Living Together: How Couples Create Design Harmony at Home

How to make a house a home? That is the question, and this glossy volume for the style-conscious tackles what could be a considerable obstacle to domestic decorating bliss: the necessity of merging two partners' disparate tastes of under one roof. Noted photographer Lennard, together with her husband, Colomb, a French architect and designer, have created a visually appealing volume that any fan of shelter and decorating magazines will enjoy. In chronicling 15 couples' successful union of aesthetics (several subjects are design professionals; all have considerable financial resources), the book aspires toward the upscale how-to. But the advice portion of the text is fairly pedestrian. Among the decorating tips offered: ""Respect each other's tastes."" While the couples' stories are idiosyncratic and mildly entertaining, the Pottery Barn/Crate & Barrel crowd this book seems to target may not find much in the way of solid design information here.