Colonial Style,   ISBN:9781561586226

Customer Rating: 

My husband and I recently built a new old house...We were shooting for an 1830 half cape that looked as though it had been remodeled in 1860. We started with some good plans, and then went to work on the 'little stuff'. I found myself flagging page after page to show our contractor. The success of a reproduction is in the tiny details. Add them all up and you get a new house that looks old. (this window trim, this bathroom sink, this eave trim, this mantle, etc.) This book was one of our two favorite sources of ideas, and this one was used the most. The entire book was full of what I would call New England Type Architecture. As we built, we used bits and pieces of Sturbridge, plus details from countless books. This book spent months on the construction site with probably 60 or 70 tags. As the look was accomplished, the flag came off. This book is still sitting on the coffee table with two flags remaining...the library shelves, and the front steps. Getting it right is a long process, but Treena Crochet has a great eye. If you really do want to creat a classic interior, this is a must have.

Customer Rating: 

Very good book on basics of colonial design and decorating. Has beautiful color photos throughout which provide great inspiration for decorating or remodelling ideas. Touches on all aspects of the average colonial home, without the emphasis on over-the-top elegance common in many design books. Makes a nice coffee table book for casual viewing.

Customer Rating: 

The book was purchased to help guide an authentic restoration of a 1925 Saltbox in Atlanta. The cover was among the best photographs in the book, but many others were helpful in establishing a general sense of the colonial aesthetic, with which we were unfamiliar. The mouldings section was far briefer(and less helpful) than I was hoping for, but suppose you can't expect a full chapter devoted to base boards. Because we were adding a fireplace and bookcases, pictures from the book proved invaluable in communicating trim details to the contractor. In summary, the book well served our purposes. A heady read on colonial design it is not.

Customer Rating: 

What it lacks in substance, it makes up for with pretty pictures. For historical zealots (such as myself) this book will leave you hungry for more information about Colonial homes and their historical roots, but for what it is, it's pretty decent. This book has good artwork, clean pictures and an interesting array of different Colonial styles.

That being said, I was profoundly disappointed in the book's lack of images and information on the ubiquitous Colonial Revival. That was my reason for buying this book, as I wanted to learn more about that style of housing. "Colonial Style" had very little on this incredibly popular genre (and derivation) of domestic architecture.

Then again, I am a purist. If you want some decorating ideas and like to look at pretty pictures of old Williamsburg-era Colonials, you'll love it.

Customer Rating: 

This is a book which explores (mostly) middle class home interiors of the 18th and early 19th century. Yes, there are some odd digressions, but by and large it's a fine work brimming with great photos and ideas, mostly taken from original homes. This book is a solid effort, showing what appropriate 18th century interiors should look like when cleaned up in a modern restored house, or a recreated one. Those who like authentic interiors will like this book. Those who do not want an authentic interior, but want to mix and match taking a bit of this and a bit of that, but still want to call it colonial, will possibly find these interiors "dark and provincial". Well - news flash: 18th century middle class and lower class interiors in North America were, by their very nature, both dark (candle light, small windows, soot, dark paint) and provincial (being the colonies, after all). The word colonial has its own cachet, and many people insist on applying it to their house, no matter what kind of eclectic mish mash it is.