Peace at Home: Simple Solutions for Relaxing Rooms
The world is a barrage of stress and anxiety, goes the premise of this New Age-y book on interior design, and the home is a peaceful sanctuary for relaxation and contemplation. Drawing on the ancient Indian art of architecture and design called Vastu, which proposes a symbiotic relationship between house and self, Pegrum leads the reader through a series of design-applications-cum-mental-exercises meant to induce tranquility and balance in the spirit. In the living room, the author proposes ornamentation such as tribal masks or silk screens from China, and matter pulled from all five raw elements (ether, air, water, fire and earth). "By bringing representation of these elements into the living room," she writes, "we help balance them within our bodies, achieving inner and outer harmony." Replete with such vague mystical advice, the book largely seems to favor clean, stripped down environments, using natural fibers and Eastern accents to give a feeling of careful placement and simplicity of purpose: think new, mid-range, pan-Asian restaurant.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.