Customer Reviews

Style on a Budget: Affordable Ideas for a Relaxed Home

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I was looking for a book with inspirational pictures of rooms that would be accessible, clever and plenty of fodder for thought. THIS book has at least two pictures of dirty old shoes plopped on dirty tile or stacked onto an utilitarian steel rack as an example of "style." Style to whom? I don't want to decorate with shoes.

I have found books on decorating to be either stuck on some weird aesthetic -- like this book's fascination with putting everyday items on display in dirty or messy surroundings -- or to be too focused on architectural detail instead of the decorating itself. The reality is that my house is of new construction and looks frighteningly like other people's houses and it is almost devoid of the type of architectural detail lauded in such books. What am I supposed to do? Tear down a wall? That's not decorating to me, that's construction.

Sometimes these books can redeem themselves by offering interesting commentary that can spark good ideas, but, not in this case.

Do not waste your money unless you are interested in decorating with your worn out sneakers.

The book may appeal to someone with cheap tastes but for me to many of the examples were cluttered and to 'cute'. Or maybe I was simply looking for a book that had more style, or a book that would be more California or NYC friendly.

The initial photographs on each new chapter pages whet my appetite and made me assume that what would follow would be more of the same, but alas I would turn the page and be met with more cheap style ideas, if one can even use the word style. The books cover suggests a book that has style and a zen mode, but is far from either for me. The majority of rooms in the photographs in the book are more cluttered and cute.