' house can be. A must read..."
--Tom Christopher, columnist, "House & Garden "magazine
"Sarah Susanka and Julie Moir Messervy's clearly written text offers practical advice for designing indoor-outdoor spaces that respond to modern lifestyles. They reveal secrets for achieving the ideal combination of architecture and nature in the home and in the garden."
--James A. van Sweden, Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects and author of "Architecture in the Garden"

About the Author

Julie Moir Messervy is a noted landscape and garden designer, lecturer and principal of Julie Moir Messervy and Associates in Saxtons River, Vermont. Messervy's projects include the Toronto Music Garden, which she designed in collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. she trained with the eminent Japanese garden master Kinsaku Nakane as a Henry Luce Scholar. A columnist for Fine Gardening magazine, she is the author of the award-winning The Inward Garden. Her website is www.juliemoirmesservy.com.

Sarah Susanka's first book, The Not So Big House, launched a revolution in residential architecture and changed the way we think about our homes. Her books have inspired over 1,000,000 readers and received national media attention from The Oprah Winfrey Show and USA TODAY. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her website is www.notsobighouse.com.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561587346
• ISBN-13: 978-1561587346
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many ideas for designing small areas near small houses, July 14, 2006

By 

Michael Bond (Shawnee, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home (Hardcover)

(4.5 Stars) I can see from the other reviews that there exist a wide range of opinions about this book. I fall on the high side, I suppose. I enjoyed the large number of photos and ideas for landscaping small areas - spots even - in the yard around a smaller home.

One, rather unreal aspect was that, most of the homes pictured are modern homes with interesting custom architecture. Some of us live in simple ranch-styles (boxes).

Julie's training and interest in architecture does come through, but I did not find it distracting. In fact, I found the emphasis on the relationship between the interior design of the home and landscape as seen from inside very useful. Most landscaping books present only the view TOWARD the house, not FROM it.

I got several good ideas from this book and learned a bit about design.

74 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An in-depth guide to creating harmony in one's house and garden, February 9, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home (Hardcover)

The collaboration of gardening expert and award-winning writer Julie Moir Messervy and residential architecture expert Sarah Susanka, Outside The Not So Big House: Creating The Landscape Of Home is an in-depth guide to creating harmony in one's house and garden. Detailed diagrams and full-color photography illustrate this highly accessible introduction to design concepts; chapters cover how to play off the habitat of the home, how to instill elements of smooth flow and pleasing aesthetics, working elements of nature into personal design, and much more. Outside The Not So Big House is not written as a handyman's how-to book, and does not delve extensively into the mechanics of how to construct and install garden furnishings, or how to plant, grow, water, and protect vegetation; it focuses on learning and applying elements of style to home and garden landscapes, with a wealth of examples for vivid illustration. An excellent inspirational source for gardeners and landscapers seeking to broaden their grasp of appealing designs, Outside The Not So Big House is very strongly recommended reading.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars pretty much only covers enormous houses, January 10, 2007

By 

bored99 (Hamden, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home (Hardcover)

I find the title of this book incredibly misleading. For her, "not so big" means "integrated with nature" as opposed to, well, "not so big"! Almost all of the houses in here are enormous (without counting I'd say maybe 38 of the 40 she talks about), so it's not very helpful for someone like me with a smaller house. Granted, she says her "starter home" was a large Victorian in Boston with a wrap-around porch and stained glass windows, so her perspective is bound to be different from the average American's! But unfortunately I had a hard time applying her concepts to my smaller home (on a 1/4 acre lot), and found myself heartily annoyed because the title had promised something that perhaps might be more useful to someone like me.