"Hers: Design with a Feminine Touch" by Jacqeline de Montravel~ Puts Womanly Back into Our Spaces

Published by:  Crown Publishing

Pages:  225

Genre:  House & Garden/ Interior Design

The Dame's Review:

Gorgeously, fully realized photos of feminine style in decor harkens back to the essence of being a woman without censure in this lush and liberating book.

Sensuous shapes and styles, delicate to firey colorings and a notable eye for art and accessories give life and light to this book.  You may think you've read and seen all there is to know about decorating and design, but you'll be surprised!

There is so much to this book that it's difficult to summarize the best of it, but I'm going to try by giving you a highlight I loved best: 

The Boudoir:
 The French called it...boudoir meaning "to sulk" which in our day-and-age could easily mean our "meltdown" parlor!  Our place to escape from the stresses of the world that call on our resources, sometimes more than we have to give.

Virginia Wolff called it "A Room of One's Own," and Jacqueline deMontravel calls it "a state-of-mind" place; one that should be inviting and reflective of who we are at our feminine core, and full of those things that we take particular pleasure in and gain peace from.

After studying this beautiful book, I designed my own perfect place and these are a few of the features you'll find in "Hers...":

A huge, ornate mirror framed in mirror pieces and resting on the floor; a button-tufted, large ottoman in blue and champagne silk; a 1700's reproduction chaise, down-filled cushions in washed linen decorated with winter white, blue and pink silk pillows; Louis XVI side chairs in a scrubbed finish; a silver vase of blue hydrangeas and roses...etc...
Does this tell you anything?

In addition to helping find our feminine center in decorating for  "boudoirs," this beautiful book leads us to rethink such other places in our homes as the living room, garden spaces, bar (even stocking and recipes) and entertainment areas, office and collection displays...including book cases.

I highly recommend this book. The pictures alone make it very desirable, of course, as a coffee table book, or for your interior design library collection.  But, more than that, it holds a trip back into the vast history of where we've come from and where we're headed as women in design.

Author Profile:  Jacqueline deMontravel is the editor of "Romantic Homes" and oversees the publication of "Victorian Homes," among her other talents and gifts.  Former editor of "Country Magazine," she's been in the decorating and publishing business for more than two decades.  She's a woman of wisdom and taste.

5 elegant stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame