The New Cottage Home: A Tour of Unique American Dwellings (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It takes only a drive through any typical American subdivision to confirm that in recent decades the average house has grown in size, narrowed in style, and shrunk in vision. Jim Tolpin's The New Cottage Home represents a return to a previous school of thought about living space: that it should be no larger than is needed, conservative of resources, rich in detail-- in short, that it should pay homage to honest architecture and fine craftsmanship, not to conspicuous consumption. The 30 cottage homes pictured, all recently built, have the slightly unfair advantage of almost magically beautiful locations, but each has a unique character and many cottage-style nooks and crannies: the converted island pump house with sod roof, the 600-square-foot woodland temple, the salvage-built house on the Kansas prairie, the off-the-grid shingled hilltop house built to take advantage of natural light. Tolpin does an excellent job of pulling together the elements of each that make it a cottage and make it appealing. In his own words, "These houses seem to call as much to the heart as to the head, enriching us more with the highs of nature than with the highs of technology. These are the new American cottages that embody the ancient storybook dream, and the kind of homes that many of us have always dreamed of living in."

From Library Journal

The cottage, as defined in Cottage Style, is "a usually small vacation home"; however, both books show how cottage style can be used for a permanent home as well. Tolpin covers the history of cottages as they evolved from serfs' homes in England to the Cape Cod style in the United States and on into the 20th century. The main purpose is to show how contemporary architects, using modern design techniques, have developed the cottage style for contemporary living. Architects, interior designers, and students will find this book especially useful for its last chapter on designing a cottage home. Amateurs, meanwhile, will find Cottage Style a more accessible volume for personal home design. As usual, the publisher provides numerous photographs to illustrate how to create a cottage look, with examples of window treatments, flooring, and wall coverings, as well as individual examples of various cottage styles from beach house to mountain cabin for every room of the home.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Taunton; illustrated edition edition (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561582298
• ISBN-13: 978-1561582297
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #526,703 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

137 of 140 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A young couples hopes and dreams, November 25, 1999

By	"raeroo" (North Texas) - See all my reviews

Browsing through a big name book store one day, I happened upon "The New Cottage Home". I'm not sure why I picked it up because having a home of our own is so far into the future for my husband and I, that I try not to tease myself and in turn not think about it. But I flipped through the book anyway and fell in love with it almost immediatly! We rushed home knowing that Amazon would be cheaper and ordered it that same day. I was amazed at all the tricky, unique architecture ideas and styles. It is filled with easy-to-understand language and descriptions. I also found it refreshing that Mr. Tolpin wrote like he was speaking to you as if in conversation and not at a college lecture. He covers many different home styles and addresses the importance of the use of indiginous materials to tie the look of your home to your surroundings. I like how he stresses trying to make your home look as if it "grew" where you built it and has been there forever. Along with little pieces of history used as teaching tools he also describes many of the homes attributes from an artistic point-of-view(ie. the use of vertical windows ties in with the tall pines surrounding the home, hiding the garage from frontal view of the home and focusing on the "human sized entry way" makes a person feel welcome and curious to step into the cozyness of your home etc...). I like how he included tight- budget homes reliant on alternative sources of energy all the way to the retiring couple who needed less space but were financially ready to spend half a billion but knew they didn't need or have to. In conclusion, I would recommend this book for anyone interested in building, dreaming(!) or looking for decorating ideas that really work. A definate must-have!

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cottage style with 20th century appreciation of space., August 12, 1998

By A Customer

New Cottage Home took me to some of the homes I knew I was always meant to live in. There's a wonderful section of the history of the cottage style, and what design details create that warm feeling when we see such a home. Modern cottages are meant to retain the structural and detail essentials of the older cottages but to allow more interior open space due to modern materials and construction methods. Most of the book is given over to examples, with the architects names and addresses listed (very useful!). Some of the examples did not stick to the "cottage essentials" in my mind, but the rest were so charming it made up for it. I hope more architects see this book and take up the challenge of designing the small, detail-oriented home that singles and empty nesters would be proud to live in. I'm already imagining my cottage garden.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Cottage Home, March 13, 2000

By A Customer

This outstanding book offers a bounty of gorgeous four-color photos and descriptive "plank and nail" text explaining the design and construction of each cottage. I've referred to this book countless times while brainstorming my own cottage design. Each time I open the book, I find another detail that I hadn't seen previously. The New Cottage Home offers an elequent objection to the bland, overbuilt, pretentious developer homes that increasingly blight America's landscape.