Decorating with Books (House Beautiful)

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About Decorating With Books

Product Description From House Beautiful comes a worthy addition to any decorator's library--a stylish guide on making books a part of your home décor.   Opening the pages of a book can instantly carry you off to another world. But did you realize that, open or closed, books can also make your real world--your home--more fabulous? As legendary designer Billy Baldwin pointed out, they're “the best decoration,” capable of bringing incredible warmth, color, and character to a room. From grand bookcases in home libraries to casual stacks artfully arrayed on chairs, House Beautiful presents countless eye-catching ideas for displaying and arranging your hardcovers, paperbacks, encyclopedias, and even valuable first editions. Useful tips shed light on how to organize a large collection; situate bookcases in the room for the best effect; and make the most of books' appealing visual and tactile qualities. From traditional interpretations to contemporary visions--such as putting a book on a pedestal as an objet d'art--these concepts write a new page in design.A Selection of the Homestyle Book Club. From Publishers Weekly Typically, books are valued for what's written inside them. But as a collection, they also tell us a lot about their owner, which is why Hueston, an author and contributing editor at Country Living magazine, believes they are so effective as decoration. Here, she demonstrates how a display or library of books can enhance the look of almost every room in your home. Using copious photographs to illustrate her sparse text, she captures the aesthetic appeal of books and how they add color and texture to a space. With a broad sensibility that expands far beyond traditional configurations, Hueston encourages readers to keep books "stacked on an ottoman, piled on the floor, lined up on a bench, or ... draped over a ladder," in addition to keeping books "confined to shelves and tabletops." Judging books by their covers, as it were-as objet d'art, without regard to content-Hueston includes tips for displaying, organizing and caring for book collections of any size, which should give any book owner more than one new way to enjoy their favorite titles. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist For those who adore books and all forms of the printed word, the very idea of decorating with them might seem to akin to sacrilege. Yet, after a few paragraphs, House Beautiful magazine contributor Hueston persuades with a few chosen quotes--like Jorge Luis Borges' "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." The ways in which books can become a vibrant design theme are multiple--stacked on ottomans, piled on floors, lined up on benches, and draped over ladders. Each chapter delves into specific ideas: libraries, throughout the house, as focal points, as architecture, and practical matters like shelving, lighting, and caring for books. And each features a few pages called "a closer look," a few-page pictorial examination of specific design details in a room or two, pointing out, for instance, a London antique armoire-credenza perched on a black plinth. Remember that in the most physical of senses books are three-dimensional objects possessing a variety of colors, sizes, and textures. Barbara Jacobs Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved