Foreword Magazine
2002 Nonfiction Book of the Year Award Winner
Book Description
In her newest book, Villa Décor, Betty Lou Phillips discusses how to mix styles, furnishings, inspirations, and colors from different eras and locations to create the looks for which the French and Italian people are known-wisps of elegance, hints of regal color, textures that delight and inspire. Villa Décor illustrates the mastery of the fabled French way of melding the past with the present so each is seen in the best possible light, as well as the uncanny Italian knack of linking rooms effortlessly with patterns and palettes without detracting from the furnishings or objets d'art, capturing a trend in American decorating. Betty Lou Phillips demonstrates how to virtuously juxtapose various periods and styles in widely diverse, satisfying rooms that are never dull or predictable. Quiet French elegance, Italian romance, and the simplicity of sweet life-la dolce vita.
Publisher comments
Betty Lou Phillips demonstrates how to virtuously juxtapose various periods and styles in widely diverse, satisfying rooms that are never dull or predictable. Quite French elegance and Italian romance combine to create the simplicity of sweet life - la dolce vita.
About the author
Author of French Influences, French by Design, and Provencal Interiors: French Country Style in America, Betty Lou Phillips is a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers. Her design work has appeared in Southern Accents, Traditional Home, Bedroom & Bath, Window and Wall, and Decorating. In addition, she has appeared on the Christopher Lowell Show and the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Excerpted from Villa Decor: Distinctively French and Italian by Betty Lou Phillips. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From page 3: In the discriminating world of interior design, France and Italy have forever commanded respect, setting standards of excellence with their fine furniture, regal array of textiles, and papiers peints, or painted wallpapers. Also enrapturing an international roster of admirers over many decades are the distinctive tapestries, exquisite porcelains, brilliant crystal, and sensuous embroidered linens about which these nations rightly boast. Not surprisingly, even proud Americans readily concede that the French and the Italians have the edge when it comes to creating artful, elegant interiors with the aura of romance and glamour.
