What Color Is Your Slipcover?: How Discovering Your Design Personality Can Help You Create the Home of Your Dreams [Paperback]

Denny Daikeler (Author), Kate White (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2004

Decorate your home so that it expresses your personality, suits your lifestyle, and nourishes your spirit.

Too many people design the interiors of their homes based on what they see in magazines, what they think will impress others, or what an interior decorator recommends. As a result, Denny Daikeler explains, they wind up with living quarters that don't suit them - in which they can never truly be happy. In this unique book, this gifted designer shows you how to design a living space that is created especially for you - a home that will become your sanctuary in the world.

Using a remarkable series of exercises she has developed working with numerous clients and her design students, Daikeler helps you to:
- Discover how your choice of a favorite household object is profoundly connected to your inner being
- Understand how a carefully thought out living space can heal you emotionally and physically
·- Learn about the support that environment can give to relationships, work, and play
- Discover your own inner blueprint and develop your personal style

An invigorating mix of feng shui and The Artist's Way, What Color Is Your Slipcover? Introduces a soulful approach to interior design that will enable you to create a home that is at once a refuge from stress, a place to fulfill your creative and spiritual needs, and a deeply satisfying source of beauty and comfort.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Denny Daikeler, A.S.I.D., brings to this book more than 40 years' experience as an interior designer and an ordained minister. The two vocations came together for her in a spiritual approach to interior design. She gives workshops around the country on her unique interior design technique, and she has made guest appearances on HGTB and the Discovery Channel. She currently resides in North Wales, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (September 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579549497
• ISBN-13: 978-1579549497
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,434,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fun and Easy Read, November 15, 2004

By 

Kirsten Woody (Bel Air, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Color Is Your Slipcover?: How Discovering Your Design Personality Can Help You Create the Home of Your Dreams (Paperback)

Do you ever look around a room in your house and think: I never liked this room; it's too ___________ (fill in the blank!). That's how I was, but I was never sure what to do about it. This book is wonderful for helping you discover the styles and atmosphere you want your room to have and then how to create it.

I love how the author emphasizes that your home should be decorated with what makes YOU happy, not what the latest trend is. She has a very straightforward approach for helping you come up with your design. Her many examples of past clients' "problems" and their solutions makes the book fun to read as well as informative. Her book never gets bogged down in technical jargon.

I highly recommend this book. My husband and I used this process in one of our rooms and we love the result; it's one of our favorite rooms in the house. We are now eagerly working on another one!

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty Inside and Out, November 11, 2004

By 

Francine Grabowski "Co-author of The Best Die... (Collingswood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Color Is Your Slipcover?: How Discovering Your Design Personality Can Help You Create the Home of Your Dreams (Paperback)

Thank you Denny for writing a book that makes a connection between my home and my joy, my creativity, my spirituality and my love of family and friends. In What Color Is Your Slipcover, Denny Daikeler gently showed me a process of self-discovery that brings beauty to my life inside and out. Denny writes: "I will attempt to lead you to yourself and to the home life your soul deserves."

And it is easy and fun. I did the Picture Journal Exercise and discovered that almost every one of my picture had circles. I still cannot believe the impact of knowing this. Because here I am, walking through my home filled with a wonderful sense of comfort, a feeling of "I am home" as I look at the sloping backs of my dining room chairs, the rounded corners of the dining room tables, the wrought iron swirls at the base of my husband's desk, and the unusual round chair in my living room. The roundness somehow touches my spirit. I am home.

BONUS
And What Color is Your Slipcover is good for relationships too. Tony (my dear husband) and I did the process together. We have never discussed furniture or colors. It really is not an interest to him. But he loves his map desk and our living room filled with music. Last year, he gave me the most beautiful anniversary card. I am going to frame it. He said to me: "I knew you would love the card." I placed in on my mantle. It was the exact color of the walls and furniture, with swirls of course.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual journey and decorating combined, March 2, 2005

By 

leo1960 (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Color Is Your Slipcover?: How Discovering Your Design Personality Can Help You Create the Home of Your Dreams (Paperback)

Finally, decorating makes sense! While some decorators approach decorating piecemeal, this author takes a much broader view. The author's premise is that you must understand what you want before you start actually decorating. The book then takes you on a journey of discovery.

There are several wonderful exercises in the book, from a completely new perspective. For example, many decorators will tell you to cut out pictures of rooms you like. But what if all the rooms you like don't fit your house, or your budget? Or what if you can't find pictures of rooms you like? Denny's approach is different. She has you create a picture journal, not simply of rooms you like, but of anything you like--rooms, jewelery, scenery, clothing, etc. Then, you look through and find themes which you can then translate to, and make come alive in, your home.

Typically when I read a book with exercies, I find them burdensome or dull. These are different; they are easy and fun. Many exercises are aimed at discovering your hidden desires, likes, and needs. What's the point in designing a beautiful room if it doesn't meet your specific needs? This book helps you dig, and uncover what you want and what may have been missing in your home/life for years.

There's also a wonderful section devoted to clutter.

It's hard to believe that a decorating book can work so well for an individual. But it does. I read the book somewhat quickly then started again and did (most of) the exercies. This book is great for anyone interested in a fresh, individualized, fun approach to decorating.