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Home & Interior Design books:
Mediterranean Inspiration: 125 Home Plans Inspired by Southern European Style (Inspiration (Homeplanners))

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Mediterranean Inspiration -
Title should be "Mediterranean Lack of Inspiration".
This book will appeal to those with too much money, too few brains and absolutly no taste
Although America, rightly so, lays claim to some of the finest examples of Mediterranean Revival in the world, this book does nothing to bring the reader into the understated elegance created by those homes. Instead it continues the trite and tasteless habit of ostentatious behavior we Yanks have become known for the world over. The designs are thinly vieled examples of the MacMansions found on converted corn fields, complete with corn fed owners, throughout America. Bigger is better and gaudy is better still.
The book should not be used for reference material or even a coffee table book unless you need something on which you may rest your Bud while watching Monster Truck episodes.
Using this book for reference will not supply any insight into the Mediterreanean style, but it will demonstrate just how good we are at commandeering a style that has been perfected over hundreds of years and "fixing" or "improving" it.
If you are interested in the Mediterranean style in America, try "Red Tile Style" by Aroll Gellner or "Santa Barbara Style" by Kathryn Masson.
There are also many books covering he work of Addison Mizner and George Washington Smith in Florida and giants such as Julia Morgan in the West.
This book MIGHT be good to line the cat's litter box, but be forwarned, the cat may object.

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Affectation In-A-Box -
.
gauche: Lacking social polish; tactless

gauche --Synonyms inept, clumsy, maladroit; coarse, gross, uncouth

This offers the reader All of the above and more.

Several issues are immediately apparent. First, is the lack of congruity it seems, of a philosophy (or budget) that would purchase plans from a mass-marketed stylebook on the cheap, only to have designs embellished with an excess of budget-busting ornamentation, inordinate angles, appliqué, unnecessary fictitious details, fatuous decoration and curves upon curves.

Anyone expecting to save money on this type of approach to building is setting himself or herself up for a HUGE awakening. One is well advised to consult a designer, building designer, or architect prior to purchasing such plans and proceeding with wise professional counsels.

Essentially what the reader is purchasing is a catalog of 125 cookie-cutter, in your face track home plans, from which they can select the one design on which to spend another thousand dollars (give or take depending on the plan) to secure the foundation plans, detailed floor plans, cross sections, structural plans, exterior elevations, and electricals.

These ersatz, eclectic "Mediterranean Inspiration" designs "steal and borrow" (the word begins with a "B" and will not pass the filter although a legitimate clean word) from Neoclassical, Story Book Style, Norman, Gothic, Tudor, doghouse. They brim with ostentatious details that betray the very fundamental standards of taste and refinement that the purchaser hopes to transmit.

The designs are a miscellany of plans intended to impress; yet lack the grace, elegance, and fundamental standards of good taste.

The reader should recognize that they will need to float their furniture on all those curves that are so beguiling on paper. The reader needs to identify 12-foot living room space as too small, or a 10-foot circular breakfast room that looks better on paper than the Gestalt of its reality. Consider all those eyebrow, and Palladian curved windows that look great on the exterior elevations will also require window treatments. Curved arches, arch-over-standard, circles, octagons, hexagons, trapezoids, angled top or bottom, and cutout shades are all going to require custom solutions that are not only far more costly than standard windows, but they also frequently detract from the interior surroundings they are supposed to enhance.

This book might be useful to free up creative blocks for those persons collecting ideas for their building projects. Nonetheless spare yourself the troubles of buying the actual plans without professional counsels.

Jolene's Reviews -
This book has beautiful photos and sketched home plans for luxurious living. If you are looking for ideas to build an estate or a waterfront home, this is a good choice. It has home plans from designers like Sater.