Gabrielle Stanley Blair is the founder of Design Mom—praised as a Website of the Year by Time magazine and as a top parenting blog by the Wall Street Journal, Parents Magazine, and Better Homes & Gardens—which features everything at the intersection of motherhood and design. She is a founder of the blockbuster biannual design conference Alt Summit, and a creator of the video series Olive Us. She and her husband, Ben Blair, along with their six children—Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar, Betty, and Flora June—recently relocated to Oakland, California, after spending two years living in the French countryside.
“A thoughtful take on how to create beautiful, well-organized
functional family spaces, and a cool parenting handbook to
boot.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Blair’s book . . . [is] broken down into numbered principles, each
with uncluttered, simple and approachable photos. These aren’t
merchandise-y shots; they’re pieces of doable advice such as ‘Extra
seating without extra chairs’ and ‘Artful ways to display your
kids’ art’—which includes a strategy session on how to decide which
art to keep. Blair is all about the art of the possible and the
workable, and remembering that those are moving targets.”
—Denver Post
“Practical and inspirational advice.”
—Arizona Republic
“Blends home décor ideas with parenting insights. . . . Design Mom
is about creating interiors that encourage living together
successfully and happily as a family.”
—Newark Star-Ledger
“Finally, there’s a book that provides professional-level interior
design advice and solutions aimed specifically at families with
children. While the book includes the occasional crafty how-to, it
is far more focused on providing ideas for decluttering the
household, facilitating family activities, and making even the
laundry room pretty. Blair tackles the entryway first, but not in
the passing fashion of the average interiors book. For families
with young kids, the entryway is often the most problematic space,
where shoes, coats, backpacks, keys, loose change, and old mail
make ever-changing chaos. The author has six children, so
interspersed with design ideas are incidental moments of parenting
insights (“If kids are expected to rearrange furniture, hunt for
sheet music, and haul their instruments from the opposite end of
the house at practice time, there will be some resistance”) and
purposeful recommendations for making family life better, such as a
page on teaching kids to do their own laundry. Blair even finds a
way to keep mass-marketed character decor out of a child’s bedroom
by substituting NASA photos for Buzz Lightyear pinups. This is a
happy marriage of interior design book and parenting guide.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This book addresses design in a novel way—it’s aimed at real,
messy and boisterous families with children. No priceless vases or
fragile materials are recommended here. Renowned interior designer,
author of a top parenting blog and mother of six, Gabrielle Stanley
Blair lays out her best advice in this warm, funny and
down-to-earth guide.”
—BookPage
“A keeper. . . . Gabby guides us, room by room, through close
to 300 beautifully photographed pages which will surely
help parents achieve that elusive balance of practical
function and beauty.”
—CoolMomPicks.com
“A thoughtful take on how to create beautiful, well-organized
functional family spaces, and a cool parenting handbook to
boot.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Blair’s book . . . [is] broken down into numbered principles, each
with uncluttered, simple and approachable photos. These aren’t
merchandise-y shots; they’re pieces of doable advice such as ‘Extra
seating without extra chairs’ and ‘Artful ways to display your
kids’ art’—which includes a strategy session on how to decide which
art to keep. Blair is all about the art of the possible and the
workable, and remembering that those are moving targets.”
—Denver Post
“Practical and inspirational advice.”
—Arizona Republic
“Blends home décor ideas with parenting insights. . . . Design Mom
is about creating interiors that encourage living together
successfully and happily as a family.”
—Newark Star-Ledger
“Finally, there’s a book that provides professional-level interior
design advice and solutions aimed specifically at families with
children. While the book includes the occasional crafty how-to, it
is far more focused on providing ideas for decluttering the
household, facilitating family activities, and making even the
laundry room pretty. Blair tackles the entryway first, but not in
the passing fashion of the average interiors book. For families
with young kids, the entryway is often the most problematic space,
where shoes, coats, backpacks, keys, loose change, and old mail
make ever-changing chaos. The author has six children, so
interspersed with design ideas are incidental moments of parenting
insights (“If kids are expected to rearrange furniture, hunt for
sheet music, and haul their instruments from the opposite end of
the house at practice time, there will be some resistance”) and
purposeful recommendations for making family life better, such as a
page on teaching kids to do their own laundry. Blair even finds a
way to keep mass-marketed character decor out of a child’s bedroom
by substituting NASA photos for Buzz Lightyear pinups. This is a
happy marriage of interior design book and parenting guide.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This book addresses design in a novel way—it’s aimed at real,
messy and boisterous families with children. No priceless vases or
fragile materials are recommended here. Renowned interior designer,
author of a top parenting blog and mother of six, Gabrielle Stanley
Blair lays out her best advice in this warm, funny and
down-to-earth guide.”
—BookPage
“A keeper. . . . Gabby guides us, room by room, through close
to 300 beautifully photographed pages which will surely
help parents achieve that elusive balance of practical
function and beauty.”
—CoolMomPicks.com
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