Synopses & Reviews
Our home plays a central role in our lives. We want our homes to reflect our individual tastes and personalities, and to be a place of retreat from the stresses of modern living. Today many of us choose to work from home and we also want to relax, eat, sleep, and entertain there. A home that is comfortable, well-designed, efficient living space is both pleasing to the senses and necessary for our physical and emotional well-being. Containing more than 500 inspiring color photographs and filled with practical advice on subjects ranging from soundproofing to storage, New Decorator invites you to look beyond copying the styles featured in the book, selecting those elements that are personally appealing, and using them as starting points in creating your ideal home. Julia and Nicholas Barnard, who between them have many years' experience as homemakers and professional design consultants, present New Decorator as the only book on interior design to give equal weight to the practical, decorative, and sensuous considerations that lie at the heart of every comfortable home.
Review
An ABC's of home decorating. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
Review
There is something very charming about this little book. It has that come hither, read-me appeal. Filled with page after page of wonderful advice that every home decorator--pro or novice--will relish. You'll bloom with enthusiasm over all the wonderful ideas tucked inside this treasure. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Review
Refreshingly...gorgeous pictures accompanied by helpful text. It's a book you won't want to just flip through once, but refer to often. (Baton Rouge Advocate)
About the Author
Julia Barnard is a professional stylist and designer who spent eight years with the Laura Ashley Group before taking up a position at Charleston Farmhouse, former home of the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. She counts their work as a major influence on her own creative development, and has brought a similarly distinctive and personal style of living to her present home, a converted 18th-century carriage house in Somerset, England. Nicholas Barnard joined the Laura Ashley Group after studying at Cambridge University, and worked alongside Sir Bernard Ashley, helping to launch the company's home furnishings catalog. The author of DK's best-selling Complete Home Decorating Book, Nicholas is a regular contributor to magazines, such as House & Garden, and Country Living.