In the Romantic Style: Creating Intimacy, Fantasy and Charm in the Contemporary Home
by By Cerwinske, Laura and Chase, Linda
Category: Architecture , Interior Design , General

Less a single visual approach than an attitude toward design, the romantic style satisfies our desire for rooms that we and those we love will find pleasurable. Homes decorated in the romantic style range from delightfully casual disorder to elaborate stagings of domestic theater. Whether whimsically enchanted or elegantly restrained, they beckon with the promise of comfort. Warmly lit and dressed in alluring fabrics, they soothe the spirit and tantalize the eye. Unconventional, unrestricted by tradition, and not limited to one historical period or particular geography, the romantic style draws upon many varied tastes and cultural influences. It marries, for example, the femininity of Victorian fashion with the charm of country French or the glamour of Art Deco with the exoticism of the Orient. In the Romantic Style shows how to transform simple, everyday rooms into objects of desire and how, even without an aristocratic purse, it is possible to make romantic rooms out of majestic dreams. It explores the history of romantic design and describes in informative detail how curtains can soften an interior, details can entice the eye, and finishes can make rooms more seductive. 149 color photographs and illustrations.