| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Compact Living takes a positive approach to the problems of small-space living, revealing how a tiny home can be an advantage, with its compactness and simplicity, as well as showing how to make the best of small spaces by cheating perspective and planning inventively. This book reveals how to achieve stylish results on any budget, with room by room ideas and detailed information on furniture, fixtures and fittings. Accompanying case histories of real homes, with full details of how to recreate them inexpensively, make Compact Living an inspirational and practical reference for anyone setting up a small home.
About the Author
Jane Graining is a freelance writer and stylist, who began her career in the home department of Homes and Gardens and Woman's Journal. She has contributed to a variety of publications, including Country Living, Country Homes and Interiors, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Sunday Express Magazine and The Mail on Sunday.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Sadly, the author's idea of what constitutes compact living may not chime with your own. While there are some nice ideas in this, for alcoves, kitchens, etc, it concentrates on the sorts of spaces which lend themselves to mezzanines, spiral staircases, light wells and glass roofs. Not much use for your average flat dweller. Each of the projects was designed by a team of architects, for somebody who could have afforded to buy a house with the fees. There are a few wooly over-statements about design which are highly questionable, like the idea that using patterned materials always makes a space look smaller. And whoever did the conversions between sq feet and sq metres should find another job - the editing's sloppy. If you're going down this route, do what the people featured did, get yourself a good architect and let them sort it out...
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
87 of 88 people found the following review helpful
Great ideas for remodeling a small space!
4 May 2000
Format:Hardcover
Graining's book does a great job of illustrating the architectural challeges of working with small spaces. If you are currently designing/remodeling or building a new modern space...I would recommend this book highly for some unique ways to maximize your square footage. There are great storage ideas, especially for the kitchen and living areas, which require design and construction. Also, there are some excellent ideas for the bathroom that would be especially helpful if you've just begun space planning or picking out fixtures for a remodel or new construction. Unique ways of hiding heating units by making them part of the space, rather than an intrusion, are offered as well.
Although, it's not the book's focus, Compact Living offers some ideas for the apartment owner living in a spatially challenged flat. The most helpful tip to apartment owners is Graining's suggestion regarding the use of color to help create zones of living within the space. The book also offers a few great ways to utilize the small spaces that are often forgotten in a seemingly tiny room.
Generally, this book is great if you're building or extensively remodeling a small space, but doesn't offer much to apartment owners with little money or control over the structure of their space.
84 of 89 people found the following review helpful
All the mod cons.....
15 Feb 2002
Format:Hardcover
Two of my children recently moved into new homes -- one in San Diego (1450 square feet), and the other in Washington DC (1500 square feet & four children). They both have high rents/mortgage payments and modest budgets, so I've been helping them search for clever ways to live in small spaces -- i.e. maximize efficiency, minimize costs, and preserve attractiveness. COMPACT LIVING contains many attractive ideas for economizing on space (for those whose tastes run to modern), but executing these ideas may prove more expensive than the author Jane Graining suggests (at least in the high rent areas!).
Graining has attempted to address the needs of both the renter and the home owner, but most of her ideas are better suited to the home owner (whether condo or small house) who can afford to make relatively permanent changes. Some ideas involve clever collapsing furniture which is portable, but the furniture shown is relatively expensive (wall beds, telescoping tables).
She provides numerous examples of walls and ceilings opened with skylights and bigger windows and she advocates the use of glass blocks and mirrors for lighting interior areas with remote sources of light. She also suggests bright colors in the form of painted or tiled surfaces can be used to "lighten" a room and make it appear bigger. For example, one idea involves two wall beds housed behind bright enamel red "closet" doors that are separated by a vertical, foot-wide floor to ceiling glass block strip which allows daylight to penetrate into the bathroom beyond. This detailed work is not a minor modification however parsimonious and attractive the use of space.
Graining says those who live in small spaces must think vertically, and she offers a number of nifty ideas for employing overhead space to accomodate loft beds, book shelving, cupboards, pantries, closets, stackable appliances, and racks of pots and pans. Many of her illustrations include vertical elements designed by architects and installed by professionals or extremely talented amateurs. Clever and talented folks may be able to copy some of her ideas without breaking the bank, but I am not that clever.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Title should be "Compact living... on a limitless renovation budget."
21 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Title should be "Compact living... on a limitless renovation budget."
Everything is designer showroom-perfect on these pages, like an Ikea or Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel catalog.
However the spaces lack human reality, such as quirky collections or individualized space needs or child friendly design. You don't even meet the inhabitants.
Yes, invest in built in cabinets and fold away stair cases if you own and have the money. Again, these options are unattainable for many struggling to pay the mortgage or are renting.
A much better book is Bartolucci's "1000 sqft or less." That features real people with real budgets.
I wanted real advice, not catalog advertisements for perfect unattainable ideal design. I was disappointed. But perhaps idealism and extravagance, not realism and cash poor budgets are what most readers want... Hence the popularity of ARchitectural Digest, and why I am so turned off by such mags.
Everything is designer showroom-perfect on these pages, like an Ikea or Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel catalog.
However the spaces lack human reality, such as quirky collections or individualized space needs or child friendly design. You don't even meet the inhabitants.
Yes, invest in built in cabinets and fold away stair cases if you own and have the money. Again, these options are unattainable for many struggling to pay the mortgage or are renting.
A much better book is Bartolucci's "1000 sqft or less." That features real people with real budgets.
I wanted real advice, not catalog advertisements for perfect unattainable ideal design. I was disappointed. But perhaps idealism and extravagance, not realism and cash poor budgets are what most readers want... Hence the popularity of ARchitectural Digest, and why I am so turned off by such mags.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
