Shades of Country: Designing a Life of Comfort

by Chippy Irvine

Overview

Country living and style permeates every aspect of our culture- we yearn for the simplicity and comfort of country style living as seen in the pages of popular publications like "Country Living" Magazine and in Shabby Chic decor. There are many shades of country to match your personal style and "Shades of Country," written by "Chippy Irvine," masterfully presents some of America's most beautiful, charming and fascinating country houses. Chippy introduces six unique country styles; Farmhouse, Grand Country, Cottage, Rusticator, Clean and Simple, and Urban Arcadia; enrich a home with warmth, texture, color and beauty. "Shades of Country" shows how you can mix and match styles or create a unified look while helping you enjoy the comfort of living in country style.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781561588169
Publisher:	Taunton Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/17/2006
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	9.19(w) x 10.88(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Irvine is a contributing editor for Art & Antiques.

Editorial Reviews

"Chippy Irvine has masterfully presented some of America's most beautiful, charming and fascinating country houses. The book is written with style and wit as she directs her readers on a truly grand tour of houses from manor to cottage. All are houses that reflect a strong personal taste while at the same time employing the sometimes elusive qualities that make a house a home!" —Albert Hadley
Shades of Country: Designing a Life of Comfort by Chippy Irvine (Taunton Press, $40), offers a grand tour of a wide variety of lovely American homes whose country-inspired decor ranges from Shaker simple to grand and stately, cozy cottage to massive mountain lodge. —Eils Lotozo, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Regardless of your personal aesthetic, there's a style or shade of country that can work for you — that's the premise of Irvine's latest book. She writes about dozens of real people's homes, including her own in upstate New York, which fall into six categories or chapters: Farmhouse (functional and familiar), Grand Country (stately and traditional), Cozy Cottage (nostalgia and sweet sentiment), Rusticators (romantic retreats), Clean and Simple (Shaker and Swedish country) and Urban Arcadia (eclectic, artistic and edgy). She saves the best for last — fashion and design maven Marian McEvoy's stylish 1740 stone house on the Hudson River.—Marge Colborn, The Detroit News
Shades of Country by Chippy Irvine (Taunton Press; $40; hardback) looks at all the ways country can be country through fabrics, accessories, paint and furniture. Irvine goes to the heart of sub-styles — such as grand country or Cape Cod cottage — to discuss the spirit, basic elements and traditional details. This bookdoesn't reinvent country for modern audiences, but celebrates the appeal of a charming and complex style. Photos highlight unusual and interesting features from a variety of homes, while essays offer in-depth explanations on history and traditions. —Orlando Sentinel

From the Publisher

Chippy Irvine feeds our sense of fantasy with this radiant photographic celebration of American country houses. These words-and-pictures studies identify six key country styles: Farmhouse, Grand Country, Cottage, Rusticator, Clean and Simple, and Urban Arcadia. Shades of Country can widen the design palette of any aspiring decorator or homeowner.

In answering the question "What is Country?" this lush, colorful coffee-table book offers an impressively detailed look at country style as presented by design writer and author Irvine. She breaks this particular aesthetic into six major categories: farmhouse, grand country, cozy cottage, rusticators, clean simplicity and urban arcadia. Detailed descriptions, closeup photos and Irvine's explanations of the various shades' relationship to personality and lifestyle (are you artistic and edgy? or stately and traditional?) offer myriad options for architecture, design and crafts that can be used to create the country look and feel that best suits a home's inhabitants. Ideas include layered wallpaper, wall-mounted china collections, and shells used to decorate everything from a mantel to a headboard. The author's own upstate New York country home is used as an example of comfortable yet opulent country style, as are homes in Maine, Montana and elsewhere in the U.S. A resources section provides contact information for antiques, carpet, ceramics and flooring dealers, plus a list of museum houses (nearly all are in New York) that may serve as inspiration. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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