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A brand new collection of thirty of the author's popular features on home design. Topics covered range from selecting a site for a new home to designing a domestic post room: The House on its Site; Rethinking Living Spaces; Attention to Detail; New Places for Not So New Things; Lighting that Works; Using Skylights; Remodelling; Simple Floor Pan Changes; Adding On
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When most people contemplate building a new home, they assume that the first order of business is to choose or design a plan to build. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
When most people contemplate building a new home, they assume that the first order of business is to choose or design a plan to build. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a practically useful book about design philosophy: designing every room to be a comfortable, informal, frequently used, multi-purpose space. It's not just for people thinking of building new, it gave me several excellent ideas for the home I've lived in for over 20 years. There are no size minimums or guide lines. Where the Not So Big House dealt with the concept of smart design, this book offers more specific applications of smart design. It has easy text and images, sketches and floor plans; a possible problem is there are no measurements to put the plans in perspective but for me the concepts were more important than measurements.
A negative for most of us will be that the homes used as examples are at least twice the size that the average person actually lives in. However, in a later book, Susanka explains that "Not So Big" refers to "an attitude rather than the size of a house...houses that...allow plenty of 'breathing room'...[and] creating a house about one-third smaller than you thought you needed." It covers daily processes such as "where does the mail enter the house" and the best place to sort it, guidelines for recycling setups, when to add skylights and where, as well as the ideal relationship between the family room and kitchen, and even where/how to design a good pantry.
Admittedly, it seems more useful for the US and those living in the country with room to breath. For instance, it advises on the best location for your garage (imagine having enough land that you actually have a choice!), on mudrooms, and creating a gracious front entry. For me, the most immediately useful was the advice to avoid a front access area that has "no place to stand at the top of the steps, no shelter over the door".
I had long been dissatisfied with my frontage and finally I could pinpoint exactly what was wrong and how to change it. This book explained what and how, as clearly as if Susanka had made a personal visit. That is how I ended up redesigning my insignificant and uncomfortable front steps and now enjoy an attractive and pleasant approach, complete with stylish canopy. Nor was it expensive to have done. Result!
I checked out a load of books on building works including bespoke homes, extensions, loft conversions, new basements and the like from the library: this and "Patterns of Home" are the only two that I went on to buy afterwards. It challenged me to thoughtfully consider the way we actually live in our home and to review our layouts. In the subsequent four years, we've made further alterations, some of which now seem obvious - but clearly weren't so in the previous decade-and-a-half. I suspect the many common-sense ideas in this book have inspired quite a few of these changes, even though I haven't consciously traced them back to Susanka's suggestions many of which, in turn, are based on the innovations of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
A negative for most of us will be that the homes used as examples are at least twice the size that the average person actually lives in. However, in a later book, Susanka explains that "Not So Big" refers to "an attitude rather than the size of a house...houses that...allow plenty of 'breathing room'...[and] creating a house about one-third smaller than you thought you needed." It covers daily processes such as "where does the mail enter the house" and the best place to sort it, guidelines for recycling setups, when to add skylights and where, as well as the ideal relationship between the family room and kitchen, and even where/how to design a good pantry.
Admittedly, it seems more useful for the US and those living in the country with room to breath. For instance, it advises on the best location for your garage (imagine having enough land that you actually have a choice!), on mudrooms, and creating a gracious front entry. For me, the most immediately useful was the advice to avoid a front access area that has "no place to stand at the top of the steps, no shelter over the door".
I had long been dissatisfied with my frontage and finally I could pinpoint exactly what was wrong and how to change it. This book explained what and how, as clearly as if Susanka had made a personal visit. That is how I ended up redesigning my insignificant and uncomfortable front steps and now enjoy an attractive and pleasant approach, complete with stylish canopy. Nor was it expensive to have done. Result!
I checked out a load of books on building works including bespoke homes, extensions, loft conversions, new basements and the like from the library: this and "Patterns of Home" are the only two that I went on to buy afterwards. It challenged me to thoughtfully consider the way we actually live in our home and to review our layouts. In the subsequent four years, we've made further alterations, some of which now seem obvious - but clearly weren't so in the previous decade-and-a-half. I suspect the many common-sense ideas in this book have inspired quite a few of these changes, even though I haven't consciously traced them back to Susanka's suggestions many of which, in turn, are based on the innovations of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
21 reviews
119 of 122 people found the following review helpful
Depends on what you are looking for...
29 Dec 2002
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed Sarah Susanka's other books for their beautiful pictures, hopeful text, and "its so easy, it just takes thinking out of the box" attitude. I was hopeful that this book was aimed more for people like me - a simple homeowner looking for some tips (as opposed to an architect or person designing their own home). While there are some "not so big" solutions for everyday living, such as thinking about your recycling area and making use of space under the stairs, there really isn't anything new or awe-inspiring in this book. Much of the book still has to do with initial design of the space, and other big money expenditures. I still rated this book 4 stars as it is a beautiful, eye-catching read, but the information can also be found on HGTV.
51 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Susanka's writing is as good or better than her architecture
10 Sep 2002
Format:Paperback
Once again, Sarah Susanka has taken some pretty basic conceptual problems in home design and explained various solutions to them that are eye-opening to say the least. While this book is a compendium of her "Drawing Board" articles out of Fine Homebuilding Magaine, it gives the reader a real sense of what they can do either through new construction or remodeling to improve their lifestyles as well as their homes.
Bravo, keep on writing Sarah.
Bravo, keep on writing Sarah.
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Useful Information from a Pioneering Voice
21 Nov 2003
Format:Paperback
Within a very short time, Sarah Susanka has had a profound impact on the way families approach the design of their home.
Eschewing the "bigger is better" model that drives the profits of developers and mass production builders, Sarah Susanka has introduced a new vocablary of user-centered design that focuses on the details that make for a pleaant living experience.
Her "smaller is better" philosophy is based on often overlooked details like window size, providing built-in spaces for daily activities, creating "comfort zones" by varying ceiling heights and room lighting, and a myriad of other simple-in-themselves, but major-in-their-impact details.
Not So Big Solutions for Your Home should be considered required reading for you if you're remodeling or building a house you want to be comfortable in.
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