Emily Henderson

I loved "Secrets from a Stylist" when it was on, and have enjoyed reading Emily's blog off and on, so I was really excited when I saw she had written a book. That excitement made the book's disappointment that much more disappointing.

It's always frustrating when design "experts" say that there are no rules or that rules were made to be broken, and then proceed to give you a list of *their* rules. Sad to say, Henderson falls into this trap, as well.

The "style diagnostic" was fun; who doesn't love quizzes? But all of the photos seemed to showcase very similar styles. Emily does tend toward a cluttered look, and though "minimalist" is one of the styles in her quiz, there weren't many (any?) good examples of it in the photos.

There were a lot of nude paintings/sculptures within the designs, and that's just so not what I'm into. I'm not terribly annoyed by one here or there, but this book is filled with them. It was a bit much.

As much as I normally enjoy her style, if only for inspiration, there wasn't one design in this book that I really, truly liked. In addition, all of the basic guidelines for design can be found in other design books or on the web.… (meer)