Book Review: Home by Anita Kaushal

Rating:

Londoner Kaushal has made it her personal mission to seek out the best places, products and ideas to make homelife with children stylish, practical and beautiful. Part lifestyle, part interiors, part ideas and reflection book, Home is a hard cover tome that can be flicked through for inspiration, meandered through for entertainment, or used as an authentic guide to creating an ideal space for families.

Beautifully photographed with to-die-for interiors, this is the kind of book that gives ‘hope’ to couples about to leave behind stylish and tidy for the domestic clutter of kids. But does it really have to be muddy footprints and pumpkin mash disaster?

In Home, Kaushal encourages the use of educational, personalised and everyday items to make home a space for living, not sitting pretty in. But she also makes it clear that ‘pretty’ can be part of the family domestic package. Starting with ideas on creative uses of light, the author shows how to use family photos in truly beautiful ways and moves through into ideas for incorporating child-friendly fun into all living spaces of the home.

From music to storage ideas, playtime and toy display, cooking, eating and engaging the senses, this is a look-book designed to inspire and stimulate the use of the elements you already own, not rush to the store to emulate pomp and extravagance. Warm notelets, quotes and thoughts, from a clearly child-and-design-besotted mother of two, are scattered through gorgeously-designed pages. Design layouts include simple but striking typography and a truly delicious photographic palette by the talented Wincer.

Home is very editorial in style – like a majorly thick and luscious design magazine, but with all the desirable elements of a stunning hard cover book. Its images and concepts are timeless and the book would make a truly lovely gift. That is, if you could ever part with it. Good luck.

Title: Home
Author: Anita Kaushal
Photographer: Penny Wincer
Category: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
ISBN: 9780500513668
RRP: $59.95
Publication Date: Feb 2007