Slow Style Home - by Zandra Zuraw (Hardcover)

About the Book

Slow Style is a new way of practicing the art of decoration. Rather than focusing on the current product-driven approach to home design and decor, Slow Style shows you how to use what you already have, develop your eye for what works and what doesn't, and make choices that are truly connected to who you are.

Book Synopsis

A home decorating book for people who are tired of rooms that look perfect, are full of ridiculously expensive objects, and present a lifestyle that doesn't match up with anyone's actual daily experience.

"Zuraw outlines her 'slow style' approach, which draws on the 1970s slow food movement and the early 2000s slow fashion movement to counter mass production, help readers accumulate meaningful items over time, and consider the environmental impact of their purchases....readers new to design will benefit from the fun exercises, as when Zuraw lays out a step-by-step guide to creating a vignette with items one already owns. Conscious consumers ready to redecorate should check this out."--Publishers Weekly

Slow Style is a new way of practicing the art of decoration. Rather than focusing on the current product-driven approach to home design and decor, Slow Style shows you how to use what you already have, develop your eye for what works and what doesn't, and make choices that are truly connected to who you are.

Slow Style is about honoring our personal histories and our dreams for the future by taking the time to layer our homes with beauty and meaning. For example, incorporating antiques, handmade objects, and items that relate to our heritage and culture connect us to the past and help tell our story. Art--whatever the aesthetic or object--elevates our living experience. Taking aesthetic clues from nature connects us to our environment.

Zandra Zuraw teaches principles and shows how to execute them in your home, starting simply and then layering or changing as your style evolves over time rather than filling your spaces with what's trendy today but may not tell who you are or reflect how you live in your home.

More than making your home look pretty, Slow Style Home is about deeper meanings and why style matters. On an individual level, cultivating one's style can be an important process of self-reflection and personal growth, two things that everyone deserves to experience. And more broadly, addressing the multibillion-dollar production of cheaply made decor and furniture is something we owe to the health of our planet.

Review Quotes

Slow Style Home podcaster Zuraw debuts with a user-friendly guide to ditching the "anonymous chain store behemoth[s]" when it comes to interior decorating. She cautions readers against limiting their taste to strict categories such as "boho" and "farmhouse," which in her view stymie creativity and make for "flash-in-the-pan" trends. To counter that way of thinking, Zuraw outlines her "slow style" approach, which draws on the 1970s slow food movement and the early 2000s slow fashion movement to counter mass production, help readers accumulate meaningful items over time, and consider the environmental impact of their purchases. She provides guidance on antique shopping (newbies should opt for a small shop rather than a huge fair), touts DIY projects and handmade objects, and takes a particularly impassioned stance on collecting art, noting that it doesn't have to be pricey to be meaningful. Her decorating tips are whimsical--she suggests choosing a room's colors by picking a bird's feathers as inspiration--and readers new to design will benefit from the fun exercises, as when Zuraw lays out a step-by-step guide to creating a vignette with items one already owns. Conscious consumers ready to redecorate should check this out. (June)

-- "Publishers Weekly"

About the Author

Zandra Zuraw is the founder of Slow Style Home, an interior design coaching platform for passionate homeowners. Zandra is also the host of the popular podcast, Slow Style Home, which has logged in over 300 interviews with the most creative people working in the interiors industry. Within the first year, Slow Style Home landed on the coveted iTunes New and Noteworthy list and is now in the top 5 percent of most-downloaded podcasts across all categories, globally. The show has reached over 1 million downloads and counting. Her business (formally known as "Little Yellow Couch") has been featured in many media outlets such as Domino, Better Homes & Gardens, USA Today, and Podcast Magazine. Zandra has also been a speaker at several creative business conferences in the US and Canada talking about the business of podcasting and design. She lives in Natick, MA, south of Boston.