Perfect English Farmhouse celebrates the characteristic style and fascinating history of the classic farmhouse and shows how to turn your own home into a similarly welcoming retreat. Farmhouse is a word that conjures an array of appealing associations: fresh eggs and baby lambs, chunky wooden beams and stone floors, cream teas and harvest suppers; a place of welcome and plenty. With their generous kitchens and meandering layout, the architectural informality of the farmhouse suits modern lifestyles. In Perfect English Farmhouse, via a series of case studies, Ros Byam Shaw explores both traditional and contemporary farmhouse style. The book is divided into chapters according to style: Organic, Traditional, Fresh, No Frills, and Funky, and at the end of each chapter a spread highlights the key elements of that particular decorative look. At the back of the book, there is also a comprehensive listing of UK and US sources to help readers create their very own take on perfect farmhouse style.

Includes 177 photographs.

The antebellum era and the close of the 19th century frame a period of great agricultural expansion. During this time, farmhouse plans designed by rural men and women regularly appeared in the flourishing Northern farm journals. This book analyzes these vital indicators of the work patterns, social interactions, and cultural values of the farm families of the time. Examining several hundred owner-designed plans, McMurry shows the ingenious ways in which "progressive" rural Americans designed farmhouses in keeping with their visions of a dynamic, reformed rural culture. From designs for efficient work spaces to a concern for self-contained rooms for adolescent children, this fascinating story of the evolution of progressive farmers' homes sheds new light on rural America's efforts to adapt to major changes brought by industrialization, urbanization, the consolidation of capitalist agriculture, and the rise of the consumer society.

Take a tour of comfortable and charming farmhouses, presented Country Living style. Breathtaking photographs, accompanied by marvelously in-depth information, reveal the myriad ways these old-fashioned homes can fit beautifully into our modern-day lifestyles. While the exteriors of these houses all retain their strong lines and architectural origins, the interiors showcase a variety of sensibilities. See sophisticated farmhouses that smoothly combine the best of old and new; homes entirely decorated in flea-market finds; houses that serve as showcases for magnificent antique collections; and contemporary redefinitions with loft-like spaces and fashionable d�cor. Each profile goes room by room, carefully explaining the owner’s needs, desires, and design decisions: everything from wall treatments and light fixtures to shelving and appliances receives meticulous attention and discussion.

"We want life to be less arduous and more delightful. We want to be able to think differently about how to organize human activities." So begins A Simpler Way, an exploration of a radically different world view that will reshape how we think about organizing all human endeavor. Margaret J. Wheatley and coauthor Myron Kellner-Rogers explore the question: "How could we organize human endeavor if we developed different understandings of how life organizes itself?" They draw on the work of scientists, philosophers, poets, novelists, spiritual teachers, colleagues, audiences, and their own experience in search of new ways of understanding life and how organizing activities occur. A Simpler Way presents a profoundly different world view that can change how we live our lives and how we can create organizations that thrive. A Simpler Way explores fundamental new beliefs about organizations and life. Like Leadership and the New Science, this new book is rooted in science but breaks new ground by developing insights from literature, spiritual teachings, and direct experience. The authors challenge many assumptions about life, organizations, and change, while providing inspiration and guidance for readers on their own journey to a simpler way to organize their endeavors. The authors describe a new paradigm of life as self-organizing and coevolving, drawing on sources that support modern science but predate its findings by thousands of years. They examine five major themes-play, organization, self, emergence, and coherence-each grounded in both the science and philosophy of a world that knows how to organize itself. Each theme is explored in depth, and then applied to how we think about human organizations. The book begins and ends with photo essays, providing visual imagery that recalls readers to their own experience with a world that is creative, playful, and self-organizing. Written in a relaxed, poetic, and inviting style, the book welcomes the reader into this exploration of a new way of being in the world, one which can give us increased organizing capacity and effectiveness with less of the stress that plagues us now.