Chris Casson Madden Books

A Room of Her Own: Women's Personal Spaces

Chris Casson Madden

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Expert Advice -> Chris Casson Madden

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"In speaking with many women across the country," explains best-selling author Chris Casson Madden in the introduction to her new book, A Room of Her Own: Women's Personal Spaces, "I have discovered that as much as we revel in the hard-won victories that have given us new freedoms in pursuing careers and in creating loving relationships, many of us long to find the time in a busy schedule to relax and refresh ourselves, body and spirit. I firmly believe that in order to give back to our relationships, careers, families, and passions, we must pull in for short moments to take care of ourselves, then we can return to the people and places of our lives renewed, refreshed, and ready to continue the drama of our days with all the joys, sorrows, pleasures, and stresses that go with it."



Throughout America Chris has found women from all walks of life who have created for themselves a diversity of personal spaces that provide them the quiet and solitude needed to restore their souls each day. These range from Ali MacGraw's studio in northern New Mexico, its incredible mountain views provide the silence and tranquillity she needs, to designer Sherri Donghia's fabric-filled loft in her Long Island country home, where she can stop, think, relax, and be really honest and creative, to television commentator Chantal Westerman's home, where, amid a collection of altars, crosses, and other religious icons, she has created a peaceful and serene sanctuary.



With over 200 beautiful, full-color photographs and an intimate, engaging text, A Room of Her Own: Women's Personal Spaces brings to life the special places that women have created as retreats from their busy everyday routines. Within the seven chapters, Celebrating Color, Sacred Places, Working Sanctuaries, Natural Retreats, Serene Spaces, Evoking Memories, and Garden Rooms, innovative and stylish ideas for creating a room of one's own abound. Ella King Torrey, President of the San Francisco Art Institute, explains in Celebrating Color why she gravitates toward her sitting room in her home in San Francisco. "I just relax and think in this room," Ella explains. "This room really feeds my soul and reminds me of life's wonderful possibilities. Every object in this room is connected to a personal place or experience, and so sitting in this room keeps me whole."



Carol Anthony, Chantal Westerman, Sally Quinn, Sister Mary Joaquin, and Ali MacGraw all share a passion for the spirit within, for altars, rituals, and the silent, reverent spaces that are profiled in Sacred Places. Artist Carol Anthony has a "sanctuario," or shrine. It is a thatched-dome adobe structure surrounded by sage brush and aspen trees where she retreats to rekindle the strength she derives from her beloved New Mexico landscape and finds the muse that is necessary for her career as a highly acclaimed artist.



Ali MacGraw shares a need for a space filled with personal belongings with all of the women featured in A Room of Her Own. "There are lots of photographs of my son, my friends, our animals, mementos from my travels, wildflowers, found rocks and bits from my walks in the arroyo. I think that all of us, men and women, need a tiny spot of total privacy, of stillness, to reconnect with our own souls. I know that the ability to regenerate, to get away a bit, enhances not only my mental health but my ability to work and create and, probably, to navigate the complicated relationships that make up the rest of my life."



An avid spokesperson for the outdoor life and one of the country's most notable mountain climbers, Sandy Hill finds that a rainbow-colored Tibetan tent pitched on the lawn of her Connecticut home fulfills her need for a private space. The tent, featured in Working Sanctuaries, was purchased en route to Mount Everest. It is filled with a myriad of pieces that she values emotionally and spiritually. "Everything in this space is necessary to my well-being," she explains.



Designer Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, who, along with her husband, Richard Childs, employs more than three hundred craftspeople, finds her sanctuary in her office, where she can be alone to catch up on correspondence and work. "But my real personal space," explains MacKenzie-Childs, "is a place in consciousness that cannot be taken from or added to. It is truly heaven on earth."



Martha Baker, the mother of four children, a wife, homemaker, career woman, gardener, sports enthusiast, and entertainer, finds that her bedroom offers her a personal space and realizes that it is "as essential to my life as is oxygen." Explains Baker, "I desperately needed sanctuary. My antique-filled bedroom is a place where I feel safe not to think to wander or to tune out. Its a place where I feel I can pull together my thoughts, have a private phone conversation, or just pause in my day."



In Garden Rooms, Pat Mason, Bunny Williams, Jessica McClintock, Antonia Bellanca-Mahoney and Lynn von Kersting find their solace surrounded with lush flowers, beloved plants, and an abundance of light pouring in through windows.



For Antonia Bellanca-Mahoney, her sanctuary is her pavilion, a twenty-five-square-foot room with creamy white walls and a slate floor, as well as a glass-fronted garage door that allows her to keep an eye on the world. "Men have always understood the need for a personal space, their hunting cabin, fishing boat, favorite car, woodworking shop, their little shack by the pond, or even their reclining chair in the den," muses Antonia. "Women have such constant demands between work and family that time and space to recharge is a must to maintain equilibrium."



Chris Madden sought out the places women create as retreats from the demands around them. "The connective thread, she concludes, for all of these personal spaces, is that each one, in dazzlingly different ways, brings its owner the sense of solitude, of the sanctuary they need in their rich and engaged lives. Amid the diversity, there were some elements that I found repeated often such things as glorious fabric and pillows, baskets and bird nests, stones, altars, photographs, and row upon row of hats, boats, books, and shells. Music, scented candles, and views of nature were important elements in these zones of privacy, and help to form the creation of each of these personal spaces."

Jessica McClintock's Simply Romantic Decorating: Creating Elegance and Intimacy Throughout Your Home

Jessica McClintock, Karen Kelly

Amazon Price: $21.45 List Price: $32.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Rodale Books Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $9.74

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Award-winning designer Jessica McClintock, whose name is synonymous with romance, shows readers how to cultivate lush, delicate beauty and warmth in their own living spaces

From special-occasion wear and perfume to home accessories and furnishings, Jessica McClintock has created a lifestyle brand dedicated to romance and femininity—one that resonates with generations of women all over the world. Her San Francisco Victorian house is the epitome of intimacy and grace and has been featured on television programs and in such magazines as Victoria, Architectural Digest, Redbook, and Home Design. Now she invites readers into her home and shows them how to incorporate romantic elements into their own homes, without sacrificing their individual style or spending a great deal of time or money.

The book’s special features include:

• chapters devoted to each room in the house with innovative ideas for bringing romance and comfort into every corner, including outdoor spaces

• illustrated do-it-yourself projects inspired by Jessica’s décor using simple design principles, basic sewing and crafting skills, and a little imagination

• a private tour of the author’s showplace home—inside and out—through 100 gorgeous, full-color photographs, shot exclusively for this book

Jessica McClintock’s Simply Romantic Decorating is a blueprint for readers on how to indulge their romantic decorating fantasies with timeless style and personal flair.

Bedrooms: Creating the Stylish, Comfortable Room of Your Dreams

Chris Casson Madden

Amazon Price: $10.99 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Clarkson Potter Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $5.49

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Bedrooms 1 out of 5 stars.
29 of 41 people found this review helpful.

Very nicely photographed and detailed illustrations. However, doesn't give a lot of hints or guidelines to creating the same effects in your own spaces. But overall, a very nice reference book for ideas and inspirations. Would have loved it with actual floor plans of the rooms shown.

Editorial Review:

The bestselling author of A Room of Her Own, Kitchens, and Bathrooms is back with Bedrooms, a showcase of exciting decorating ideas for the most intimate room of the house.

Chris Madden's Guide to Personalizing Your Home: Simple, Beautiful Ideas for Every Room

Chris Casson Madden

List Price: $20.00 By: Clarkson Potter Amazon Marketplace: 246 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Lots of simple suggestions to add character to your home. 4 out of 5 stars.
81 of 82 people found this review helpful.

I am not the type to spend a lot of time pouring over decorating books, nor am I particulary "handy". When we recently purchased a small vacation rental, I found myself in need of nice, comfortable, affordable touches for each room. This book provided just the suggestions I needed: simple, feasible (both in effort and economics) and inventive.

I liked how chapters were devoted to a every area in the house - even the entry hall. Each room/chapter had a simple list of ideas broken down into catagories for traditional, creative or romantic decorating. I was able to flip to a chapter, skim the lists and find ideas that would work for me. Thank you Ms. Madden.

Simple Ideas for Accessorizing Rooms 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The author shares her experiences, mistakes, problems and solutions going room-by-room, starting with the foyer. The few photos show her lovely home, but are randomly placed throughout the book, not with the section on that room.
The focus is mostly on adding accessories though there is some advice on selecting and placing furniture. The ideas for each room are divided into romantic, adventurous, contemporary, traditional and serene.
Here are a few of the tips so you get a feel for it:
* Frame your favorite restaurant's menus to hang in the dining room.
* Buy simple white cotton pillows and handwrite your favorite sayings on them with a fabric pen.
* Place a small Oriental or prayer rug next to your tub for a unique bath mat.
You are bound to find some ideas you can use in the 142 page book, but it has the feel of an extended magazine article.

Editorial Review:

In this well-priced, thoroughly appealing new compendium of decorating tips and techniques, the author of Kitchens and Bathrooms and host of HGTV's Interiors by Design demonstrates the best, quickest, and easiest ways to personalize any room. 50 two-color illustrations. 8 color photos.

Bathrooms: Inspiring Ideas and Practical Solutions for Creating a Beautiful Bathroom

Chris Casson Madden

List Price: $32.50 By: Clarkson Potter Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $0.47

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Not so practical solutions 1 out of 5 stars.
75 of 78 people found this review helpful.

The subtitle reads "Inspiring Ideas and Practical Solutions for Creating a Beautiful Bathroom." The photos may be inspiring, but the book certainly has no practical solutions. There are lots of beautiful photos of bathrooms (most from New York and surrounding area); however, the photos were selected more for artistic content than because they described the layout or features of the bathrooms. For example there are nice closeups of brushes and sponges, a pile of toilet paper rolls, etc. These photos cannot possibly help the reader in search of practical solutions. Similarly, only 6 of the descriptions include floor plans. As for the book's advice on building a bathroom: find a contractor or architect with whom you can work, and be sure to shop around. There are a few pages with b&w photos of bath fixtures only, but the listings only include a few of the most expensive styles. The resource guide is almost of no value. It is a directory listing of suppliers and architects (without web listings) and nothing more. If you want to look at nice pictures of some very nicely finished and expensive bathrooms, this could be the book for you, but if you want any help with the practical design, construction, material selection, layout, etc. look elsewhere.

Editorial Review:

Bathrooms is a richly illustrated, full-color survey of 30 of the country's most stylish and inviting bathrooms, with extensive source reference and practical information on how to make a dream bathroom a reality. Includes a detailed listing of the latest fixtures and products available for baths, along with advice on hiring a contractor or architect.

Getaways: Carefree Retreats for All Seasons

Chris Casson Madden

List Price: $35.00 By: Clarkson Potter Amazon Marketplace: 66 new & used starting at $0.56

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Whether it's a weekend home, a shady retreat out in the garden, or just the memory of a summer spent at the beach, many of us associate a specific place with a feeling of getting away from it all. It's a place one goes to feel removed from the stresses of modern life and leaves feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

Of course, your idea of a getaway depends on your definition of relaxation, and Chris Casson Madden's Getaways serves up a variety of exemplary, sometimes lavish, retreats, such as a 58-foot boat; a family farm with a menagerie of horses, ducks, geese, and goats; and a compound in the Hudson River Valley with its own natural waterfall. Several celebrity getaways are featured as well, including Michael Keaton's cabin on his Montana dude ranch, a boathouse on the Hudson River that serves as Toni Morrison's creative inspiration, and Katie Couric's country home.

Not all of Casson's getaways are the typical weekend or summer homes. Some are year-round retreats or even special rooms within a home. Donna Kaplan's re-created 19th-century French bathroom, with its antique glass perfume bottles, tapered candles, and fireplace, leaves her well rested after a long soak in the cast-iron tub. Lynn von Kersting and Richard Irving's Sunset Boulevard home has a pool and a porch filled with bohemian furnishings, cozy paper lanterns and candles, and lush tropical flowers and plants--a perfect spot for entertaining friends. Bob Levenson's garden getaway is a backyard arbor consisting of four intertwined gingko trees layered with clematis and climbing roses.

These imaginatively decorated and diverse retreats should inspire those with beach houses, cabins, and the like to consider how the elements of a "getaway" can be incorporated into their second home. And those currently without a getaway may be motivated to simply set aside a room or space outdoors that can serve as a sanctuary from busy otherworlds. --Kris Law

Chris Casson Madden's New American Living Rooms

Chris Casson Madden

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Usually the first room to greet guests, the living room is not only the most public area of any home, but also its most multifunctional. This essential room fills a variety of roles—from entertainment center to study area, children’s play zone to library, not to mention serving as the family’s gathering space, complete with couch and coffee table. Now Chris Casson Madden, nationally renowned design expert and author of Bedrooms, Getaways, and A Room of Her Own, imparts a wealth of decorating expertise in her new book, Chris Casson Madden’s New American Living Rooms. Showcasing a dazzling array of some of the most beautiful rooms across the country, Madden proves that living rooms can be at once practical, inviting, and inspiring.

Living rooms often present unique design challenges: they can range from great rooms with fifteen-foot-high
ceilings that stretch across half the house to small spaces that relate awkwardly to the rest of the home. In addition, the multifunctional character of these areas makes them all the more complex. Yet Madden highlights a myriad of design solutions that can make decorating this room painless, even pleasurable. She offers options and ideas to suit many tastes—whether you favor sleek, modern styling or old-world elegance, Asian-inspired elements or classical influences.

With homes from California to Connecticut, New Mexico to Maine, the book features nearly two dozen extraordinary living rooms. For large, open spaces, Madden offers creative ways to integrate all the activities of a living room, dining room, family room, library, bar, and study. She examines spaces that open onto gardens, pools, kitchens, or play areas and others that are centered around musical instruments, entertainment units, art, or books. She offers terrific ideas for handling storage and equipment problems and shows how the same room can be used for quiet time, family time, and entertaining.

Ultimately, Madden presents living rooms that are gorgeous, at times even luxurious, while remaining comfortable, nurturing, and appropriate for the families who use them—a difficult balance to strike, but it’s what makes Chris Casson Madden’s New American Living Rooms the essential guide to decorating these rooms for real life.

Haven: Finding the Keys to Your Personal Decorating Style

Chris Casson Madden

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Clarkson Potter Amazon Marketplace: 82 new & used starting at $0.35

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

How do you make a home a haven? Whether your ideal is a romantic bedroom accented by softly luxurious accessories, an adventurous living room filled with vibrant throws and colorful pillows, or a serene dining room layered with pure white linens and cream-colored table settings, the space should be a clear and vivid reflection of you--incorporating your treasures, your passions, and the many aspects of your personality.

National design expert Chris Madden understands that comfortable, beautiful rooms start from within, taking into account the feeling you want a room to elicit, how you envision using your space, and the fact that spending time in your home must be a sensual and fulfilling experience for all its occupants, a haven that embraces the five senses.

Using the insights gained from two decades of design experience, Chris Madden has designed a simple, creative road map for decorating cozy, welcoming spaces that nurture and restore. Chris helps us to discover and explore our own design personality--whether Adventurous, Romantic, or Serene--and presents these three distinctive styles in a variety of settings.

Each style is broken down into its most basic elements, including texture and color, so anyone can create the stylish
looks. A list of essentials for each, including a guide to the perfect accessories, fabrics, and surface treatments, plus furniture suggestions, helpful color palettes, and ways to indulge the five senses form a detailed guide for creating the ultimate oasis.

For the romantic at heart, imagine gingham-checked sheets, a cotton summer slipcover on an easy chair, thick fringe on a curtain, or a cut crystal bowl. Adventurous decorators will learn how to display their eclectic collections and create excitement with lush velvets and silks mixed with animal prints and vibrant colors. For those who seek a sense of calm in their homes, a serene space in creamy neutrals, filled with clean-lined furniture and flooded with natural light, creates a rejuvenating haven. Photographs of dozens of extraordinary rooms will inspire any decorator, whether his or her tastes favor simplicity or detailed exuberance.

Chris Madden’s practical, stylish, and comfortable designs have motivated millions to create spaces that are both beautiful and deeply personal. With Haven: Finding the Keys to Your Personal Decorating Style, she encourages everyone to decorate rooms that reflect the people who create and enjoy them.

Kitchens: Information & Inspiration for Making the Kitchen the Heart of the Home

Chris Casson Madden

List Price: $45.00 By: Clarkson Potter Amazon Marketplace: 68 new & used starting at $0.46

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Very dated 1 out of 5 stars.
16 of 17 people found this review helpful.

I didn't know when I ordered this that it was such an old book. It's not that the kitchens are bad but the book and the rooms in it are so dated. I feel that I did not get my money's worth. I assumed that the book would give me some fresher ideas than these. A real disappointment.

THIS BOOK IS EXCELLENT, I THINK EVERY AUTHOR SHOULD READ IT. 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 19 people found this review helpful.

CRHIS MADDEN HAVE BEEN A FAVORITE OF MIND FOR YEARS, THIS BOOK IS GREAT, I DON'T OWN IT SO I CONSTANTLY CHECK IT OUT OF THE LIBRARY, AND I RENEW IT, EVERYTIME MY RENEW TIME IS OVER.

THANKS FOR A GREAT BOOK.

Old Fashioned Type Kitchens 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I think the person who reviewed the book as too old, misunderstood the book's intent. The book is about barn kitchens, retro kitchens, cottage kitchens, farm type kitchens. Depends on what you want your kitchen to look like. Not all of us want a light beech modern kitchen that looks sterile.

Editorial Review:

Inspiring is the best way to describe the 38 great American kitchens visited through hundreds of close-up photographs in this beautiful collection. Informative text and captions give full details, from the basic elements of kitchen style to ideas for simple decorative touches. Full color and black-and-white photographs.

Room With a View: Two Decades of Outstanding American Interior Design from the Kips Bay Decorator Show Houses

Chris Casson Madden, Sister Parish, Albert Hadley

List Price: $39.95 By: Rizzoli Intl Pubns Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $24.99

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