The Emotional House: How Redesigning Your Home Can Change Your Life (Paperback)

~ Dawn Ritchie (Author), (Author) "If you've ever shopped for a home, you may have heard the phrase "this is an emotional house" from some realtors..." (more)
Key Phrases: design binder, comfort crutches, emotional house, House Rule, Functions Table, Possessing Personal Style (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Most of us spend more time in our homes than any other place. For better or worse, this highly personal space has a powerful influence over the way we feel about our lives. Based on the program used by the authors in their successful home consulting practice, this book teaches readers to use psychological and design principles to transform their houses into nurturing and supportive living.

The exercises in the book encourage readers to list the activities they engage in, room by room, in their homes. Readers learn how to analyze each room's size, layout, and decor and how to read their psychological and physiological reactions to the various spaces. Then the book offers readers a step-by-step process they can use to figure out what they and their living companions-family members, roommates, and even pets-want out of each room. Based on these discoveries, the book proposes cleaning, organizing, and decorating ideas guaranteed to make each room function better.

"This book unlocks the door on home design, giving you keys to creating a home that lifts your spirits and agrees with your lifestyle." -Candice Olson,one of North America's top designers and host of Divine Design on HGTV

About the Author

Kathryn L. Robyn is the author of Spiritual Housecleaning. She is a consultant on healthy home living, master in Reiki healing, and an editor for a national healthcare magazine. She has led transformational workshops and facilitated support groups in healing issues for over twenty years, working with organizations such as Child Help USA, the Alcoholism Center for Women, and Alive and Well, Inc., as well as in private practice. Her support groups for artists and adult survivors of child abuse and her popular workshops help individuals transform defeating habits, reframe personal obstacles, and repair trauma and spirit-related injuries. She offers workshops and personal consultations for those wishing to create a more supportive, nurturing, and inspiring home.

Dawn Ritchie is a consultant and a television writer and producer with credits on over fifteen network and syndicated dramatic series. Codeveloper of the Emotional House Program, she brings her visionary design, personal style development and life-skills techniques to the book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 213 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications (April 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572244089
• ISBN-13: 978-1572244085
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,647 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #71 in	Books > Home & Garden > Interior Design > Decorating
  #73 in	Books > Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Decorating
  #90 in	Books > Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Household Hints

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Changed My Life!, May 19, 2005

By	Cynthia T. Paulson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I tried the exercises in the book and for the first time in my life I have a great color scheme in my house! I did three rooms and love them all! The colors work with my furniture and friends have even commented on it. One room we never used and now we are in there all the time. It is warm and cozy and you feel good in there. Guess that is what the authors meant by color therapy!"

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A LIGHT BULB MOMENT BOOK, September 17, 2005

By	dee (Toronto, ON CANADA) - See all my reviews

The Emotional House is no ordinary design book. Doing the exercises inside will set off a series of light bulb moments for anyone who tries them. This book offers amazing action plans and goal-setting exercises that go way beyond designing. There are plenty of good design techniques too (I really enjoyed the colour therapy and personal style exercises) but it was learning about the emotional functions of rooms that was the real eye-opener. I finally understood some of the issues in my home and fixed them.

Some other reviewer mentioned something or other about altars instead of focal points(?). I don't remember anything like that and I read this book cover to cover. Focal points were discussed throughout as a way to anchor the emotional function of the room (according to Amazon's Search Inside This Book option, focal points appear on 15 different pages). Perhaps that reviewer mixed this book up with another? From my perspective, The Emotional House is well worth the read.

I'd sum it up as: the road to a great life starts in the home, so fix your place up!

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this book..., August 18, 2005

By	cybra "cybra" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

After reading and looking through many different style books and interior design advice books, I found that I was confused about how to pull different ideas, doodads and furniture I already have together. Ms. Robyn has a gentle and clear writing style and a way of helping the reader to assess HOW enjoyable one's house is and WHY a room is, or isn't, working. A brief example... do you have a formal style but live casually? There is going to be a clash that will create tension. This book is structured aroound some very basic rules, that will help any style you choose to work well.