The House Romantic: Curating Memorable Interiors for a Meaningful Life by Haskell Harris

 

Summary (from the publisher): A manual to home design that is a reflection of the important moments and people in our lives by the founding style director at the award-winning Garden & Gun magazine, Haskell Harris.

Review: This lovely book features beautiful vignettes from author Haskell Harris' personal homes, as well as other people that Harris has profiled that she calls "kindred spirits." Mostly a book meant to be flipped through and enjoyed for its gorgeous photos, the text itself paints a portrait of both Haskell's life and those she has profiled and helps explains the influences that the author carries into the homes she has created and decorated. 

In full discretion, I read this for a literary club that I am part of. The reason this book was selected was because the author spent some of her childhood years in my hometown and has family members that still live here. However, the book does not reference her time in Virginia much at all and the houses profiled are not any that I would be familiar with, nor do I know her personally. 

I did love the sections on the author's own life and space. But where this book lost me a bit were all the sections that profiles others! Their style was often drastically different from Harris's style. While it was interesting to see a bit about what interested them and why they made some of the choices they did, I would have vastly preferred a more in-depth look at Harris's homes and design influences/style. All that to say, I do love her style, and this book left me wanting more. 

One major complaint I had with this book is that literally every person profiled oozed wealth and privilege, leaving me feeling like most of the "design styles" felt unattainable. Sure, we can all choose paint colors etc., but not all of us can customize every bit of our space through renovations or afford to purchase a lavish home to begin with. But I understand the point is to be inspirational, and featuring lavish spaces does come with the territory. Also, I should not have let this bug me, but I was put off by the way Harris exclusively referred to her young son as "my little boy" over and over and over throughout the book. I understand not wanting to share his name, but that phrase would be repeated even within the same column of text. It just felt very precious and heavy handed when "my son" or "my own child" or something similar could have been tossed in for variation's sake. 

A beautiful book of beautiful spaces! Lovely photos to inspire the reader. Would be lovely just setting out in anyone's home to flip through. 

Stars: 3