Reviewed: Design*Sponge at Home [Book]

Late to the party? Nope. I’m trying to drum up some enthusiasm for the decoration phase of our apartment – and the book’s #1 in three Amazon categories. It’s an apt investigation. If you regularly read Design*Sponge and/or love design, you already own the book (it’s probably signed). For the rest of us – here’s what’s what on Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney (2011).

Disclaimer: I hate art. Once, on a school trip, we were left alone for an afternoon – entrusted to enter, visit and digest the Van Gogh Museum. I led the charge – an illegal diversion to the adjacent ice skating rink. The telling-off and punishment essay were far more enjoyable than an entire afternoon of art. Intolerable. So design has never been a big interest. I like the experience of nice-ness, very much, but it stops at a vague appreciation. Getting my apartment to a Design*Sponge level of aesthetic excellence? Seems a huge hassle, and I’d rather someone else do it for me. (Someone? Anyone? Grace?) Three challenges, then, for Ms Bonney:

1. Can she change my mind, and encourage me in arts & crafts?
2. Can the book ignite a design enthusiasm to finish our apartment on a next-to-nothing budget?
3. Can it be done without acquiring more things? I don’t want more things. I want a dog.

Blog-as-Book Experience: Excellent. I wish all blogs came in hardback. It’s more comfortable and 100 times more relaxing – no scrolling, no distractions, no ads. If you, as well, need to look up Jonathan Adler, then we’re very much in this together. And if that’s the case, add a point for Eames chair ignorance and the surprise that its designer, named Ray, is a woman (page viii).

• First impression: It feels like a textbook for a class you like. Very nice paper.
• Second impression: “What the… where’d my book go?” Before I knew what had happened, Paolo had basically stolen it off me. He’d spotted a photo he liked & performed some bait-and-switch wizardry with a cup of coffee. No house magazine had never caught his eye before. Was it the shiny cover?

“Small bathrooms are often the best places to experiment with bold patterns” (page 125). (Yep! Did that!)

Sneak Peeks section: The homes are just that – very comfortable. None seem bothered with impressing. I could imagine going to any of them for dinner – you’d end up gin-drunk, in a heap, playing charades. The top 10 Internet House Pictures pop up throughout the book – recognize this guy?

It’s that bathroom barn door (page 127), finally in context of the whole house, with a bit of background detail too. Ten minutes in? I’m a little bored, but in that contented magazine-flicking kind of way. I want brownies. Ninety minutes? Why, this is a lovely, relaxing afternoon. The houses are young, eclectic & quirky.

Tiny bathroom tiles (page 127). Source: the Bohmerian

Bonney’s blog recommendations: Do I live under an especially large rock? Don’t laugh at me. The Brick House is a new favourite – what with sentences like this: “I’m nothing if not obsessive, ridiculously self-critical and weirdly competitive with that cheapskate thing layered in for extra fun. Not a great combo for basic stuff like a sense of contentment or feelings of ease and satisfaction.” And an inclination to make demands of inanimate objects: “Now get in my kitchen all you things”. You see the appeal?

Craft & DIY sections: 

I’m more caulk gun than glue gun, but I like the idea to stuff floor cushions with your extra/guest bedding rather than sacrifice closet space to rarely used linen (page 225). For more involved sewing & upholstering projects I think I’d have better luck with YouTube.

Flower Freaking Workshop! This year I grew dahlias & would like to know what to do with them. Ok. Page 294. Now I’m learning something. And that is? Keep your filler flower stems crossed in the vase, to act as support for the important ones. I’d always done the exact opposite – untangled everything and shoved hopelessly.

Other D*S book reviews:

1. Diane, a senior editor for a book publisher, was “brimming with ideas after reading this book” {Full review}.
2. Cara promises there’s plenty to love about this book – whether or not you have “the patience for creating starburst patterns on a dresser with small wooden dowels” {Full review}.
3. And, plenty of page shots at Châtelet.

 Covers Canada? A few Toronto homes but location is incidental. Most of the suppliers are U.S.-based. Speaking of Canada, major cool points to me for recognizing the New Pornographers dude (page 104).

1 reason to read it? A nice hanging-out activity. Cold day + warm blanket + hot tea? Cracking book.

Conclusion: It didn’t redesign my apartment for me, or make me any more keen to do so, but I enjoyed my afternoon (and time away from the computer). Perhaps not salvation but definitely entertainment. Bang-for-buck hourly enjoyment ratio? Total consumption time: 2 hours 45 minutes. It costs $23.10 at Amazon (or $25.20 at Amazon.ca, because that makes sense). A house magazine costs, what, $5? I skim through one of those in under half an hour – and half of it’s advertising.

• Design*Sponge: $8.40 per hour’s entertainment
• House magazine: [$5 X (30 minutes X 2) = $10/hour X 1.5 advertisement adjustment] = $15 per hour’s entertainment.

The book lasts longer, and (apparently) appeals to menfolk too. Plus it’s red – call it a Christmas decoration. Have you read it? Bought it, begged it, blagged it? I’ll make you a terrarium if you put art on my walls.

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Glee photo via IMDB