Dwelling, The

Book Description

As our personal and professional lives become more demanding and hectic, people have reacted with a more casual, relaxed, and open way of living at home. Kitchens are no longer just for cooking but serve as entertainment hubs; barbeques on the grill have replaced formal dinners. As our lives at home have become increasingly informal, the “barefoot living” lifestyle has emerged and there is increased demand to carry this attitude over into home design.

Relaxed, open, filled with light, and intimately connected to the outdoors, barefoot houses make living at home feel like being on vacation 365 days a year. The 24 houses featured in The Barefoot Home reflect today’s barefoot times. From a long, low house on the Kansas prairie to an adobe home in New Mexico and a New England cottage by the sea, these homes capture the essence of barefoot living.

Customer Reviews:

Barefoot -- informal style, for an informal life........2007-05-16

On first glance I agreed with many of the other reviewers: 'the book was slick', 'it was disingenuous', 'sure, if you live in a sunny climate, most, if not all, of the time'.

Then I went back and looked at the book again, and read the opening passage: he does not strive to be disingenuous, he tells us he himself doesn't live in a barefoot home, nor a barefoot neighborhood, but he is trying and the manifesto of the book is to entreat all of us to be more informal in our primary living space -- our homes.

Open the house up as soon as you can, get rid of all the stuff you don't need, make your home as casual as you can, and then enjoy it.
Think informal thoughts, and live in all the spaces available to you: the patio, the deck and never forget how good it feels to have sand between your toes!

He provides blue prints to the homes and he even lists the architects. Enjoy and live well!

Great Book!.......2007-03-26

This book is great for conversation and ideas. I leave mine on the coffee table for periodic inspiration...that of myself..and of others!

Barefoot, if it's summertime.......2007-03-11

I don't exactly get the barefoot concept. If the author had seen these homes in the wintertime, would he still consider them barefoot homes? Barefoot seems far-fetched and contrived in this book.

This book is a nice compilation of casual homes mostly in the country or at the beach. It's similar to other books on getaway homes. Beyond that, I didn't see anything particularly new or inspiring. It almost seems like the author (or Taunton?) was more interested in pushing the barefoot concept than providing new ideas.

Designed for wilder, more remote locations.......2007-02-15

This book is beautiful, the writing lyric and inviting.

But in looking for ideas for building our coastal home, I found that the windows and outdoor living areas were meant for homes in secluded or tree-sheltered locations, not on a city lot as our will be.

I highly recommend this book for those with more remote building sites.

One of the Best.......2007-02-12

This is an excellent house design book. It's a very functional book ,you'll probably examine your house plans in a new light after reading this.
I appreciated the content of the book; excellent pictures, floor plans for every house (you would think every design book would include this, but no)and a range of house sites from coast to coast and urban to country. The author developed his topic (relaxed house) well throughout the book, I found that the text was concise and interesting. Vassallo demonstrated again and again in various contexts his themes for a "barefoot house"-light, open spaces, texture, durable surfaces, great connectivity to the outside, and every inch of space useful and used.

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