Southern Style [Hardcover]

Mark Mayfield (Author), Southern Accents Magazine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1999

This gorgeous book of interiors, lavishly illustrated with 250 photographs, provides ideas for bringing the South's flair for comfortable yet elegant living to your home. Whether you are decorating a dining room, kitchen, bedroom, or living room, Southern Style will help you enhance your surroundings. A chapter on accessories shows how to incorporate individual touches that say "welcome" in a way that only the South can.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The American South has long been renowned for its hospitality and gracious living, and these qualities are reflected in the region's distinct interior design. Southern Style captures this easygoing yet stylish feel of Southern homes designed to provide comfort the family as well as entertain guests.

Author Mark Mayfield and the editors of Southern Accents magazine have a firm grasp of the essence of Southern style and provide guidance on working the style into your own home; gorgeous full-color photographs provide the visual inspiration. The authors point out that one of the most obvious influences on the South's interiors has been the area's weather and environment. A sleeping-porch bedroom with mosquito netting over the bed, a large verandah stretching the length of the house, a living room filled with floral prints echoing the lush gardens outside are all hallmarks of Southern style. Historical changes have also helped defined the South's present decorating style. While some Southern traditions and trends have fallen by the wayside--for example, the trend of having a formal living room--others, such as formal dining rooms, have abided for decades because of their practical nature or cultural importance.

After a look at the interiors of Southern homes, including living, dining, and bedrooms, the book moves outside to take a look at Southern architecture and gardens. There's also a chapter regarding the South's efforts to preserve old architecture and interiors, as well as a listing of historic Southern homes and museums. A resource guide at the end of the book lists Southern interiors shops by state. The authors of Southern Style have done an impressive job of defining the elegant, warm design style of the South, one that all homeowners, not just Southerners, may want to integrate into their homes. --Kris Law

About the Author

Mark Mayfield is the Managing Editor at SOUTHERN ACCENTS, a magazine focusing on the interior design, gardens and lifestyle of the American South.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch (November 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821226118
• ISBN-13: 978-0821226117
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #864,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, November 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Southern Style (Hardcover)

I have been an avid reader of Southern Accents for years. I found their book to be well written and filled with the beautiful photography I've come to expect from the magazine. Chapters are broken out room-by-room, making it an easy reference guide. The book is one that you'll not only keep out on the coffee table, but also will refer to often for great decorating ideas.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars southern style, November 28, 1999

By 

David Feld - See all my reviews

This review is from: Southern Style (Hardcover)

I found Southern Style a great compedium of how design in the South has evolved. As an editor at a competing magazine, I wish more publications would give us a backward glance at their previously featured work. This book shows not only where southern design has been, but the way past photography and styling techniques have changed. I wish more magazines would publish such a compendium. It would save us all a lot of space with hoarding decorating magazines. Oh admit it,we all do it. Also great text, with deep insight into it's subject matter.

1.0 out of 5 stars Big disappointment, November 24, 1999

By 

Colleen Martin (Collierville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Southern Style (Hardcover)

I eagerly awaited Southern Style's release ll/l only to find that the content was repeated from past issues of Southern Accents. I was looking forward to new pictures/content but found very little that wasn't in old magazines. I think the editors could have at least given us different camera shots of those same rooms. Big disappointment.