There is charm and character in a Mexican home like no other architectural style. It is a classic, timeless style that remains in constant demand. All who enjoy looking at beautiful interiors and want new ideas for their own home will find this book irresistible. Over 280 color photographs of some of the most beautiful new, old, and remodeled Mexican-style homes are compiled here. Color is everywhere -- vibrantly painted walls offer a rainbow of hues, hand painted talavera tiles cover every available surface, and traditional Mexican folk arts adorn walls and furnishings. Twelve chapters...

French pochoir prints from the glorious Art Deco era present women's fashion designs in their most original era. Chosen from the period 1924 to 1931, this clothing was revolutionary and has been the epitome of haute couture designers ever since. The most famous clothing designers of the time are represented abundantly, including Charles Worth, Jean Patou, Paul Poiret, Lucien Lelong, Joseph Paquin and many others. The hand printed illustrations are each little masterpieces, often admired and collected themselves for their fine details and originality.

Here's the skinny on stripes: a zigzag tour of the form through seventy years of fabric design. Nearly 600 pictures of historic fabric swatches from all over the world provide a virtual treasure chest of design ideas, from the prim floral fashions of the 1940s to the outrageous color combinations and painterly couture fabrics released by the top design houses in Paris during the 1960s. Brilliant photographs provide a visual survey of stripes' many forms, from woven-in to imitation weaves, from wavy lines to prim and proper pin stripes. This is the largest full-color photographic album of...

Fabrics can represent an era or a decade-the colors, patterns, textures, and fibers reveal as much about the culture as do the furnishings and clothing that relied on the fabrics. The decade of the 1960s was one of extremes. Traditional plaids were reintroduced and became popular at the same time as bold prints and geometrics, notably Op Art and "psychedelic" patterns and colors, characterized the decade. Synthetics took off, and phrases like "polyester knit" and "stretch knit" elicit visions of unmistakably '60s staples. The best way to experience the fabric of a decade is to see it, and...

Rich in history and valor, the multicolored woven art known as "tartan" is centuries old but has been codified only since the late eighteenth century. Conjuring images of kilted warriors and lively bagpipes, tartan has survived hundreds of years to become the very fabric of a nation--as popular today as in years past. "All Scots are color coded," it is said, and in this second of three alphabetically arranged volumes you will find over 400 examples of vividly striped tartans covering the names Frederickton to MacNeil. "What are my colors?" is the most frequently asked question of the...

This book showcases a wide variety of Nativity sets that display multi-cultural artistic interpretations of the true meaning of Christmas. Artisans from more than forty countries on five continents are represented, each with beautiful expressions of the greatest story ever told, often with photographs from the country of origin to accompany the artwork. Whether sculpted in clay, carved from wood, painted, woven, or cast, these Creches from around the world are sure to enhance holiday celebrations and illustrate the universality of the Christmas message.

Hundreds of beautifully rendered butterflies by artist Spider Webb parade endless color and pattern variations in this portfolio of artistic inspirations. Both tattoo artists and graphic designers will find inspiration in these perforated pages, each a signed work of art, that you can remove and hang on the wall.

Take a tour of more than 200 kitchens and gather ideas for your own culinary center. Nearly 300 beautiful color images help you choose cabinet door styles, wood finishes, floor textures, and colors to suit your tastes. Special emphasis is placed on the small to mid-size kitchen, with great examples of storage solutions and space enhancing designs. This is a virtual showroom for the professional designer or remodeler who wants to hash through ideas with clients, and a great way for homeowners to express their tastes. Here's the first step toward a showplace kitchen: Get your sticky tabs out...

Among the great designers at Herman Miller in the 1950s and 1960s, Alexander Girard enhanced Eames' and Nelson's furniture with innovative textiles. As head of Herman Miller's Textile Division since it was formed in 1952, he designed some of the most colorful and exciting fabrics available anywhere. He also designed the 25-piece Girard Group of modern furniture, and the 40-item series of Environmental Enrichment Panels for Action Office 2. Girard's unmatched folk art collection adorned Herman Miller buildings, filled their Textiles & Objects Shop in New York, and over 100,000 items made up...

If you're thinking about building a new home, you'll want to start here. This introduction to insulating concrete form (ICF) construction will open your eyes to the future. ICF construction combines man's best building materials - concrete and steel, with high-tech insulation - bringing them together in simple forms a small child can lift. Anyone with basic carpentry experience can assemble them. Concrete construction offers rock-solid homes that can withstand hurricane-force winds, drastically cut energy costs, and provide unbeatable air and sound quality, in buildings as beautiful as the...