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A review by bookworm_baggins
Design Mom: How to Live with Kids: A Room-By-Room Guide by Gabrielle Stanley Blair
3.0
I've struggled with my thoughts on this book for several weeks. It is a beautiful book, full of great photographs with lovely details, and I love the format of the book where each page spread is basically a stand alone.
I really enjoyed the first section (entryways) and was mostly on board with the second (kitchen space), and then I my opinion began to waver. The author is full of lots of practical tips on organizing a house to make it functional, beautiful, and practical for life with kids. Many of the pictures line up perfectly with what she is saying. BUT, the pictures began to feel deceptive to me. She describes how they did something in their home, and then the image is from Land of Nod. I finally found the photo credit page in the back and realized that every photo is staged...taken either from a design company or from a home where a stylist came in and gussied everything up. Several pictures have the author listed as stylist and some are of their actual home, but I had to do some digging to figure out which ones.
Additionally, I found some of the pictures extremely unhelpful and not in keeping with the idea of decorating for life with kids. Particularly, children's nightstand were instructed to be simple and small (perfect), and then the pictures of simple night stands were perfectly staged with kicknacks in a row, books artistically piled high, framed photos leaned neatly against a wall, all next to a toddler bed...not something that would stay put in my house!
I think this book could have been improved by utilizing photos from more "real" houses, where it's obvious someone lives, not set up for a photo shoot. Also, it would have been helpful for the pictures from the author's house to be clearly marked. I've been going back through and enjoying the book more that I figured it out, trying to pull what I can in smaller quantities, instead of looking at the photos as a whole and wondering how that would work for us.
It's a beautiful book, to be sure, but I would not recommend it without some disclaimers.
I really enjoyed the first section (entryways) and was mostly on board with the second (kitchen space), and then I my opinion began to waver. The author is full of lots of practical tips on organizing a house to make it functional, beautiful, and practical for life with kids. Many of the pictures line up perfectly with what she is saying. BUT, the pictures began to feel deceptive to me. She describes how they did something in their home, and then the image is from Land of Nod. I finally found the photo credit page in the back and realized that every photo is staged...taken either from a design company or from a home where a stylist came in and gussied everything up. Several pictures have the author listed as stylist and some are of their actual home, but I had to do some digging to figure out which ones.
Additionally, I found some of the pictures extremely unhelpful and not in keeping with the idea of decorating for life with kids. Particularly, children's nightstand were instructed to be simple and small (perfect), and then the pictures of simple night stands were perfectly staged with kicknacks in a row, books artistically piled high, framed photos leaned neatly against a wall, all next to a toddler bed...not something that would stay put in my house!
I think this book could have been improved by utilizing photos from more "real" houses, where it's obvious someone lives, not set up for a photo shoot. Also, it would have been helpful for the pictures from the author's house to be clearly marked. I've been going back through and enjoying the book more that I figured it out, trying to pull what I can in smaller quantities, instead of looking at the photos as a whole and wondering how that would work for us.
It's a beautiful book, to be sure, but I would not recommend it without some disclaimers.