Made for Living: Collected Interiors for All Sorts of Styles

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All the spaces in this book are absolutely beautiful yet they all seem to be lacking interest and personality. I didn't dock stars for this because maybe her clients genuinely don't read, but it still makes me sad.

Made for Living by Amber Lewis - 9781984823915 - Dymocks Made for Living by Amber Lewis - 9781984823915 - Dymocks

Most color is shown in the vintage rugs, some throw pillows (she loves layering pillows), and throws. Amber is kindly trying to explain how "Milk Glass" by Dunn-Edwards can read green in certain lights, but I can't see what she is talking about because "Milk Glass" is edited to look like "Chantilly Lace" to look like "Foggy Day. It's full of super practical, approachable advice for how to style rooms (from the paint color -- yes, there's a whole chapter just on whites -- to the pillows). Do the clients bring nothing to the project but the space itself and the funds for her to decorate it?All in all, this is a lovely book of interiors in a West Coast contemporary style, but reading it will not tell you much.

Made for Living by Amber Lewis | Goodreads Made for Living by Amber Lewis | Goodreads

I have no doubt she works hard for her clients, and stays at it until she is happy with every detail, and her design projects reflect that.One of her main principles is that children have minds that are capable of understanding excellently-written literature. Instagram influencer and no-formal-design-school-training interior designer Amber Lewis attempts to explain her “I don’t even know what the common elements are in my laid back CA style” style.

Made for Living: Collected Interiors for All Sorts of Styles

The photos of the homes that she has styled are gorgeous and even with so many white-walled rooms, they all seem to have their own unique feel, a sort of warmth to them that's unique to each house. My dad is a contractor who prides himself on "putting on his bags" and getting to work—his "bags" being the battered leather tool belt he wore with trashed skate shoes and shorts, no matter the weather. My brother, sister, and I grew up walking on the beach collecting shells and white, heart-shaped rocks while our dad surfed the waves. Growing up surrounded by the colors and textures of nature, noticing the way the light danced on the water and changed with the seasons, and how this affected my mood—all of this played a huge role in who I am as a person. That’s how you achieve more than a re-creation of what you’ve already seen, or what somebody else has.But I was hoping at least to see this Amber Lewis of social media fame in the introduction, preferably ensconced by lots of pillows. Especially since one of the rooms featured the exact wicker chest that my parents owned while I was growing up that I now wish I had and OH MY GOSH what if it is actually the same exact one?

Made for Living by Amber Lewis, Cat Chen: 9781984823915

Though I know it is hard to get the colors right in print, it would have been helpful to show these as brush strokes or swatches of color for comparison, so you could see what she meant in her description. But for a gal that gets "asked a million times a day" about her style, her answers seem pretty much to be, "I try things and pick the ones that look best. As an interior designer and a lifestyle blogger, I’m asked a lot of questions, and how to translate my style is the one I get asked most. Also, most of the spaces are so high-end that the title "Made for Living" seems a little of a misnomer.It mostly consists of white and off-white walls (except for one charcoal gray room), subtle colors with lots of texture, matte and honed finishes, rustic unpolished wood, pale to medium tone floors, and mostly contemporary furnishings with vintage accent pieces and vintage rugs.