Customer Reviews:
Great Garden Designs with Excellant Information.......2006-06-29
This is, without a doubt, one of the finest gardening design books I have come across. It shows many different styles of gardens with distinct flair. If you want to be inspired by innovative ideas, buy it. It is one of my two favorite gardening books---and I have many.
Excellent Resource.......2006-03-09
This book is a beautifully photographed, well written book about landscaping. It is like owning a pictoral encyclopedia for gardeners.
Inspirational Garden Book.......2003-02-12
One of the most useful and innovative garden books. If you are looking for inspiration, this is a good one to buy.
This is Essential.......2000-09-29
The pictures are inspirational and the advise is practical and lyrical. The authors write well and LOVE gardens of all kinds. Everything is covered from balconys to estates, minimal to extravagant, and covered thoughly with many idea engendering photos.
Book Description
Updated with all-new content for 2002, Terence Conran’s invaluable reference on kitchens tackles the most complex design project in the house.
In many ways the heart of the home, the kitchen is a place where style and function can coexist magnificently. International style king Terence Conran shows us how to do just that in
Terence Conran Kitchens. In terms of planning, the kitchen makes unique demands, and Conran covers both the overarching style concerns and the nitty-gritty practicalities of making your dream kitchen a reality. The book ranges from the basics of good design (whether you’re starting from scratch or fitting new appliances into an old layout) to an encyclopedic look at all the materials (storage, lighting, worktops, and more) available to the kitchen designer today. As always, Conran provides case studies and floor plans, bring-ing the best kitchens within reach of every reader. No one embarking on the demanding task of redesigning a kitchen wants to do it without the right book for reference and inspiration. With up-to-date information on the latest styles and a thorough look at classic appliances and materials,
Terence Conran Kitchens does it all.
Customer Reviews:
Useless, the worst of the bunch.......2007-04-26
I was a little sceptical as there were only two reviews, but they were both 5 star so I went ahead. What I got was a beautifully put together book with nice paper and photos... of absolutely nothing that was useful to me.
All of the kitchens appear to be European (all of the electrical switches and outlets were European). All of the designs were very modern, high tech, contemporary, and... different. They were also very "designer" as in perhaps not very practical, but very different and put together. If you are looking for something unusual along these lines for a city loft or a very modern space, this might be a great find for you.
There was not a single photo of any kitchen you would consider normal here in the States. Although I read the entire book (faster as I went) there was not a single feature, design, or anything that was potentially useful in my project. There was also very little information, very much an idea book with lots of pictures and little text. The book was not cheap, and it was a complete waste of time for me.
Inspirational.......2007-02-02
I love this book and found it very inspirational when I designed my kitchen. I had already thumbed through the various decorating house and kitchen magazines one might see at Barnes and Nobles. Most of those showed your typical cheesy American kitchen with lots of over-the-top materials badly paired together in one space. The kitchens in this book appealed to me because, as a generalization, they were a little arty, sophisticated and unexpected, without being kooky. I even borrowed a color them from one of the examples. Granted some of the kitchens didn't work but the majority did - and there was a lot of variation among those that did.
great ideas for contemporary kitchens.......2002-07-11
I am design professional and found this book to be very inspirational when looking for contemporary kitchen ideas for my personal kitchen.
Book Description
A world-renowned design authority shows how to make the most of every square foot.
Whether motivated by soaring energy costs, smaller families or the desire to live more simply, homeowners are abandoning "McMansions" for smaller housing. In
How to Live in Small Spaces, Terence Conran explains that what's paramount to livability is not square footage, but how the space is divided.
In this comprehensive, full color book, Conran tackles the many challenges posed by small spaces. Chapters cover storage, bedrooms, children's rooms, lighting, extension and much more. "Assessing your needs" checklists and "points to consider" sidebars add valuable ideas. The six case studies that conclude the book provide excellent examples of great designs.
The author offers practical advice on exploiting every inch of space through:
- Using fold-down and pull-out features
- Buying slimline appliances
- Installing indoor portholes and windows
- Lessening the impact of furniture
- Using scale and proportion to advantage
- Manipulating color, texture and pattern
- Using screens, partitions and platforms
- Improving circulation paths.
Terence Conran never forgets the challenges posed by small spaces or the ingenuity and compromises required. He shows how easy it is to create a home whose comfort is not dependent on size, but on efficiency and integrity.
Customer Reviews:
How to live in small spaces.......2007-08-12
This book has some very valuable information on getting your life ready to live in a smaller more efficent space. It also shows some very good examples to inspire you.
Great Basic Color Education.......2007-04-04
Though I am not color blind, one would be hard to believe that when it comes to color choices I have made in the past. I knew nothing about color and how colors work with one another.
The first part of this book outlines basic color theory - the primary colors, secondary and tertiary colors and how they work together. The book then goes into how to use color to set different moods or support different themes - for example, what colors to use for an Asian or Mediterreanan look.
I learned a lot - and finally got it through my head that paint is not permanent - if you don't like it - paint it over. With this book in hand, I won't be afraid to try different color combos. This is a great book with lots of ideas!
Like the book.......2007-04-03
Well organized,liked the pictures and ideas. A little light on actual hard core information, but a nice intro to the ideas that are useful to consider when contemplating a small space remodel.
Book Description
Terence Conran, master of interior design, casts his gaze on what is arguably the most intractable home design issue: how to keep your stuff from overwhelming your space. Conran shows how to reduce clutter, edit our belongings, and store them so they are still accessible. Room by room, he breaks down particular storage requirements and approaches, all the while offering glimpses of stunning homes and ingenious storage solutions. Short on space for books? Here are ideas for using your stairway as a library. Love collecting? There are unique ways to display your treasures. Whether you prefer old-fashioned coziness or a clean minimalist sweep, and whether your home is a bachelor pad, family home, or empty nest, this beautifully photographed guide will prove invaluable.
Book Description
A new book for a new century. This is the only book that you will need to plan, design and decorate your home whether you are buying your first, apartment or moving your family into a restored Brownstone. It is designed specifically to adhere to the demands of a modern lifestyle so the versatility and flexibility of space are central to its philosophy. The Ulitmate House Book is a comprehensive compendium providing everything you need to know from buying to building, improving to decorating, furnishing to fitting out. Combining inspiration with practical advice, in-depth case studies with hundreds of illustrated examples, this is the bible for modern living spaces, their design and the way in which we use them.
Customer Reviews:
One of the few house design books you need.......2007-04-04
Book store (and Amazon) shelves in the architecture section are filled with coffee table books with large pictures of homes we can never afford to own, or homes that look more like a museum show case than a place where people actually live. This book is different.
It gets you in the right mind set for starting to think about designing your own home. Practical, with lots of images that contain useful suggestions. Start with this book, then buy others.
This edition is a comlete re-write from the version I bought in 2002.
great book.......2007-02-15
great resource information mostly for UK though (i think)
pictures and ideas are solid i just like to skim thru it for ideas
everything you can imagine related to the home is in there somehow
The Ultimate House Book by Conran et al........2004-08-21
This book is an excellent reference for decorating a private
home. It describes flexible living quarters, work at home and
family quarters. There is a basic budget model, as well as
provision for more elaborate and expensive customizations.
The work contains an extensive materials directory which is
useful for deciding upon the material components and pricing
structure. Both form and function are described in detail.
There are contrasting arguments for employing vulcanized
rubber, plastics and marble. The book is excellent if it is
utilized wisely in connection with planned home designs.
Customer Reviews:
The Essence of Provence: colors, design & gardens.......2000-06-28
I bought this book for ideas on paint colors for my 1920s Spanish Colonial home. It is beautifully done, full of design details and the gorgeous colors of Provence, the south of France, that derive from the paint colors, the food, the gardens, pottery and the surrounding dry, burnished mediterranean landscape. It is the perfect inspiration for any California home or a richly hued coffee table book!
Book Description
When you cross over the threshold of your home or apartment, what is your initial reaction? Are you inclined to kick off your shoes, pour yourself a glass of wine, and sink into the sofa with the evening paper? Or are you overwhelmed by the urge to pull your hair out, burn the futon couch you've had since college, and throw something -- anything -- over your latest horticultural failure: the skeleton of a ficus that sits leafless in the corner? The first rule of creating a comfortable living space is getting rid of the headaches, and Terence Conran has all the advice you need to get started. He also lays some inspirational groundwork for decorating your home to fit your life. Conran addresses four key concepts, Elements, Comfort, Function, and Detail, in depth, providing advice on everything from space and light to the importance of adding your own personal touches.
Customer Reviews:
Easy Living by Terry Conran.......2003-09-19
Purchase this book if your objective is to get good ideas on the
subject of interior design. The author describes comfort zones
in multiple dimensions i.e. relaxation, touch, sleep and bath.
Relaxation is defined as mental breathing space. Touching
refers to how various textures of fabric evoke physical
responses. There is a section on functionality of interior
decorating. Functionality encompasses orderliness in the living
space. That is, a limited space may be utilized for storage,
shelving, hanging and containing personal objects.
The book is colorful. The artwork provides many perspectives
on how to emulate the interior designs depicted in the setting
of your own home, living or work space. This work will assist
you in optimizing the living space and making it visually
appealing.
An easy book from the master.......2000-12-22
Easy Living is another masterpiece of the master. What can I say? It seems that, as he gets older, he turns more and more easy living himself.
As he says (in another words): "I write a book because I hope you'll read it. Please, don't miss the text of this book". And he's absolutely right, the text is the best part of it; where he teaches everything he knows and believes. All in a very simple way. Believe it or not, the photographs turns into mere coadjuvants here, nonimportant decoration items. But you won't need them!
Conran, together with Niemeyer and Corbusier are the masters of modern living (to me, myself and I, of course). When I find myself in front of one of my masters criatures I surrender because that's the only thing I can do! Admire my masters talent.
Beautifully written.......2000-10-26
This book was marvelous. I enjoyed the fact that the book had no strict guidelines about decorating, just a kind of common sense approach. Now, if you are looking for step by step, (which I was) this may not be for you. But give it a try anyway. It may surprise you!
An Honest Overview Book about Modern Living.......2000-10-14
This book is divided into several components ie. elements, comfort, function, detail which are further broken down into small components. Pictures are used sparingly & most of them are taken from the same source anyway. I do not learn anything new in this modern living book but rather, reinforcing what I have already learnt from other interior books throughout the years. Just because Terence Conran is rendered as the guru of modern living, it doesn't imply that he's the person that has reinvented the wheel but just that person with the extra edge or confidence to apply what we have already known all along about modern living, that person who opts to lead a simplistic life. I'm very appreciative of him of stressing one point about the rigidity of minimalistic living, & people keep mixing up the word "minimal" living with "modern" living. Whilst it's true that their fundamentals are more or less the same, they still aren't the same thing.
Simple Living.......2000-01-25
I love the Conran's shop in Japan. It's simple, but makes me fun. There are simple interior in this book. But less colorful, I felt something missing.
Book Description
World-famous and bestselling design expert Terence Conran provides a comprehensive guide to creating or revamping a bathroom, along with a discussion of this small room’s expanding role as the ultimate refuge from the stresses of everyday life. He offers a full range of options for planning, design and decoration, along with plenty of inspiration and advice on how to integrate the many practical, decorative, structural and technological elements needed to create a bathing sanctuary. Such crucial issues as waterproofing, heating, and lighting receive in-depth attention, and there’s also a detailed guide to fittings and fixtures, all well-illustrated. Large and lush photographs throughout—featuring everything from bathroom pods to lavish spas—will feed the home decorator’s imagination.
Customer Reviews:
Quintessential Bathroom Style book.......2007-08-12
This magnificent book will help you formulate what you want, from a personal style perspective. Truly brilliant and at the very top of the design world - typical of Terence Conran!
Great Book!.......2007-05-07
I would give this book 10 stars if I could. We're in the process of building our home, and trying to complete 3 stylish, functional bathrooms on a very tight budget. This book arrived just in time for us. "Just Add Water" is jam-packed with practical ideas that cover a wide range of styles, bathroom sizes and budgets. It's important, however, to read the text in this book and not just look at the beautiful coffee table-worthy photographs - otherwise, you may come away with the impression that the bathrooms shown in the book are only for those with very deep pockets. With a little imagination, it's possible to translate the practical ideas in this book to solutions that work in your own home.
Book Description
Marrying practical living with attractive home design ideas, Sir Terence Conran offers a big, beautiful compendium of expert solutions for today's house or apartment dweller. His vision is an all-new, commonsense approach to making the place you call home a place where you can feel both comfortable and in style. Includes complete instructions and practical information.
Customer Reviews:
Essential gift book.......2006-03-30
We have had this book for years and it is still such a pleasure to go through it! The Essential House Book is a wellspring of ideas on how to make your house a home....with taste, humor and a grounded, down to earth approach. We have given it so many times as a present and are about to do so again. It's an easy choice for a great gift.
THE ESSENTIAL HOUSE BOOK lives up to its name.......2001-12-02
The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics is a must have for anyone that ever wanted to live in a home and make it all your own. Once again, the reigning champion of good design and master of style, Sir Terence Conran delivers the crème de la crème of home décor books.
Page per page, this book is the most prized in my home design/decorating collection (believe me, I've got a few hundred). Conran offers so many helpful tips and tidbits of information, it's hard not to pull this one off the shelf and reread chapters over again. Chock full of practical solutions and helpful content, amazing photographs (the kind that make you dream for hours) and easy to follow guidance for better living, The Essential House Book lives up to its name. The book is vast with knowledge offering information for all things from flooring to lighting to painting and much more.
The pure simple design and thoughtful information has made this book a staple in this genre of books. With so many books out there to choose from, time and again this will surface as the best available regardless of price.
the very best of its kind.......2000-11-19
This is the best design book in existence. Conran's ideas come off as modern/contemporary, but without the usual coldness or starkness. Think of his designs as simply functional, and without airs or pretense. This is the way we live today. And it's fun!
Good inspiration.......1999-12-09
This book is full of unusual details such as-drawers in staircases and wall niches. Many of the details focused on are what give a house character. I'm designing my own house and it helped me to think above issues rarely addressed in the "how to books". Conran addresses light and space in a very compelling format. There are tons of photos. My only complaint is that with all the photos its hard to go back and find things again.
The Book I turn to for ideas again & and again........1999-07-10
This book is a must for those that wish to create a living space with style. ideas abound as well as practical advice and information.
Average customer rating:
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The Chef's Garden
Terence Conran , and
A. M. Clevely
Manufacturer: Soma Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Vegetables
| Vegetables & Vegetarian
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Herbs
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Vegetables
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Terence Conran
| Expert Advice
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
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ASIN: 1579590500 |
Amazon.com
British tycoon Terence Conran has turned to gardening with the same exacting eye and aesthetic sensibilities that have made his books on home decorating such a success over the years (The Essential House Book, Terence Conran's Easy Living, etc.). His modern, clean, uncluttered look extends here to the kitchen garden, his simplicity and good taste to the recipes. Conran believes it worthwhile to cultivate a kitchen garden in even the smallest of spaces, seeing it as a chance to grow chemical-free, more intensely flavored varieties of fruit and vegetables than can be found in the supermarket.
The Chef's Garden is a beautiful book, full of color photographs of luscious produce. Who would have thought purple broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and chard could be so ornamental? Best of all, you don't need an acre of farmland to cultivate these fruits and vegetables; most are shown growing in small urban gardens or in pots on decks and patios. There is even a plan for growing a kitchen garden on a rooftop.
The point of all this bounty is in the cooking and eating, and Conran emphasizes taste and appearance by using herbs and edible flowers, with information on growing, propagating, and preserving a variety of the most useful kinds. Conran recommends container culture, but also gives a detailed plan for a tiny, formal herb garden (10 by 3 feet) which will hold a generous array of herbs enclosed by rosemary hedges. Detailed instructions are given for pruning dwarf fruit trees, and training espaliers, to encourage fruit production in the smallest possible spaces.
Conran goes beyond aesthetics to cover all the practicalities: selection, soil prep, sowing, thinning, protection from pests, disease and weather, harvesting, and finally, cooking. Eighteen delicious and simple recipes inspire the gardener. Gratin of chard, a spinach and ricotta tart with tapenade, caldo verde, and a mouthwatering salad of figs, ricotta, and honey are a few of the international recipes showcasing homegrown fruit and vegetables. --Valerie Easton
Book Description
People have had it with bland supermarket tomatoes and other genetically engineered, mass-produced, chemically coated fruits and vegetables. Yet most people imagine that growing their own food is difficult and requires a big backyard.
In The Chef's Garden, Terence Conran combines his passion for quality cooking ingredients with his design flair to create productive kitchen gardens in difficult locations like tiny urban backyards or window ledges. The use of containers is explained in detail, with illustrations of garden designs drawn by Conran himself. This book explains how to grow over 100 of the best fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers suitable for containers, including rarities that cannot be found in supermarkets. There are twenty simple recipes, all devised by Conran to make the most of produce picked at the peak of freshness.
Even if it's just a few herbs in a pot, people are eager for flavorful, more nutritious, home-grown food. The Chef's Garden shows how a well-designed kitchen garden can both look and taste good.
Books:
- The Eucharist in Romanesque France: Iconography and Theology
- The Finest Houses Of Paris
- The Glass Castle: A Memoir
- The House on Mango Street
- The Magic of Believing
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play
- The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod
- The Quilter's Legacy (Elm Creek Quilts Novels)
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Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- Dog Heroes of September 11th: A Tribute to America's Search and Rescue Dogs
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- Architecture and Landscape: The Design Experiment of the Great European Gardens and Landscapes
- New England Wildlife: An Introduction to Familiar Species
The Ultimate House Book: For Home Design in the Twenty-First Century
Bathrooms: Just Add Water
The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics
Terence Conran Kitchens: The Hub of the Home
Gardens for the Future: Gestures Against the Wild
