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Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: ...I have now (4-11-2) looked at the book and ordered it online at <allbooks4less.com> (sorry Amazon; I recommend selecting a bookseller...which generates a cost comparison list, including shipping [very important when ordering online], in which Amazon rated 10th out of 53 listed; the first two listed were sold out), based on my impression that, although the book covers houses up to 2750 square feet, it seems to have a significant number of worthwhile ideas that are also shown to enhance houses as small as 640 sf and 520 sf. Even I have to admit that's small! I even nudged my rating up one point.(Original review follows) I have not read or even looked at this book (hence the 3 stars benefit of the doubt), though I will soon. Nonetheless, as an architect, I can assure you that any book based on the presumption of 2500SF as a threshhold for a small house, however worthy it's suggestions, has a preposterous basis. Who is the author (or is it the publisher) kidding? A legitimately small house is certainly less than 1500SF, and probably less than 1200SF or 1000SF. Maybe 2500SF would be tight for the fellow who wrote Cheaper By The Dozen or people who frequently entertain groups of a dozen, but otherwise, who are we kidding? How difficult can it be to "shoehorn" into 2500SF? Make some serious choices, people. Good Grief (thank you, Charlie Brown), most houses SHOULD be less than 2500SF - way less...
Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing, interesting, fun, and helpful
Review: How refreshing this book is. It starts with an intriguing little house on a traffic island somewhere in California. I must have studied the pictures of that house a thousand times by now. But it has ideas, from storage to room arranging, for homes of somewhere around 2500 square feet or less. The square footage is listed with each house. Many are between 1000 and 2000 square feet. It's about time. McMansions in my neck of the woods are running 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 square feet.. Obscene. I wish more builders and architects would get on board with reasonable home sizes again. This book proves that a small house of 2500 square feet or less can live big.
Rating: 
Summary: check it out at the library first
Review: I THOUGHT SOME OF THE ROOMS LOOKED NICE, BUT THE BOOK BASICLY SHOWED YOU WHAT THEY COULD DO WITH A ROOM, NOT REALLY ANY GREAT IDEAS FOR YOU TO TRY ON YOUR OWN. I GUESS I WAS LOOKING FOR A HOW TO BOOK AND THIS WAS NOT IT. SOME OF THE IDEAS LOOKED EXPENSIVE.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, cool, helpful
Review: I wasn't going to write an amazon review until I read an earlier review from someone who thought the book did not offer "actionable tips." I DISAGREE completely. The book is a fun read and filled with stylish (and varied) homes from around the country, but it is giving me one idea after another for making the most of tight spaces. (In our part of the country, we cannot afford a large home.) I have gotten and used several storage ideas, but what I like best are the room arranging ideas and tips on color. This is a 5-star book all around.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: The majority of the photos are of cluttered, out of style room designs and decorating. Disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and surprising
Review: This book is as helpful as I would expect from a name like Better Homes and Gardens, but it has some surprises too because it includes a wide range of homes, from the expected to the unexpected. It got my attention right away because it opens with an ocean-view home built on a kind of traffic island between three streets in California. There are cool '50s ranches as well as more common modern-day houses and lots of info on making spaces feel bigger and work harder.
Rating:
Summary: Marvellous
Review: What a fantastic book....if you live in a small house as I do..1450 sq ft...you need to read this book. Paula so gracefully...& consistently encourages us throughout her book that small is beautiful...& you CAN have the gorgeous well decorated house you crave without letting size get in the way. Her creative ideas are astounding backed by multitudes of small house make-overs brimming with inspiration that's actually useful to those of us who are not rich..yet would like to have the nicest furnishings we can afford. She starts the book off with the premise that we need to STOP dreaming of a bigger house...& start getting bigger inspirations...which is exactly what this book accomplishes so successfully. I no longer long for a bigger house...& I'm in the process now.. of making my small house ...beautiful in every way. Hats off to you Paula for a job well done...wish more decorating books were as grass roots as yours...& delivered what they promise as yours does.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and helpful too
Review: What made this book well worth the money to me was the fact that it was interesting and very current in the kinds of home designs it portrayed yet it has helpful, lasting ideas too. A modern architectural thread runs throughout the homes shown which gives the book a currrent look.
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