Bloomingdale's Book of Home Decorating

Wonderful images of the coolest eighties decorating. Bloomingdales By Mail was the best! Wish it still existed. I bought a Greek key mirror from Bloomies By Mail in the late eighties - it is worth $1000 today on FirstDibs !!

Fun read as a reference point in time. I purchased this bc I read another very now designer said they loved it growing up. Some of the rooms are just too much for todays design standards, and apparently were for back then as well! A nice addition to my design library.

I had this book years ago. So happy to get it back.

Fabulous book.Really if you are into 70s decor then this is a great reference.So much fun and so inspiring ❤️

Purchased this book as a way to explain Passover to my young son. Not a good idea. The images as well as the explanations were too descriptive and perhaps faithful to the Biblical Story. This is not a gentle interpretation for young children....it could easily cause nightmares.

This is a classic decorating book. Timeless. Good for anyone who wants to learn basics such as proper furniture arrangement and how to accessorize tabletops.

This book features Barbara D'arcy's amazing room displays for Bloomingdale's department store. 1973 Bloomingdale's was not Ikea; these rooms are not meant to show practical ways of dressing up simple spaces. This books showcases the best of the best, furniture for your dreamhome, no budget in sight. This is not your average 70s book of advice for newlyweds wanting to turn their house into a home. It's an inspirational, all-out, sky's-the-limit explosion of creativity, trends and fantasy.There's a mix of modern and traditional rooms. The traditional rooms are anything but drab; they are layered with color, pattern and texture. There are floor-to-ceiling bookshelves packed with books, Italian wall frescoes, sumptuous oriental rugs, influences from every era. A chair made of antlers sits in a tudor timbered retreat, indigo cushions surround a low table on tatami mats, rough-hewn floors add texture to a country dining room. It's impossible to pigeonhole this book, the styles are far-ranging and each is achieved with a masterful attention to detail. There are plenty of classic traditional rooms that don't look the least bit dated today.Having said that, it's the modern rooms that make this book special. An undersea panorama is projected through inflatable furniture, an iluminated plexiglass table glows above a glittering mirrored floor, op art supergraphics embellish the surfaces of a room decorated in orange and purple. We in the 21st century think of this furniture as retro, we're used to seeing it mixed with earlier mid-century pieces and current styles. We look at the high-end online shops and see each chair or table presented against a pure white backdrop. But when this book came out, this furniture was brand new, and these rooms were made to show its potential in context. This makes it a great resource for anyone interested in design of this era.If the book has a major flaw, it's the printing. Not all the photographs are in color, and even the color photos are not as crisp as I'd like. This book doesn't have as many full-page photos as modern books do, nor does it have any how-tos. One chapter is a fascinating insight into how Bloomingdale's sourced items at the time, but much of the advice falls flat. After all, this is someone who designed fantasy showrooms for a living, not real homes. Surprise, surprise: she advises you to visit department stores for inspiration, and shop at Bloomingdale's. There are a few good insights scattered here and there, just don't expect to take away lots of practical information.Just as no room is really chic unless it has a few older pieces, no library of interior design books is complete unless it has some older books. If you buy just one decorating book from the 70s, make it this one.