Customer Reviews

Terence Conran Small Spaces: Inspiring Ideas and Creative Solutions

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a must for anyone who lives in a small space and is searching for ways to make it more efficient and attractive. These ideas work well and not all of them cost a fortune to implement. My personal favourite was the tree house - it brings out the inner child in each of us no matter what biological age we may be. Not that everyone would want a tree house, but the idea was purely unique and creative.

This book has beautiful coloured photography and is ideally suited to apartment dwellers or those working in a small office space that is in need of a make-over. The author has put together a book which displays talent, creativity, and an expert eye for design and colour. "Small Spaces" is highly recommended and deserving of a five-star rating.

I place this 3rd among the 7 "decorating small spaces" books I bought. This is the only exception to my objections about those focusing on European dwellings. Conran features London & Paris apts (plus Hong Kong & an Italian stable!), but unlike others, some ideas are adaptable in America. Most units are 300-400 sq. ft.; the largest is 1000. Photos are helpful, except for a few so arty they require a double take to figure out what you're actually supposed to be seeing. Charming Intro portrays creative "expansion" of tiny areas-everything from a 1940s mobile van to a treehouse.

Because I love Conran's books (and design sense in general), i was very, very disappointed when I got this book. It is very short on fresh ideas, and, perhaps even more disappointing, the photos aren't as varied and interesting as one usually finds in a Conran book. I flipped through when I first got this and saw lots of hallways and beds. I thought, 'well, there's probably more here so don't judge it right away.' I paged through and still found lots of hallways and beds. Very little in this book. Very disappointing.

This book is jam-packed with creative ideas for small spaces. However, I felt the majority of the designs were ultra-modern and had a sterile feeling. (It could be that my personal taste runs in a different direction than the author's!) Having said that, I really appreciated the floor plans and interesting case studies, and I'm sure I'll be referring to this book again and again.

Another fine piece of work by Conran. Creative ideas; excellent, diverse photos that I have not seen in other books; and well-written, meaningful text characterize the book and are hallmarks of the Conran series. Case studies include floor plans, which i find helpful.

Grew up in a small home and have lived in small homes most of my life. What I liked about this book is there are enough examples of clean simple living spaces and not the typical older small home in the states where rooms are small and almost claustrophobic. Like the light colours of some of the rooms and the airiness. And yes many homes shown are ultra modern or what some may see as 'less is more' and this is what appealed to me.

I needed ideas for a new place that would be between 400-700 square feet in size with no wasted space, where building up would create a sense of roominess and where bedrooms, kitchen and living room/dining room combinations would have tons of hidden storage space so that 'stuff' wasn't all over the place. And this book delivered.

And yes, homes in Europe and Asia are shown, and I am glad, because they have been doing small open living spaces so well for so long. And energy efficient in style as well.

I have loved this book for years! The pictures are great- so many unique uses of space, all very high quality design. The Spaces: Modern, clean look, colors, nooks, hidden spaces, sculptural quality, examples from all over the world, inspiring, creative. Not a book that *instructs* you how to use *your* small space, unless you have the $$$ or the skills to design and build this stuff for your own place, but I wasn't looking for that. Great coffee table book. Spend full hours just looking at the beautiful, full color photos, bookmarking pages and showing rooms to your friends/significant other. Pages you can see on Amazon don't do it justice. Great book, very well done.

:)

Ideas aren't as practical as would have hoped, but it did spark some creativity for me to do with what I have

Banal works. This book is not what I was expecting. Poor creativity to deal with small spaces. Don't spend money with this book.