At Home with Carolyne Roehm

I have collected decorating books over the course of the last 20 years. This book, At Home with Carolyn Roehm, is as perfect as it gets. Gorgeous photography, menues, ideas galore. It will inspire me for years to come.

A person's life is expressed in little details. Choosing flowers, wine or table linens can be frustrating. Carolyne Roehm's new how-to visually presents hundreds of options in making your personal vision a reality. The book is thoughtfully divided into spring, summer, fall and winter entertaining sections. Gorgeous photos of table settings include close-ups of flower details, accessories, and best of all -- menus with recipes. Ms. Roehm gives expert advice on where to find similar table accessories pictured and reveals her favorite retail haunts. Encouraging words and thoughtful descriptions liberate the reader, empowering one to learn by many excellent visual examples. If you aren't lucky enough to have your own event planner, use this beautiful new guide year-round for ideas and inspiration. Entertaining secrets from behind the scenes of the best homes in the world will dazzle even your pickiest guests!

Page after page of lush photographs--flowers, table settings, rooms, vignettes. Roehm's color sense is superb. i.e.her use of brown with red, or sprouting spring green with violet. Although the settings are lavish, the ideas are inspiring and certainly adaptable to a lesser scale than her own. We can learn from these photographs. The recipes are hearty, easily followed, and particularly appropriate for less formal dining and buffets. I would, however limit the overdose of mixed herbs in the shrimp and bean soup to one combined tablespoon). At the end of the book, in the Details appendix, are small inset photographs of table setting paraphernalia. This section could be very helpful as a reference guide to table setting know-how in general. I found this book to be a culmination of Roehm's Four Seasons Notebooks, but it is still different enough,informative enough to warrant adding to your collection. At Home with Carolyne Roehm is one of my choices for this season's gift giving since it's all about the love and warmth of home and hearth. I cannot imagine a more beautiful book. At least until Roehm's next book is published.

Once again,the statuesque Carolyne Roehm has dazzled us with a sumptuous collection of words and images creating a world in which we want to live now. Her touch is at once delicate and confidently bold in her use of color,groupings of furniture, objets and recipes.Her style is not at all derivative,but conveys vast knowledge of not only the art of living well, but how to really enjoy life. Regardless of the amount of money spent, these are ideas, not merely pretty pictures. Hopefully Carolyne will treat us to more of her world with additional peeks onto her lush life.