“You and I are going to enter into a dialogue. In this book I’ll try to give you the tools you will need to help you design your very personal environment, a space that will reflect the many facets of your life. “

Alexandra Stoddard, well-known New York decorator, offers here a unique book on designing a living space that will reflect you and your life style. Filled with solid design information, this book also will inspire you to decorate a place that will make you happy. Written with authority and charm, this is a decorating book to read and to savor, as you acquire the knowledge and confidence to arrange a living place that will suit you now and be adaptable throughout the years, as your needs, your priorities grow and change with the times.

The author begins by helping you focus on who you are, what your personal life style is - the first step in planning how you want to decorate your space. Begin by opening up your senses - by looking, listening, noticing colors, touching fabrics- so that what makes you feel good will be part of your surroundings. Sensitive to modern dilemmas such as lack of time, money and space, Alexandra Stoddard sweeps away some dusty decorating traditions (from formal dining rooms to draperies) and offers original, economical principles to get you started on your own designs. She discusses ways to handle each of the design building blocks that will make up your rooms: from walls, windows, furniture and fabrics, right down to an aesthetically pleasing decanter or chopping block. Then she helps you put all these elements together in the main rooms of your home. Perhaps a studio would be more appropriate for you than a conventional living room. She cautions against letting your possessions possess you; instead, make them respect who you are.,”You are the architect, designer and executor of your space. When you accept your surroundings as very real and essential extensions of your life, your rooms will glow.”

STYLE FOR LIVING is something special. More than a book about style in interior decorating, it shows how to live with style in all aspects of our lives.

Alexandra Stoddard has been associated with the interior design firm of McMillen, Inc., for twelve years.