The Elements Of A Home

The Elements of a Home reveals the fascinating stories behind more than 60 everyday household objects and furnishings. Brimming with amusing anecdotes and absorbing trivia, this captivating collection is a treasure trove of curiosities. With tales from the kitchen, the bedroom, and every room in between, these pages expose how napkins got their start as lumps of dough in ancient Greece, why forks were once seen as immoral tools of the devil, and how Plato devised one of the earliest alarm clocks using rocks and water—plus so much more. • A charming book for anyone who loves history, design, or décor • Readers discover tales from every nook and cranny of a home. • Entries feature historical details from locations all over the world, including Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. As a design historian and former managing editor of Design*Sponge, author Amy Azzarito has crafted an engaging, whimsical history of the household objects you've never thought twice about. The result is a fascinating book filled with tidbits from a wide range of cultures and places about the history of domestic luxury. • Filled with lovely illustrations by Alice Pattullo • Perfect for anyone who adores interior design, trivia, history, and unique facts • Great for those who enjoyed The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy by Rick Beyer, An Uncommon History of Common Things by Bethanne Patrick and John Thompson, Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins

“[A] much needed book both for homeowners who want a beautiful and well proportioned house and for the professionals who help them to realize that dream.” —Sarah Susanka, FAIA, architect and author of The Not So Big series and Home by Design Even as oversized McMansions continue to elbow their way into tiny lots nationwide, a much different trend has taken shape. This return to traditional architectural principles venerates qualities that once were taken for granted in home design: structural common sense, aesthetics of form, appropriateness to a neighborhood, and even sustainability. Marianne Cusato, creator of the award–winning Katrina Cottages, has authored and illustrated this definitive guide to what makes houses look and feel right—to the eye and to the soul. She teaches us the language and grammar of classical architecture, revealing how balance, harmony, and detail all contribute to creating a home that will be loved rather than tolerated. And she takes us through the dos and don’ts of every element of home design, from dormers to doorways to columns. Integral to the book are its hundreds of elegant line drawings—clearly rendering the varieties of lintels and cornices, arches and eaves, and displaying “avoid” and “use” versions of the same elements side by side. “This ‘Rosetta stone’ of design will guarantee Cusato a place in the history of twenty-first century American architecture.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer “[Cusato] provides a vision of how we live together and build on our planet, and points out the consequences of flawed building practices not only to our environment, but to our spirit and our soul.” —Michael Lykoudis, Dean, University of Notre Dame School of Architecture

From the rising-star designer and author of the hit blog, Elements of Style, a full-color, fully illustrated book packed with honest advice, inspiration, ideas, and lessons learned about designing a home that reflects your personality and style. Elements of Style is a uniquely personal and practical decorating guide that shows how designing a home can be an outlet of personal expression and an exercise in self-discovery. Drawing on her ten years of experience in the interior design industry, Erin combines honest design advice and gorgeous professional photographs and illustrations with personal essays about the lessons she has learned while designing her own home and her own life—the first being: none of our homes or lives is perfect. Like a funny best friend, she reveals the disasters she confronted in her own kitchen renovation, her struggles with anorexia, her epic fight with her husband over a Lucite table, and her secrets for starting a successful blog. Organized by rooms in the house, Elements of Style invites readers into Erin’s own home as well as homes she has designed for clients. Fresh, modern, and colorful, it is brimming glamour and style as well as advice on practical matters from choosing kitchen counter materials to dressing a bed with pillows, picking a sofa, and decorating a nursery without cartoon characters. You’ll also find a charming foreword by Erin’s husband, Andrew, and an extensive Resource and Shopping Guide that provides an indispensable a roadmap for anyone embarking on their first serious home decorating adventure. With Erin’s help, you can finally make your house your home.

Welcome to Home. Inside, interior decorator Emma Blomfield guides you from room to room, empowering you to create a look you love and a space you are proud to show off—without breaking the bank or starting from the ground up. Through helpful illustrations, Emma demystifies the five elements of decorating—needs and wants, color and pattern, shape and size, placement, and lighting—and shows how easy it can be to apply them to each room in your house. Whether you're refreshing your look, moving in, organizing your home office, decorating a nursery or creating an outdoor oasis, Emma's tried-and-tested advice will inspire and guide you. Including original illustrations, clever floorplans, practical decorator's tips and styling 101s, Home is a timeless handbook for anyone who has ever doubted their decorating ability, or craved a helping hand through the process.

New York Times bestselling author and popular lifestyle blogger Erin Gates shares everything you need to know about designing a beautifully stylish—yet practical and functional—family home through candid advice, inspirational ideas, and lessons learned. Loved by her readers for her chic interior designs and frank and funny revelations about life behind the scenes of her picture-perfect blog, bestselling author and designer Erin Gates presents a new book about how to live stylishly amidst the chaos of daily family life. Throughout her career designing homes for families of all kinds all over the country, Erin has always maintained that living with children and pets does not mean that you have to forego nice things. This uniquely personal and practical guide will explain how to create a home that makes you proud and reflects your own style while also being durable, safe, and comfortable for children. It focuses on the spaces families share, those that are dedicated to the kids, and the oft-forgotten retreats for parents. Erin combines honest design advice and gorgeous inspirational photographs with engaging and intimate personal essays about life lessons learned the hard way while struggling with infertility and becoming a mother, managing a business, overseeing her own home renovation, and finding time for her marriage. She’ll share how to store toys so that shared spaces don’t look like a kindergarten, the expensive-looking fabrics that will stand up to a marauding toddler with sticky hands, nursery looks that go beyond blue and pink, and furniture that does not have to be stored during the baby-proofing years. She also showcases the work of other designers she loves who surround parents, children, and their pets with comfort and beauty. Like a best friend who has a knack for style and a taste for fun, Erin opens her front door and invites you into her life and all of its beautiful imperfection.

The book is concerned with the business of residential construction, including the maintenance, restoration, renovation, and construction of private homes and related properties.

The James Beard and IACP Award-winning author of Flour Water Salt Yeast and one of the most trusted baking authorities in the country proves that amazing pizza is within reach of any home cook. “If there were ever to be a bible for all things pizza—and I mean all things—Ken Forkish has just written it.”—Marc Vetri, author of Mastering Pasta and owner of Vetri The Elements of Pizza breaks down each step of the pizza-making process, from choosing a dough to shaping your pie to selecting cheeses and toppings that will work for your home kitchen setup. Forkish offers more than a dozen different dough recipes—same-day “Saturday doughs” that you can make in the morning to bake pizza that night, levain doughs made from a naturally fermented yeast starter, and even gluten-free dough—each of which results in the best, most texturally sublime crust you’ve ever made at home. His clear, expert instructions will have you shaping pies and loading a pizza peel with the confidence of a professional pizzaiolo. And his innovative, seasonal topping ideas will surprise and delight any pizza lover—and inspire you to create your own signature pies, just the way you like them.