B+
Genre: Nonfiction
Anyone who sees in my house knows that mine is a house of people who do a lot of living but not a shit ton of decorating. We pretty much accessorize with books and pet hair. Accordingly, I have a masochistic relationship with decorator magazines and books – I love to see the pictures but the only actual tip I’ve ever managed to put into use involves having a lot of baskets and bins and things so that my disorganized clutter actually looks super organized (it isn’t).
When I came across this book, Novel Interiors, I was pretty darned excited, because hey, decorating tips AND books! Yay! I thought that Novel Interiors would be a book that teaches you how to decorate your house just like specific rooms in literature. I was close, but the book it a little looser, going more for overall styles than any one specific room.
The book is full of gorgeous photos by Ivan Terestchenko, fun quotes, and tips – plus a rather remarkable dose of permission to embrace the pet hair and learn to enjoy imperfection.
The book is organized into the following sections:
Shall I Put The Kettle On: This includes looks inspired by Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Jane Austen. Think cozy cottages, threadbare rugs, and worn chairs.
Remembrance of Things Past: “More refined” interiors inspired by Edith Wharton and Henry James.
Living Au Naturel: Lots of wood in these rooms (not a euphemism). Natural looks inspired by Thomas Hardy and Willa Cather.
Oh, The Glamour of it All: Shiny, modernistic rooms inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Beverly Nichols, and W. Somerset Maugham.
Anything Goes: Oooh, bohemia! Nothing matches, everything is very global and brightly colored, and there are pillows all over the floor (on purpose). Think Katherine Mansfield and Isak Dinesen.
Sometimes a Fantasy: The weird stuff – chairs with arms and legs, fake insects, lots of drama. Inspired by Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust.
Each section ends with a list of suggested “finishing touches” – things you can add to a room, whether they are tiny details or statement pieces that accentuate the room’s feel. Each section also has at least one feature about entertaining or decorating the way an author would.
For instance, there’s a little section about how Virginia Woolf decorated with flowers in real life and in her fiction. I enjoyed those lists because they remind the reader that often decorating is less about what color you paint a room and more about what items are in it.
The book is also lavishly sprinkled with quotes. For instance:
The Cottage of content [is] better than the Palace of cold splendor, and that was where love was, all was.
– Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Or, my personal favorite:
‘But [the smoking room] will be rather drastic with all those strong colors. It’s going to look rather charmless without a lighter note somewhere…a white vase or a statue.’
‘Nonsense,’ [Cheri] interrupted, rather sharply. ‘The white vase you want will be me-me, stark naked.’
– Colette, The Last of Cheri
Well! Bet you can’t find that at Ikea.
I love the literary references, but their applicability is hit or miss. Giramonti refers to the “spiritual beauty” of Wuthering Heights, when in fact The Heights is depicted in the novel as a squalid, wretched, unnecessarily awful shit hole from Hell – any “spiritual beauty” comes from the outdoors, not the interior of the house.
She also is fond of Austen’s description of cozy, lived in spaces, apparently without noticing that most of the inhabitants of these spaces dream of moving up to the nearest mansion as soon as possible. Still, in general, the book feels colorful and bookish and fun.
Even though this book presents a lot of different styles, they all feature a lot of “stuff”, which is a look I’m trying (futilely) to avoid. So I can’t say that I found this book to be a personal decorating inspiration.
However, it did give me a huge gift. It encouraged me to be more comfortable with my house as it is – the carpet is stained, the couch cushions are messed up because the dog likes to sleep on top of the vertical cushions and now they are scrunched, I have books piled on the floor, and hardily anything matches. Giramonti says that’s totally fine. Piling books on the floor “makes a bold graphic statement.” I always assumed that statement was “I ran out of bookshelf space so I just said the hell with it and started making piles because I was too busy to do anything else,” but Giarmonti seems to think that’s perfectly fine!
Apparently, the fact that my carpet is stained and my table has marker on it and nothing is new is a plus, or it can be if I just relax and stop apologizing all the time. I love this paragraph:
At it’s most basic, home is a refuge. It’s the place you go to be yourself. If you’re always worrying about scratches and spills, how does that enhance your ability to relax and unwind? Or invite people over, for that matter? Patina is what gives our possessions-and ourselves-character and meaning.
I like this one, too:
Have you ever wondered why at a party everyone ends up congregating in the kitchen? If you ask me, it’s because the kitchen is usually the least pretentious room in the house. It’s not out to prove anything, and it doesn’t sit in judgment of anyone-after all, its fundamental purpose is to serve. In a kitchen, conversation gets looser, laughter get louder, and, if you knock something over, well, it’s probably not the first time that’s happened…. A home that embraces these qualities is a place friends will return to again and again.
Usually decorating books and magazines stress me out, because they show me all of these things that I think I should aspire to that frankly I am not going to manage. Even though I wasn’t crazy about any of the actual looks in this book, I loved it that it gave me permission to just enjoy the chaos of my own house. Put those books on the floor! If the carpet is stained, then no one has to worry about spilling a drink on it, so relax, already! It’s stained because my house is full of kids and pets and general life stuff, and that’s a happy thing. This book was a lovely literary getaway on a hot summer day. Guess I’ll add it to the pile on the floor, with pride.
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I have this book too. I follow Lisa’s blog which I found when I went on a search for all things Bloomsbury. I love the Bloomsbury world of art and thought seen through the windows of the Charleston farm house. I have lots of books and stuff in a small space and so for me Lisa’s book is a refreshing take on having and keeping the books/things I value front and centre in my space and life. So many decorating texts first command is to clear the room of books or to cover them all in the same colour dust covers as if their diversity of size, shape and colour is a thing to be ashamed of.
I’m a minimalist (of the “I want a tiny house!” variety), so the thought of decorating books often makes me anxious – they all seem to contain so much unnecessary stuff just to make it “look pretty”. Books about books, though, which feature tons of pictures of books, are totally my catnip.
I’ve never understood the notion of getting rid of books to “decorate”, or like you say, to make the dustjackets all the same color or turn every book backward. My books are the focal point of my living room – they’re colorful and interesting and say a ton of things about my interests without me having to say a word. They’re stacked in and on top of my little bookshelves. (I can’t leave any on the floor, as it’s quite possible one of my cats is dumb enough to dislike the pile and pee on it to make his point.)
I’ll have to see if the library gets this book in, even if it seems a bit less book-focused and more home-design-focused. I agree heartily that you need to be able to relax at home – for me, that involves having the basics and nothing more (and the basics, naturally, includes books and my stack of superhero/glbtq romance & rom-com/Star Trek/anime DVDs.
Cool! Now I’m inspired to go off to Ikea in search of shelves to put up in the dining room.
I can’t decide if it’s entertaining or irksome that Proust is not in the Remembrance of Things Past section.
I love the premise! Definetly checking this one out.
I wonder if there a similar book about fashion? Because, as nuts about costumes as I am – esp. jewelry and shoes. My abilty to follow trends and look good is lacking, to say the least.