Villa |  | Author: John Saladino
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Category: Book
List Price: $95.00
Buy New: $59.82
as of 7/30/2010 03:44 CDT details
You Save: $35.18 (37%)
New (23) Used (9) from $59.82
Seller: allnewbooks
Rating:  15 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Har/DVD
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.6
Dimensions (in): 13.3 x 13.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0711229686
Dewey Decimal Number: 729
EAN: 9780711229686
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
John Saladino's powerful new book is nothing less than a master class in interior and garden design. Villa focuses on the stone ruin in Southern California that Saladino painstakingly refashioned into his dream house, and it shows how his principles and passions guided him through the five-year process of reconstruction, restoration, and decoration. With the aid of plans and drawings, as well as numerous photographs of the house â how it looked in the 1920s, shots of when he bought it, and snaps taken during reconstruction â Saladino traces the architectural work involved. Then, in a superbly illustrated tour of the house and grounds, he proves that he practices what heâs preached for more than 30 years. Juxtaposing light and dark, old and new, classical and modern, monumental and miniscule, hard and soft, Saladino creates the serenely timeless interiors and gardens that are his hallmark.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
a dream of a house, a dream of a book September 17, 2009
Jesse Kornbluth (New York)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
When the songwriter and singer Curtis Mayfield was at a low point in his career, he made sure he went to the movies every day. Why? "It's important to dream," he said.
Wise man. The "reality" we're sold in the media can't possibly define the limits of our lives. To think so is to invite despair. So we look for beauty, for inspiration. But when we find it in museums, in music or in books, it doesn't always speak to us --- it's not immediate enough, we don't have the vocabulary to process it.
A beautiful house? That we can understand. We may not get the subtleties of the architecture or the décor, but we all have walls, windows, floors and furniture --- comparisons are inevitable and immediate.
If you're going to look at a home of a professional, you can't go wrong with John Saladino, America's most gifted architectural designer. (Not "interior" designer --- Saladino has a large, holistic sense of what a house can be, and that very much includes its site.) In 2001, he bought a 2,500-square-foot villa near Santa Barbara that was well on its way to ruin. Four years later, it is a treasure and then some --- it's simply one of the most beautiful houses in the world.
And now it's the subject of a dream of a book.
Villa is 13.5 inches square. It contains an informative and chatty commentary by Saladino, 256 photographs, plans and drawings, and a DVD that gives you a tour of the house and property. Let us hope that Saladino has a state-of-the-art security system, because every page and image is an invitation for you to break in --- not to take anything, just to experience what it's like to walk in beauty.
"Reality is the enemy," Saladino writes, and so he created an environment that might look natural, but is really sculpted. (The project, he says, was "75% construction, 25% decoration".) Set on a hilltop overlooking the Pacific, he first had to shore up the land, so his creation wouldn't go sliding off its moorings in a landslide. Then he had to attack decades of unfortunate decorating choices.
It took six men a year to sandblast the paint off the stone walls. Terra cotta tiles had to be hand-stained, so they wouldn't look like plastic flooring. Beams were hand-stripped. An amusing touch: Saladino asked the workmen to have a few beers before they started to sand the dining room walls --- he didn't want perfection.
This was a giant construction product, with as many as 40 workers on site each day. The transformation took four years --- twice as long as Saladino had predicted --- and cost three times more than he'd budgeted. "I did make it to dry land," he writes, "but only by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin."
Saladino's design truths can be applied to smaller houses --- and smaller budgets. Among them:
"Every home should be a sanctuary: entering it you should immediately feel physically and emotionally protected."
"The most important thing about color is that it cannot be isolated --- every color is only ever seen in juxtaposition with other ones."
"Any fragments from the past, especially those that you can touch, connect you to the makers of those pieces, making you aware that we are threads in a great tapestry of time."
"Make the largest piece of furniture in the room the same color as either the floor or the walls so its bulk doesn't intrude."
This is not stuffy advice. But then the house, for all its beauty, is strikingly relaxed. And there are a few well-placed jokes. On a statue of Sir Francis Drake, arguably the first Englishman to see the California coast, he set a pair of dark sunglasses. And, to puncture any air of self-importance, he named the retreat Villa di Lemma.
There is no dilemma, of course. In his California home, John Saladino solved every design and decorating problem. The only unhappiness he created is on your coffee table --- all your other books will be wildly jealous of "Villa".
This book is SICK! May 15, 2009
S. Joseph (Encinitas, CA United States)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I work in a bookstore and we are all drooling over this fabulous book. I have seen many decorating books but this one is really special. No matter how thick or thin your wallet is anyone could incorporate elements of John's style (get a few grey/green succulents and make a chic planter for under 20$!). If your taste is traditional or modern each is represented amazingly. Must have this book NOW!
My New Favorite March 26, 2009
davidj (Nashville, TN)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! I can't stop looking at the book. Every time I open it, I see something new. It is a delight for the senses. The dvd is a gorgeous piece of art - I just wish it was longer and covered more of the interior. Even though most of us will never live at such a level, I can admire it for it's subtlety and incredible beauty. What an achievement!
villa desire June 7, 2009
Jose F. Santiago-llorens (puerto rico)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As always Mr. Saladino delivers. His philosophy for beauty (and life) is well reflected in this book. Bravo.
Fantabulous! July 21, 2009
R. Dwayne Harrison (Baltimore, MD United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am thrilled with this book! It has stunning photographer and interesting commentary by the author by Saladino himself. The CD that is in the back of the book is a film traveling up the long driveway to give you a feel for the setting and features gorgeous cinematography of the exterior and interior as well. A bit pretentiously presented but anyone who enjoys the restoration of an old home complete with furnishings and art will eat this up. I still peruse through this one though I bought it months ago. A great coffee table book!!
Dwayne
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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