Rating: 
Summary: Love it. Love it. Love it!
Review: I love this book. The rooms are calming and very elegant. Too many designers today think that practical home decor means beat-up furniture, clutter, or mixing-and-matching 100 different styles. I bought this book because I wanted rooms that were clean and used space well. Mariette gives great advice, and she says you don't need to follow her excactly. She encourages you to do what feels right, and to work within your budget. After reading the book, I created similar rooms in my home using items bought at Marshall's, Target, and the Ikea catalog.
Rating: 
Summary: Luxury in the simplified details
Review: I was saddened to see several people didn't understand how Ms. Gomez' definition of luxury fit into daily lives. Not all designers' styles will appeal to everyman, and this I think is truly the case here. I fully melted into these photos (any designer's text will get old after awhile, but the visuals are what matters in most shelter books/mags anyway), and believe that luxury is that one beautiful chair, eating off of the silver instead of stainless, or editing a room's structure, content, and "feel" until the only things that are there are what is truly beautiful or truly useful--heard that phrase before?? Luxury is in the color, the texture, the way something speaks to you, quiet and consistent. For some, that means there should be more of everything, much like Mario Buatta. For some, it's John Saladino, Victoria Hagan, Barbara Barry...or Mariette Hines-Gomez. It's the difference between an emerald-cut diamond v. a round cut surrounded by pave stones, or the classic cashmere turtleneck and trousers or that pair of perfectly broken in jeans, or a heavily beaded dress...each luxurious in its own way and appropriate for some people but not everyone. In the furnishings world, some people are Hepplewhite, some are Pottery Barn, and others are drawn to Ms. Gomez or, to the mass market, C.S. Post or Baker's Milling Road. Nothing wrong with any of these--it's what says "home" to YOU. This book will show you how to pare things down, using quality of any age, mixing a Paris deco chair with a more traditional desk or or steel and glass table with a Chippendale tufted sofa. It's just as easy to live in these rooms as any other, IF you're in a room that reflects who YOU are. That's what design is all about; if a room that's been fit with subtle enhancements, like great moldings or a simple slate fireplace surround, furniture with great lines and fabric, and less ornamentation appeals to you, then "Rooms" will be a book you pore over, again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: Is it just me?
Review: Is it just me, or do other people find designer's books like this sort of dated and even annoying? I received this as a birthday gift and I looked through it and was put off. I don't need a so-called tastemaker to tell me how to decorate, and I found the rooms shown very sort of grim and dated. They sure don't like very livable. I think this designer is buying into the dated old "do your house to show off for your friends" mentality. The rooms are very offputting. Bleah!
Rating:
Summary: does anyone check these reviewers?
Review: The "reader from Florida" review sounds as if the author wrote it. It sounds fake. And no one signed a name to it which makes me believe it's fake. I just wrote a review of this. We tested this book at a gathering of affluent suburban Chicago women, and we agreed that it didn't show the kind of comfort we all want right now. We are not into junk furniture or beat up furniture but into rooms that look welcoming and relaxing vs. formal and stiff. Some of the attempts to create "luxurious livable spaces" in this book were actually funny because they were so far off the mark.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected. A waste of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Review: The rooms in this book are attractive enough but they don't fit the book's title or premise. I feel cheated because I wanted a book that does what it promises by telling me how to create 'luxurious, livable spaces.' I knew I hated the photo on the cover but bought the book anyway, which was my mistake. (A room with one ottoman in it? Is that 'livability?') After I bought the book, I read that the author is a designer who is big in New York. That explains a lot about the stiffness and unreality of the rooms shown in the book. Some of those New York designers should get out and see the rest of America some time. This book is not what it is cracked up to be.
Rating:
Summary: Very boring, very depressing and not comfortable looking
Review: The rooms in this book are boring, depressing, and not comfortable looking. As a newcomer to the decorating book world (I'm looking at lots of books as I work on my home), I am learning to beware of words such as "luxurious," or "taste," or "elegance" which may indicate that some author or designer is about to tell me how I should live. As I went through this book I saw that this author's idea of "luxury" is very formal and stiff which (to me) is not "luxurious" at all. Luxury (to me) means being able to relax completely in my home. Unfortunately, this author doesn't get that and has filled this book with overly formal, overly fussy, overly traditional and therefore uncomfortable rooms. I can't imagine who would really want to live this way.
Rating:
Summary: Very boring, very depressing and not comfortable looking
Review: The rooms in this book are boring, depressing, and not comfortable looking. As a newcomer to the decorating book world (I'm looking at lots of books as I work on my home), I am learning to beware of words such as "luxurious," or "taste," or "elegance" which may indicate that some author or designer is about to tell me how I should live. As I went through this book I saw that this author's idea of "luxury" is very formal and stiff which (to me) is not "luxurious" at all. Luxury (to me) means being able to relax completely in my home. Unfortunately, this author doesn't get that and has filled this book with overly formal, overly fussy, overly traditional and therefore uncomfortable rooms. I can't imagine who would really want to live this way.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, come on........
Review: The title of this book is a lie. The places shown in this book and the pricey products shown in those places make this book a lovely book to look at but not a book that will give you any ideas you can act on. If you want a coffee table book to impress friends or to browse through, fine. If you have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on one room, fine. But if you want to learn how to create "luxurious, livable spaces," do not buy this. I bought it and I'm sorry. I'm annoyed with the author, and I'm annoyed with myself for buying into the lie.
Rating:
Summary: Tasteful, elegant and inspirational
Review: This book is not for all, as the interiors may not suit the average lifestyle. However, it has some of the most elegant, balanced and peaceful interiors I have seen. While it may be difficult to replicate these rooms in the typical home, certainly the peices and ideas from these rooms provide wonderful guidelines and inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Geml!!
Review: This book is trully inspiring. These rooms are both elegant and comfortable. If you like neutral tones, dark woods, moldings, etc. this book is for you. If you can't go a day without watching Trading Spaces because you actually like the shocking mix of colors (orange, lime greens, etc.), this book is not for you! Although some people might say that they could never afford to design rooms like these, that's just not true. Use your creativity and shop around. Maybe your room doesn't have the architectural details that some of these rooms have, so what?!? Add a little molding, use the same color schemes, and don't forget to use some imagination...
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