7 h 10 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a beautiful room begins not with what you add, but with the walls around you?
In The Decoration of Houses, Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman challenge rooms crowded with heavy curtains, patterned fabrics and knickknacks. Their practical guide puts architecture first: walls, doors, windows and proportions should shape a room before furnishings enter it. Against the fashion of their day, they make a clear case for restraint rather than a pile of decorative objects.
Their models come from houses in Italy, France and England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From entrance halls and staircases to fireplaces, ceilings and floors, they ask how each part serves the whole. The question is not simply what looks attractive, but what makes a room restful, gives it character and helps it suit its purpose.
What you’ll discover
- A room's good bones Learn why the authors place architectural structure ahead of upholstery, ornament and crowded furnishings.
- The quiet of proportion Explore their belief that restful rooms depend on the relationships between their parts.
- Walls that set character Look closely at how walls, doors and windows establish the character of a room.
- A place for every purpose Consider entrance halls and staircases through the first impression they give a visitor.
- Ornament in its place Discover a restrained approach to furniture, pictures and small objects that keeps architecture in view.
Who will love it
For readers who love design, architecture and history, and anyone who enjoys a clear case for restraint in the home. Admirers of Wharton's fiction will also find her interest in houses and taste here.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Architecture comes before upholstery
- Proportion and symmetry make rooms restful
- Walls, doors and windows shape the room
- Fireplaces, ceilings and floors complete the frame
- Each room should suit its purpose
- Furniture and ornament must stay in their place
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La Décoration des maisons
by Edith Wharton ; Ogden Codman · 1897
A bare wall, a well placed door and a single fine mantel reveal how architecture gives a room its beauty.
Challenging5–10 hours to readfrançais
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In short
The Decoration of Houses is a practical guide to how a house should look inside. It was published in 1897 by Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Architecture comes before upholstery
The first claim of the book is simple. A room is good because of its bones, not because of what is hung or piled on it. Wharton and Codman complain that their contemporaries treat decoration as a matter of cloth, ornament and bright objects. The shape of the room, the placing of its openings and the quality of its woodwork and plaster should do most of the work.
They trace this error to a long decline of taste in the nineteenth century. Houses were built without much thought, then dressed up afterward with layers of drapery to hide their faults. A badly planned room cannot be saved by fabric. A well planned room hardly needs it.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1897
- Language
- français
- Level
- Challenging
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What is The Decoration of Houses about?
It is a guide to designing and furnishing the interiors of homes. Wharton and Codman argue that architecture, proportion and balance matter more than ornament or fabric, and they use European houses of earlier centuries as models.
Did Edith Wharton really write a book about interior design?
Yes. The Decoration of Houses, published in 1897, was her first major book, written with the architect Ogden Codman Jr. It came before her famous novels and shows her strong interest in houses and taste.
When was The Decoration of Houses written and why?
It was published in 1897. The authors wrote it to oppose the cluttered, heavily draped interiors fashionable in late nineteenth century America, and to put a plainer, more architectural approach in its place.
The author
Edith Wharton
1862–1937 · American novelist
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American writer and designer born in New York City. She later lived in France, where she died. Her books include The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920). She co-wrote The Decoration of Houses with Ogden Codman Jr. in 1897.
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