Vintage Style: A New Approach To Home Decorating - Hardcover

Kidston, Cath

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091865492 ISBN 13: 9780091865498

Publisher: Ebury Press, 1999

Synopsis

Florals, vintage fabrics and soft pastel colours have taken the fashion world by storm - and all the signs are that this look is set to take over our homes too. After the trend in recent years for neutral, minimalist interiors, this refreshing return to colour, texture and comfort is likely to be embraced in homes everywhere. In VINTAGE STYLE, designer Cath Kidston provides a guide to creating the look throughout your home. The essence of this eclectic style is the combination of beautiful old fabrics and textures with modern comforts. Taking each room in the home, from the Living Room and Kitchen to the Bathroom and Outdoors, Cath Kidston shows how the elements work, from the big picture - wallpaper and paint ideas for walls, floors and woodwork - to the essential details and accessories - from lined storage baskets for the kitchen to fabric-edged antique blankets for the bedroom. Her inspiration is drawn from a broad palette, from the faded beauty of old French wallpapers to the bright patterns of fifties' North American oilcloths and many contemporary sources. Informative captions and text, together with a Practicalities section at the end of each chapter. VINTAGE STYLE transforms the charms of the past into a fresh, contemporary approach to decorating for today.

About this title

Review

With its floral prints, chintz fabrics, and flea market finds, vintage style is a popular one and Vintage Style: Creating a Complete Look for Your Home introduces us to Cath Kidston's variation on this theme by taking us on a tour of her own home--bedrooms, bathroom, living rooms, kitchen and home office.

Kidston's original love of this style stems from the patterns and fabrics she grew up with. When she started her own design shop as an adult, she realised that these same fabrics hadn't lost any of their freshness and comfort, and she began designing around the patterns and items she found at thrift shops and flea markets. Her vintage style consists largely of rose prints in chintz fabric as well as comfortable linen and ticking. Lavish details abound--velvet curtains, tassels, and bobble fringe, for instance.

Liberal in her use of colour, Kidston often recommends mixing clashing colour for a vibrant feeling in the room. Her rooms' walls are usually painted white, and colour is added with fabrics, furniture, and accessories, which makes it easy and inexpensive to change the colour scheme if you get tired of the old one.

Resourceful decorating ideas include the use of old scraps of patterned fabrics and striped linens, ribbon, and haberdashery flowers to create padded clothes hangers, cover ironing boards, and stitch lavender sachets--all of which would make excellent homemade gifts as well. Kidston is practical about her flea-market finds--she never buys anything she can't use. But as she points out, there are lots of unusual uses for items you already own--you just need to use a little ingenuity. A chipped china cup becomes a laundry detergent scoop; old curtains are turned into tablecloths. There's something very refreshing about such resourcefulness in an age of disposable items. Kidston's Vintage Style is all about cheerful, well-worn rooms that are as comfortable as they are pretty. --Kris Law

Book Description

How to create a retro look throughout the home - set to become the next thing in decorating

Edition details

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0091865492
• ISBN 13: 9780091865498
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144