Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) (Hardcover)

by Sarah Susanka (Author), Marc Vassallo (Author) "Shortly after I started my architectural training I moved into a house with 15 other architecture students..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Sarah Susanka has teamed up with design writer Marc Vassallo to help her readers incorporate the details of not-so-big living into their decorating schemes...As the 25 homes featured in the book demonstrate, such additions combine good looks with function to unify and enhance interior spaces."- Boston Globe

"Susanka has become the poster girl for an architectural movement that worships scale and simplicity. Here she and Vassallo go inside 23 not-so-big houses to illustrate the details -- built-in storage, diverse ceiling heights and materials, color, simplicity, tricks of the eye -- that not only give a house personality but also make it more livable."
- Lynette Evans, San Francisco Chronicle --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
In her latest book, best-selling author of The Not So Big House Sarah Susanka teams up with architectural design writer Marc Vassallo to expand upon the message that has resonated with over a million homeowners and builders across the country: opting for personalized, well-crafted, thoughtfully designed spaces over superfluous square footage results in a home that comforts and nourishes those who live there.
In Inside The Not So Big House, Susanka and Vassallo focus their lens on the tangible and sometimes intangible details that bring an otherwise ordinary home to life. Incorporating such details as dropped ceilings, built-in shelves, pocket doors, window seats, and well-placed alcoves infuses a home with the character of its owners and conveys a uniqueness that's mising in many homes built or remodeled today. From Rhode Island to San Diego, the 23 homes featured here illustrate exceptional attention to detail. Each offers inspiration for those building or remodeling to transform their home into an expression of all that is important to them. "Detail is everything in design. Sarah Susanka proves it again with this, her latest book."
--John Wheatman, author, Meditations on Design and A Good House Is Never Done

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Taunton (September 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561586811
• ISBN-13: 978-1561586813
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #76,889 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for Everyone, February 22, 2006

By	Charmed Life (NJ) - See all my reviews

This book follows up on the other books by the author, The Not so Big House, and Creating the Not so Big House. When published, those books created a sort of mini-revolution in the "bigger is better approach" to homes.
This book follows up to the original idea of a not so big house by offering attractive and functional details one can add to it.
There is nothing overtly wrong with this book, it is beautifully photographed, but I did not gain a whole lot from reading it. As the title indicates, it's about detail, the stuff that is extra to an already well built house, (ie built in bookshelves, window seats, etc.). Because the possibilities with detail are nearly endless, the author chooses some of her favorites and devotes the book to exploring them. If those details are exactly what you are looking for in your plans, this book is probably worthwhile, albeit pricey, but if the details are not suited to your lifestyle or aesthetic consider skipping it.

101 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living Well in a Little Space, November 7, 2005

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There was a time when I wanted and even could say needed a McMansion type house. At the time I had a wife and a house, a boy and a girl, a dog and a cat, a car and a pickup. But the boy and girl grew up, the dog and cat passed on, wife went away and the house wasn't where I wanted to live (or clean, or cool, or heat). So I moved to a less than 1,000 foot house whose age was listed by the tax assessor in 1942 as 'old.' And now I'm in the remodelling mode.

This book is a fairly typical architecture picture book. What makes it unique is that it is filled with houses about the size of mine. It shows the interior treatment that some 23 small house owners have used to get the most effective use out of the small space available.

What I wanted, and what I got out of the book was a lot of ideas about how to do things. I haven't decided just yet what I'm going to do, but re-doing the floor is next. Then the kitchen. I think I want to do something like page 56 of this book.

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Less is most definitely more, March 21, 2006

By	Michael W. Hawkins (Murrayville, Ga., USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In this astonishing book, which is filled with wonderful ideas, as well as being a beautiful coffee table book, we are granted an inside look at a truly new concept in home design in our age of teardowns and mega-mansions, a concept that smaller can be more satisfying than larger, if properly done. Here we are presented with something seldom viewed these days, how to make a house a home. There is something for every taste herein, and it is even multi-cultural, with oriental viewpoints as well on both furniture and flow of the home. Spend some time with this excellent book to see how every size home can be made more personal and beautiful, no matter what the budget.