Wooden Houses

Rating:
Summary: Note quite what I was expecting
Review: It is a good book, but based on the cover, the description and the other review, I was expecting more Arts & Crafts/Craftsman/Post & Beam/Greene & Greene/Frank Lloyd Wright/Mahady & Associates/etc. style homes and fewer Colonial/Log Cabin/Rustic homes. I just don't consider the latter group to be "elegant". Overall, it is a good book, but not quite what I was expecting.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Book
Review: The moment you open this book you will feel inspired to work with wood in your home. It covers wooden building styles from medieval huts (still in existence from pre 1350 in Finland), through New England clapperboard, through log cabins and swiss chalets. These are enchanting enough, but the photographs of the interiors are fantastic. From deepest rustic, heavy hewn log interiors, to beautrifully painted 18th and 19th century wood panelled rooms. Its all in here.

A celebration of wood. As a huge fan of this natural building material I was delighted with the rich and endlessly varied illustrations. This is not, I should add, a "how to build" book. There is relatively little text, and all illustrations are full colour photographs of real wooden houses (no line drawings, or plans.) But that said, I have drawn great inspiration from it, and would use it directly to instruct a carpenter or architect I was working with.

For all who truely love wood as a buliding and decorative material, this book is a must.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent portrait of the universal use of wood in homes.
Review: The moment you open this book, you feel the reverance for wood. There is the comfort and coziness in the settings and the elegance in the designs. This is a unique book both for the purist and for traditionalist and every page is a delight. A required reading.

editor/ranchandhome.com