Monday 3 June 2013

Handmade Home - Book Review

image book handmade home mark bailey sally bailey living with art and craft

This is the fourth in my series of handmade book reviews, and today's book is a little different from all the others I am reviewing.  Handmade Home, by Mark and Sally Bailey, is not a "craft book" full of patterns and designs, but is a book written to inspire and show readers how to decorate your home with art and handmade beauties (be they purchased from artisans or made yourself).

image book handmade home mark bailey sally bailey living with art and craft

This book is filled with beautiful photographs giving readers a peek into the homes of various creative and artistic individuals and couples living around the world.  The text highlights innovative, intriguing and well-balanced ways in which these "handmade homes" have been decorated or laid out.  And there are also helpful chapters which outline how to incorporate artistic elements such as colour, texture, textiles and beautiful handmade items into one's home decor.  Its aim is not just to explain how others have created delightful "handmade" homes, but to give readers insight into how they can do this in their own homes.

image book handmade home mark bailey sally bailey living with art and craft

Handmade Home is wonderfully written and filled with beautiful photography, fantastic for inspiring ideas for furnishing and decorating one's home.  However, as someone who has small children and lives in a constant chaos of toys, dirty laundry and food messes, browsing through a book like this can lead to unrealistic expectations and comparisons, and be a bit depressing!  The homes featured in this book belong to uber creative types, many of which work in the fields of design or art, and many of them are also transformed or re-invented farmhouses or vintage buildings, meaning that many "ordinary" readers, like myself, may be left feeling that there is no way they could recreate their living space in such a way.

image book handmade home mark bailey sally bailey living with art and craft

Having said all of that, I still do believe that this is a beautiful book and delightfully written.  Those who have a love of refurbished old homes or interior decorating may find this to be a gorgeous book for their coffee table.  Others may find this book a good place to find inspiration, large or small, and dream and wishfully think about "one day".

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