Synopses & Reviews
Living large for many people has come to mean just that -- living in a large house. That dream home may be an open Soho loft, a spacious suburban mansion, or an echoing country estate -- but all these residences present challenges often unanticipated by the homeowner.
Now at last there is a comprehensive resource of solutions, ideas and insights aimed specifically at those who want to make large spaces livable and welcoming rather than overwhelming. Big Home, Big Challenge is the dreamer's, homeowner's and designer's guide to confronting and conquering the challenges presented by today's larger living spaces.
This resource provides just the answers you've been looking for on issues such as:
* Banishing that "lost in space" feeling
* Bringing high ceilings down to human scale
* Breaking up endless hallways
* Adding details that make a large house a home
With expert advice on architectural solutions, furniture, lighting, art and accessories, paint colors and wallpaper and much more, Big Home, Big Challenge features the work of some of today's most recognized decorators, architects and other top design professionals. It offers 180-plus color photographs that prove it is possible to live large without sacrificing warmth, intimacy, and human scale.
Written by Kira Wilson Gould, an arbiter of tasteful design and editor/publisher of To the Trade magazine, Big Home, Big Challenge gives you the tools, the inspiration and a wealth of resources to make your big home a big success.
Making a large residence welcoming rather than intimidating, warm and inviting instead of forbidding, and gracious, not just spacious, can challenge even seasoned professional designers. Big Home, Big Challenge is the ideal resource for transforming large spaces into warm, attractive and inviting homes.
LIVABLE LARGE SPACES
A living space with room to roam or one that draws you in? Too often, we feel we have to choose between one or the other. Now at last there is a unique and comprehensive reference of solutions, insights, ideas and in-depth where-and-how-to-get-it resources to help make your spacious home inviting, beautiful, and functional. Written by Kira Wilson Gould, founder, editor and publisher of To the Trade magazine, Big Home, Big Challenge brings you extraordinary idea-filled layouts featuring the expert large-home design solutions of some of today's most celebrated designers. The first title in the savvy new ELEMENTS OF LIVING(tm) series, Big Home, Big Challenge is a practical and inspiring resource that provides you with the knowledge to conquer big space challenges such as high ceilings, long, narrow hallways, double height spaces and uninviting foyers.
DISCOVER THE BIG HOME SOLUTION
* Bring comfort and intimacy to any large room, from baths and hallways to kitchens and living rooms
* Camouflage imperfections with paint and wallpaper
* Conquer vastness with professional lighting ideas
* Map out rooms that flow perfectly from one to another
* Make tall ceilings feel more in scale
* Use color to make an interior more inviting
* Employ architectural solutions to cozy up out-of-scale rooms
* Select materials, fabrics and furnishings to enhance comfort
* Craft a furniture floor plan that accommodates both small and large gatherings
* Arrange art to fill large expanses of wall space
* Create a landscape that will make a large house appear at home on a small lot
* Get designers' recommendations on the best products and craftsmen
Big Home, Big Challenge features work and inspiration from renowned architects, interior decorators, landscape designers, furniture specialists, lighting designers, color experts and other design professionals, including Barbara Barry, Elissa Cullman, Mary Douglas Drysdale, David Easton, Thomas Jayne, Noel Jeffrey, Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, Peter Pennoyer, Miles Redd, Katie Ridder, Scott Salvador, Coty Sidnam, Matthew Patrick Smyth and many more.
IT'S YOUR SPACE. MAKE IT PERSONAL.
Review
While the luxury of space to spare is a dream come true for many homeowners, big houses with soaring ceilings and fewer walls often produce unanticipated challenges. Helping homeowners to create spaces that are "welcoming rather than overwhelming" is the goal of Big Home, Big Challenge: Design Solutions for Larger Spaces, by Kira Wilson Gould with Saxon Henry (a frequent contributor to Distinction). You'll find advice on a variety of topics including architectural solutions, furniture, paint colors and wallpapers. With 200 photographs featuring the work of many of the country's top decorators and architects, Big Home, Big Challenge (McGraw-Hill, $29.95) offers a wealth of ideas for living large.
Review
When it comes to houses, bigger always seems better until it's time to decorate. Cavernous, high-ceilinged spaces can be daunting, and homeowners often are stumped when it comes to bringing a room down to more human proportions.
Big Home, Big Challenge: Design Solutions for Larger Spaces (McGraw-Hill) by Kira Wilson Gould and Saxon Henry is a meaty reference for those who want to make a large home livable, as well as those wanting design tips for an average-size space. The authors spoke with industry experts to glean advice on a variety of topics, including landscaping, space planning, lighting, fabric, furniture, color, artwork and more.
Throughout, highlighted text offers definitions, checklists and other pertinent, easy-to-read information. Also included are feng shui tips, as well as "punch lists" summarizing important points in each chapter. The book is packed with information and photographs that help the reader make bigger truly better.
Review
Home: Big or Small?
SPECIAL EDITION
By BARBARA MAYER
For AP Special Edition
Like Goldilocks, you may have trouble making yourself at home in places that seem too large or too small. But you're more likely to get advice on coping with too little rather than too much.
Each January, House Beautiful magazine focuses on decorating small spaces. "A lot of people don't live in 10,000-square-foot houses, and even those who do have large houses have small rooms to decorate," said Mark Mayfield, editor-in-chief of the magazine.
New York City, a hotbed of stylish decorating, always has been a place of small rooms. And all over the country people are moving into downtown areas and smaller rooms as old buildings get turned into apartments, the editor said.
The consensus is that it's easier to decorate a room that's a little too small than a room that's way too big, especially for the do-it-yourselfer. A small room is already intimate and the challenge is to make it feel a bit more spacious, while intimate is a real challenge for large rooms, said decorator Mariette Himes Gomez.
The market is cooperating with those decorating smaller spaces. There is a trend away from over-large furniture, to pieces with smaller proportions. Now that eclectic mix-and-match interiors are popular and people buy one piece here and one there, manufacturers are offering plenty of pieces that stand on their own. There's also more furniturefor multipurpose uses such as cocktail tables that can be raised to dining height.
The rise of moderately priced fashionable merchandise in stores such as Target, Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel and others is a godsend to those decorating small spaces on moderate budgets, said Mayfield.
Yet statistics suggest that the typical new American house is getting bigger; so-called McMansions are famous for double-height foyers and living rooms and skating-rink sized kitchens.
"People are attracted to double-height rooms because it's like walking into a cathedral," said Kira Wilson Gould, author of "Big Home, Big Challenge" (McGraw Hill). Of course, she added, "who wants to live in a cathedral?" People soon discover they prefer to be cozy.
"Decorating a large space requires more furniture than most people are used to having," Gould said. "For example, few would think of putting two sofas in a living room, but a really big room can take them and often needs them." Other decorating ploys include using several area rugs in different sizes to create various sections for differentactivities.
Gould, who got the idea for her new book after furnishing a loft in Manhattan, turned her open plan loft living room measuring approximately 35 by 20 feet into a library, a television watching area and a separateseating area. She found it was good to have some large-scale pieces of furniture, such as an armoire or oversize bookcases.
But a huge sofa can be a mistake if it's so deep that a short person sitting down finds his or her legs don't reach the floor.
She advises looking at all that wall space as an opportunity to display large-scale art. It could be a single oversize canvas or a group of smaller art objects placed together. "You can even display your collection of antique iron tractor seats, or whatever."
To get ideas for handling big spaces, Gould suggests hanging out in hotel lobbies and visiting historic mansions open to the public. Even if these spaces are too formal and you wouldn't want to copy them exactly, you can learn from their approaches.
"Make a list of what activities you want to accomplish in a room," suggested Gould. Big rooms are made for multiple activities. Besides area rugs, you can delineate spaces by changing the floor level or a ceiling level, adding partial walls and architectural ornament such asmoldings. Paint and wallpaper are less expensive ways to create the same kinds of changes visually.
If you want to bring a room with tall ceilings down a bit, make the ceiling look lower by putting up a molding down a few feet from the top of the wall and painting the ceiling a different color from the walls.
The bottom-line on too big or too small? "With small rooms, use bigger furniture sparingly and allow the room to dictate what you do,"Gomez said. "With large rooms, you can't just sprinkle furniture all around. Start with a plan and create compartments that add up to awhole."
Review
Founding editor of To the Trade, a resource magazine for interior design professions, Gould here offers an overall planning guide on how to make large rooms more inviting and livable. She discusses the overall planning of new construction from how to work with architects and designers to landscaping, so that the proportions of the design elements will be right from the start, whether in an addition or a new construction. She then describes how to use color, floor coverings, wall coverings, furniture, and decorative accessories to make the space cozy, illustrating her points with color photographs.
Advice from a number of interior designers and architects is included, along with sidebars on how to use feng shui. ...Recommended for libraries whose patrons are faced with the challenge of decorating McMansions.
Synopsis
The author also includes a valuable Frequently Asked Questions section, as well as resource information for everything from furniture to flooring and lighting.
About the Author
Trained as an interior designer,
Kira Wilson Gould is the founding editor of To the Trade, a resource magazine for interior design professionals. She is a frequent commentator on the design industry, has guest-lectured at leading schools such as Parsons School of Design and New York University, and currently sits on the board of the New York School of Interior Design.
A press associate of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), Saxon Henry has written for a variety of design magazines, including Home, To the Trade, Woman's Day and Better Homes and Gardens.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTIONChapter 1: THE BIG SPACE CHALLENGESetting the stage for the rest of the book, this chapter outlines and explores the challenge of designing livable large spaces. Questions will be addressed, such as: How much will it cost? How long will it take? Who will I need to hire? Tips for organizing renovations, decorating, and building projects will also be included.Chapter 2: SITE & SCALE: THE THEORY OF RELATIVITYWhether indoors or out, the design and size of a house must relate to the human figure. This chapter explores how both the inner and outer workings of a house must be in scale. Examples demonstrate how a house should be situated in relation to its locale, and how to use certain props such as landscaping, outdoor furniture and statuary to help the house appear welcoming. Inside the hierarchy and relationship of rooms to one another will be covered.Chapter 3: DEMARCATION: DEFINING SPACE BY FUNCTIONHere we demonstrate how large, open rooms can be made accessible by dividing the space up into task-oriented areas (e.g. dining room/library, living room/home office). Tips for creating a successful multifunction spaceinclude what types of tasks go well together, and how to best map out the areas.Chapter 4: ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS: IF YOU BUILD IT, YOU'LL HAVE WONWhether renovating, building from scratch, or just decorating, some of the best solutions for toning down large sized spaces are architectural. In this section we profile winning projects that physically alter the space by erecting walls, lowering ceilings, raising floors, or using mouldings (such as chair rail, dado, or horizontal paneling).Chapter 5: OPTICAL ILLUSIONS: THE MAGIC OF PAINT & WALLPAPEREvery woman knows not to wear horizontal stripes (unless she¹s Twiggy), for fear of looking large. As with fashion, so with interiors there are innumerable tricks that one can play using color and pattern to achieve certain looks. In addition to stripes (both horizontal and vertical), wallpapers come in a multitude of designs, such as checks, dots or toile. And today¹s paint market is flush with thousands of colors in many finishes. Techniques for using wallpaper and color to visually alter the size of a room are explored.Chapter 6: DECORATING DETAILS: FURNITURE SELECTION & LAYOUTThe size, style and arrangement of furniture are critical to the overall feel of a space. Experts in furniture selection share their tricks of the trade. Advice includes when and what to use, how to mix and match, and where to shop.Chapter 7: THE RIGHT STUFF: ART & ACCESSORIESIt is the personal items, artworks and collectibles, which transform a house into a home. It is these same personal items that (when displayed correctly) will transform the look of a room helping to create a more intimate space. Large paintings punctuate expanses of otherwise uninterrupted wall; collections of artifacts add interest to a standard furniture grouping. This chapter offers techniques, from purchasing to hanging, for utilizing artworks effectively.Chapter 8: ILLUMINATION: THE WELL LIT CHALLENGEA large house can potentially be a dark house. With a basic understanding of photometrics, designers demonstrate a host of successful lighting plans. Various types of light sources, including artificial and natural, are combined for dramatic effect.Appendix A: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSAppendix B: RESOURCES "A designer is only as good as his or her resources." This chapter will focus on the resources that were used in the projects (and listed in side bars). Text will consist of short bios of craftsmen, photos of products, and company descriptions.