| California Wine Country: Interior Design, Architecture, and Style | 
 enlarge | Author: Diane Dorrans Saeks
Creators: Robert Mondavi, Alan Weintraub
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy New: $12.75
You Save: $27.25 (68%)
New (7) Used (18) from $11.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 427001
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 204
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 10.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0811815013
Dewey Decimal Number: 726.5094425
EAN: 9780811815017
ASIN: 0811815013
Publication Date: October 1, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
True to the sense of bounty and calm that the California wine regions convey, Diane Dorrans Saeks writes, "Wine Country life is private, peaceful, undisturbed. Rural bliss soothes the mind. The Wine Country encourages simple wonder and gratitude." The inhabitants of the idyllic properties presented in California Wine Country must feel grateful indeed. This unbelievably seductive book of heavenly hideaways is divided into five sections: "Classic," "Poetic," "Rustic," "Collectors," and "Weekends." The Santa Ynez, Russian River, and Alexander Valley regions are explored, as well as the more well-known Napa and Sonoma areas. Saeks sought out creative people--artists and art dealers, designers, restaurateurs--whose houses range from a splendid Venetian villa near Calistoga to a 12-by-16-foot tent (furnished with antiques) on the edge of a peaceful Sonoma lake. The interiors are magazine-perfect (not a cell phone or fax machine in sight) and true to the prevailing architecture, whether angular and austere or funky adobe. There is a Mediterranean-inspired lusciousness in every photograph: grapes spill from the vines covering a patio, rambler roses cover a wooden gate, and doorways invariably open onto hillside vistas complete with blue sky. The directory at the book's end includes design and furnishings stores, as well as bookstores with good design sections, kitchen equipment stores, and restaurant, hotel, and winery recommendations.
Product Description
One of the most popular travel destinations on the West Coast, the Sonoma-Napa countryside is esteemed for its natural beauty and casually luxurious lifestyles. Bestselling style writer Diane Dorrans Saeks walks readers through 30 homes, including a renovated farmhouse with barn, a rustic home in a walnut orchard, a dreamy lakeside "tent" home, and others, that capture the flavor of the Wine Country way of life. Over 200 full-color photos .
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| Customer Reviews:
Gorgeous source books January 2, 2009
One of the best things about this book is that it covers a range of different types of houses, from modern to Tuscan to rural country, all within the same general color palette and sharing some elements of the wine country style. The Tuscan homes featured, my personal favorites, are truly spectacular and the photography is detailed enough that there are plenty of elements to be used for inspiration if not down-right copied!
Visually gorgeous from start to finish even in the styles that may not be your favorites, combines to make a great picture of wine-country style. Warm, relaxing, elegant.
 Nice start - but barely a beginning September 6, 2003
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
Ms. Saeks did a reasonable job, but the book is close to worthless if you want to design your house in a recognizable California Wine Country style. Katya and I suggest developing a color palette from the book, but after tens of hours of studying it we can not determine a quantifiable style. Consider this book as a raw first start; a survey of modest importance. The interiors are all over the map. The only commonality is their location in California. Worth buying - yes, but only to understand the diversity possible. Is a more serious study necessary - yes. California wine country is a combination of Tuscan, Provencal, and Spanish Colonial/Early California, with Asian influences. Themes and moods vary. Pretty much freestyle designing. However, certain rules will give you a recognizable style. We're working on it.- Jim and Katya Preston
 Beautiful July 29, 2001
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
I collect decorating books (I'm obsessed with them!) and this is my absolute favorite! It's sitting on my coffee table and I look at it again and again; I wish I could find more like it. We have recently purchased/remodled another house and this book was the inspiration for many of the things I incorporated into this house.
An architect's opinion of this book May 5, 2000
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book is a beautiful presentation of Interior (and outdoor) Design, but little true architecture. Most of the profiled homes appear as sets in a film and seem unrealistic as full time residences. As an architect, I will admit that most are wonderful, humanly scaled spaces. I'm not sure why the wine country is profiled-- other than the budgets are fat there. Overall, the book is worth the price.
IMAGINE LIVING IN THE WINE COUNTRY August 3, 1999
9 out of 28 found this review helpful
Hi, I am the author. The Napa Valley, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez...they are hot now. Everyone dreams of living in the Wine Country. The pages of this book will set you dreaming more...and imagining a trip to relax, go wine tasting, perhaps look at real estate...and certainly to dine at The French Laundry. (See Chef Thomas Keller's kitchen in this book.)
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