Contemporary Western Design Review

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(More customer reviews)I am an interior designer. I have been adding to my collection for "lodge" and "mountain" and design which incorporates both contemporary and rustic elements. I was basing my purchase of this book on the front cover, coupled with the phrase, "Contemporary Western Design". Very deceiving. Only one or two pages of this book had photos as contemporary as the cover, and two were exterior photos. Everything else was cowboy chaps and leather and lodgepole. Not happy with this purchase.

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Western design has evolved from the limitations of log-style architecture, simple and rough-hewn lodgepole pine furnishings, brightly colored leather, and Chimayo weavings to stately interiors that are graceful, elegant, and highly polished, incorporating upscale fabrics and ornamentation

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301 Simple Things You Can Do to Sell Your Home Now and For More Money Than You Thought: How to Inexpensively Reorganize, Stage, and Prepare Your Home for Sale Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is extremely useful when you're selling your house. I thought I already knew how to make my house look good, but I hadn't realized half of the things mentioned in this book. It details everything you will need to know, including how to complete minor repairs in your home from replacing a faucet to painting your walls. It also talks about furniture arrangement and getting rid of the clutter. I never realized that something as simple as turning your dining room table at a different angle could make that big of a difference. After seeing the pictures, I believe! This book is filled with before and after pictures (in color) that show what a difference staging the room can have. Clark's book also provides check-lists and tips throughout so that you won't forget anything. The tips she provides are practical and easily implemented. She also includes a section on how to get the most for your money, especially when you are on an extremely tight budget. If you are trying to sell your house, this is THE book to buy. It contains all of the information you will need to get more money for your house.

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Numerous studies show that a house that is well polished on the surface and staged properly will appeal to more buyers, sell faster, and most importantly, sell for more money. You may not be able to improve the market value of your house, but you can improve its marketability. Remember: first impressions count the most. Home Staging is the art of decorating a home to sell fast and for the highest amount. Home stage experts and consultants get thousands of dollars to do what you can easily do inexpensively, with little or no money. Keep in mind this important fact: the way you live in your home and the way you market it for sale are two very different things. In this groundbreaking new book you will learn how small color changes will increase your home's value, minor repairs and de-cluttering tricks, how to rearrange your furniture and art work, decorating tips and ideas, how to look at your house from the buyer's viewpoint, how to add minor accessories, which items stay and what must go, which minor changes will bring you the greatest return, how to bring out a home's best features, table settings, candles, what photos must go and which ones stay, how to minimize problem areas, how to position your house for the marketplace, what music to play, what scents to spray, how to use design psychology techniques, lighting techniques, landscaping secrets, what to do with garages, basements and attics, what color you should never use, how to ensure a positive traffic flow through rooms, how to use mirrors and natural light, and much more. This brand new exhaustively researched book is the ultimate resource for novices and pros alike; it will guide you through every step of the process with hundreds of innovative ideas that you can put to use right away. This book gives you the proven strategies and innovative ideas used by the experts everyday that you can easily do your self. The book also includes a full-color insert packed with photos of before and after shots!

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Use What You Have Decorating : Transform Your Home in One Hour With Ten Simple Design Principles -- Using the Space You Have, the Things You Like, the Budget You Choose Review

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(More customer reviews)A better title for this book would have been "How to Rearrange Your Single Purpose Living Room If You Have a Fireplace And Nice Furniture to Create a Comfortable Conversation Area". She talks exclusively about living rooms and 90% of the problems she shows are solved by moving the furniture closer together so people can hold a conversation comfortably. And not just any living room but a certain kind of formal living room. Almost every room she shows has a fireplace and has a very regular geometric shape. How do I create a focal point if my living room is an octagon with windows on almost every wall and no windowless wall is big enough to put a couch under? Only one room she shows has a television in it. How do I create a comfortable conversation area that also lets me (and my guests) watch television? How can the fireplace be the focal point of the room if I also have a television in it? What if I live in a 800 square foot apartment and don't have the space for the strict separation of duties that she seems to advocate? What if I don't have a family room to put the television in? What if I don't like my furniture or want to add to my collection? While I find her low-cost use-what-you-already-have approach a nice alternative to the spend-$20,000-and-change-everything approach, sometimes just rearranging your furniture and art isn't going to cut it.
Instead what we get are 10 basic design guidelines. And I do mean basic. I honestly have to wonder about all of these people who have fireplaces and don't use them as the focal point of the room. While it seems like what she says is just common sense, I suppose there is some good in having it written down. It just seems like it isn't really enough information to fill an entire book and then charge $16 for it.
I didn't find the lack of color as annoying as some other reviewers but that's because Ward's design consists primarily of physical arrangement; the use of color wouldn't have helped make things much clearer but definitely would have added to the cost of the book. Towards the end of the book she gives some lip service to the use of color and in that part of the book color photographs would have been useful.
It is also somewhat surprising that a book published in 1998 (my edition was published in October 1999) doesn't have a single URL to any of the sources she provides at the end of the book.

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The New Southwest Home: Innovative Ideas for Every Room Review

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(More customer reviews)I love other people's homes because I get decorating tips, art suggestions, perhaps color ideas and room layout pointers for furniture. I also like other people's homes because I'm curious and I want to see where they live.
Shortly after our departure from Minnesota for the long, cold winter and our arrival in Arizona for the balmy sunshine, The New Southwest Home by Suzanne Picket Martinson arrived for review. It couldn't have been a more fortuitous arrival since, after five years in our current home, we are considering a move.
The New Southwest Home is a simply scrumptious book packed with room-by-room tours of stunning and uniquely innovative contemporary and traditional homes that marry style with environment. Whether you're looking for larger windows, unencumbered by coverings, to view the mountains, monastery front doors that signify strength and durability, or a traditional beehive fireplace for cozy warmth, there is something for everyone.
And since the Southwest conjures up visions of warm, neutral earth and desert colors there are many ideas, using that color palette, for the reader to experiment with. From the entryway where guests are invited in, to the heart of the home, the kitchen, and all rooms in between, there is beauty, ideas galore and a sense that Southwest living is a collaboration of beauty and function. The photographs are exceptional and add to the flavor and enjoyment of paging through the book, just for fun or for ideas for your own home.
Armchair Interviews says: The southwest style can be transported anywhere. It's not just for the southwest. Isn't that a fun thought?


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This book offers a room-by-room tour of homes packed with innovation and tradition. Beginning at the front door, you are welcomed by art and elegant furniture. Kitchens are the heart of the home, and ideas abound to make the most functional room in the house also the most inviting. Chapters on bedrooms, bathrooms, entertainment rooms, offices, and playrooms complete the tour and perfectly demonstrate Southwest traditions in transition. Whether you are building, buying, remodeling, or just dreaming, The New Southwest Home is the ultimate idea book.

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