Rating: 
Summary: I Love this book
Review: I've owned this book now for two years and I keep referring to it over and over. I wish that Rachel Ashwell would come out with these types of books more often. This book continues to provide me with decorating inspiration. Also, I very much appreciate the fact that she doesn't go on and on for paragraphs at a time. Many other books on decorating have a tendency to become boring with too much wording. Rachel just gets to the point. Rachel's home is lovely and the pictures are fabulous. It's too bad that the Shabby Chic stores throughout the country do not follow her advice about home decor articles being inexpensive. I was utterly shocked and completely disappointed that the prices of things in the Shabby Chic stores are way through the roof, and unaffordable for anyone except the wealthy. It is a total contradiction of what Rachel Ashwell advocates in her books.
Rating:
Summary: I Love this book
Review: I've owned this book now for two years and I keep referring to it over and over. I wish that Rachel Ashwell would come out with these types of books more often. This book continues to provide me with decorating inspiration. Also, I very much appreciate the fact that she doesn't go on and on for paragraphs at a time. Many other books on decorating have a tendency to become boring with too much wording. Rachel just gets to the point. Rachel's home is lovely and the pictures are fabulous. It's too bad that the Shabby Chic stores throughout the country do not follow her advice about home decor articles being inexpensive. I was utterly shocked and completely disappointed that the prices of things in the Shabby Chic stores are way through the roof, and unaffordable for anyone except the wealthy. It is a total contradiction of what Rachel Ashwell advocates in her books.
Rating:
Summary: A Guest into the Shabby Chic Home...
Review: If you love the Shabby Chic look, as I do. You will feel like you are a guest in Rachel Ashwell's Home. She lets you be a part of everything she has done in the house. You get great decorating ideas but most of all you realize you dont have to spend alot of money to make your surroundings inviting to yourself and make your guests feel at home.
Rating: 
Summary: One of my two favorite books of the season
Review: In this pretty book, we finally get to see more rooms. (Her previous books focused more on tight photos of objects, tabletops, and the like.) Another MUST-SEE book this season is Flea Market Decorating, which also focuses on decorating with such treasures. Flea Market Decorating is a bit more sophisticated than the shabby chic book, and it's fun for me to look at and read because I like to do thing my own way, and Flea Market Decorating shows me a variety of styles, whbile the shabby chic books are kind of limiting, style-wise.
Rating: 
Summary: From junk to pretty junque.
Review: It is a pretty good book if you are into making the most out of found items for decorating. It's emphasize is a little too flowery romantic style for me but if that is your style this book has a lot of ideas. It would be perfect for the 20 something female in college or in her first apartment who likes the feminine artsy junque look. This author is creative and her ideas are pretty. Not alot of new ideas but nicely done pictures for inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: The Diary of a Home
Review: It's perfect, it's the kind of book I dream to find. Rachel Ashwell wrote a book like a diary, a diary of her home. It gives the delicious sensation of penetrating the intimate areas of a beloved one. And that's the spirit of the book: the story of a woman, her family and her home! We are allowed to penetrate her room, her bathroom, her closet... to know every little thing she chose to her home. It's about a woman with an open heart, with an open mind, to show us her little world. Rachel, it's really delicious!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Not So Shabby
Review: Not a lot of helpful advice here, just a lot of pictures of her, not a lot of ideas either. If you want a book with pretty pictures this might do. Otherwise, buy a good decorating magazine. I gave this book away.
Rating:
Summary: Third Time's the Charm!
Review: Rachel Ashwell knows what works for her--white, cream, pink and green--and several trips to the fabulously overloaded flea markets of Southern California. Fans of her funky but glamorous style certainly won't be disappointed by this latest addition to the Shabby Chic shrine, and the funny thing is, other decorating fans will enjoy this, too. Ms. Ashwell tends to become a bit annoying with her rules of white and pink, but I think this book shows she's relaxing a bit, allowing turquoise and cerise into her palette as well. The Malibu house she found for her family is just plain fantastic, with lots of charm and happy personality. The pool and garden areas are just the place you'd like to flop down and spend a lifetime, and her shots of her daughter's room show a nice mix of mom's and daughter's compromising for one another. Where, however, is her son in all this? I think he was mentioned less than half a dozen times! Don't boys fit into the Shabby Chic scheme, too? One word of caution with this book: although it is far more accessible than her last two, readers who don't live in as amenable a climate as Ms. Ashwell might find it a bit hard to take. All that white would sure get old in northern climates come February. If you cannot afford to have wholesale flowers delivered weekly to your home, or don't feel the need to match your shampoo to your decorating colorways, you might feel a bit perplexed by this book!
Rating:
Summary: Ignore the poor reviews!
Review: So few people can be original, and do it well - as Rachel Ashwell does.If you are looking for an interior design book with fixed sets of rules by which to be slavishly passive and disempowered by - this is NOT the book for you. A good design book, such as this one, is written with the intent to stimulate one's imagination and confidence. Rachel Ashwell shares her own experience of magically transforming her home into one that she loves - showing each reader that what YOU make of your home will be better than what anyone else could do. An example is the willingness to coat the exposed wood in her home with several coats of white paint, despite many naysayers with theories of masking the wood's "life". Although I can't see myself decorating in the same palette or manner that Ms. Ashwell does, that did not prevent me from being utterly delighted with this book. I challenge anyone who says that this book is about Rachel Ashwell's ego, for it is not. She writes in the 1st person as a way to share the great degree of satisfaction she gets from making her space into one that suits her needs. Her viewpoint reminds us that cultivating an environment is a living and breathing practice - one that requires a heightened awareness of the impact colors and objects have on ourselves. Also, I enjoy seeing pictures of her and her family in the photographs. What better way to show that these spaces are lived in and human-sized? Seeing a photograph of a person makes it easier to imagine oneself moving through the spaces, enjoying surprises with each glance. Locale IS integral to "Shabby Chic". This book was written in a spirit of joy, trust, and sharing. These are the intended gifts to the reader of this book - gifts I am happy to have recieved.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The book covers some of the things I find in my favorite decorating magazines, such as Better Homes and Gardens, but it lacks the depth and the variety that I want. This is one person's view of design, and there isn't room for me to develop my own ideas or insert myself into these pictures. I prefer magazines and books that respect my intelligence and offer a wider range of ideas and styles from which I can choose.
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