Product Description

The essence of this eclectic style is the combination of beautiful old fabrics and textures with modern comfort. From the living room and kitchen to the bathroom and outdoors, Cath Kidston shows how the elements work, from big-picture ideas to the details. Vintage Style transforms the charms of the past into a fresh, contemporary approach to decorating for today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201792 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

From Amazon.com
With its floral prints, chintz fabrics, and flea-market finds, vintage style is a popular one. Cath Kidston introduces us to her variation by taking us on a tour of her own home--bedrooms, bathroom, living room, kitchen, and home office--in her new book, Vintage Style: Creating a Compete Look for Your Home.

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 realized 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 color, Kidston often recommends mixing clashing colors for a vibrant feeling in the room. Her walls are usually painted white, and color is added with fabrics, furniture, and accessories, which makes it easy and inexpensive to change the color 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, ironing board covers, 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

From Library Journal
This London shop owner, whose designs have been featured in Better Homes & Gardens magazine, describes her own design style as a blend of Rachel Ashwell's faded, worn, and comfortable look (Shabby Chic, LJ 9/15/99) and Mary Engelbreit's bright nostalgia-inspired look (Crafts To Decorate Your Home, LJ 5/15/99). With photographs of her own home as well as those she has designed for others, Kidston describes how she came to develop her style, using flea-market and thrift-store finds and taking inspiration to create color schemes from favorite pictures, vintage fabric, etc. Purchase where there is a continued interest in this style.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Somewhat disappointing
As a big fan of the "Shabby Chic" books...I thought I'd try this one as well. I came away pretty disappointed. One of the biggest frustations with this book was that the text did not relate to the visuals on the page...Often the photo was several pages ahead or didn't appear at all. And I'd say visual references are pretty important when writing a decorating book. Am I supposed to imagine what this room looks like? The photos that do appear aren't very good...many left me wondering what they even were. If you like this style of decorating, stick to the Shabby Chic books by Rachel Ashwell. They are a much more inspirational and well written series--and the photography is much, much better.

Pretty, but a disappointment
I was really looking forward to this book, but was disappointed by its narrow focus. I wish Kidston had shown more examples than just her own home. And while I did like her decorating style, it was most irritating to keep flipping back and forth between text and photos, trying to figure out if the picture next to the text was an example of what she was describing (and often it wasn't) or if the photo 3 pages ahead was really what she was describing. I came away feeling that I really hadn't gathered any usable information for my own home.

Not quite what I expected
A very Pretty book - yes. Practical book - no, not for me. I'm in the process of redecorating my whole house...these suggestions were a bit to "precious". If I had a country house or a beach house this would be perfect -- but for everyday living -- it leaves something to be desired. I wanted something a bit more "meaty" than crocheted hanger covers, and knitted throws and charming cloth bags for loose corn and lentils. As I said - very pretty but not for me.