What do you think?
Rate this book
Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design: Fearless, Fabulous Decorating
"If you can put together an outfit, you're already overqualified to decorate a room," believes Emmy Award-winning Christopher Lowell. Now, the most popular and colorful personality on the Discovery Channel brings his proven Seven Layers of Design system to readers in a lively blend of design theory and hands-on advice for do-it-yourself projects. In this book, as on his program, Lowell brings his humor, wit, and charm to a host of decorating projects and ideas, making them simple, fun, and rewarding.
Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design solves decorating dilemmas by encouraging you to look at a room piece by piece, layer by layer, from the floor up. By following this process, home decorators can avoid costly disappointments and learn inexpensive tricks for changing the personality of a room. With his colorful presentation of the Seven Layers (Paint & Architecture, Installed Flooring, Upholstered Furniture, Accent Fabrics, Non-upholstered Furniture, Accessories, and Plants & Lighting), Lowell lays the groundwork for simple yet stunning home design. He demonstrates how color is the foundation of a room, why decorating a room around a favorite upholstery fabric is a recipe for disaster, how to create fabulous fakes using paint and plywood, why you should never paint a ceiling white, and how to deal with an interior designer.
Each chapter of Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design walks you through room makeovers with dramatic before, during, and after photos, and solves a variety of design problems. In "Even the Kitchen Sink," Lowell works his magic within the constraints of existing walls and appliances, countertops, and cabinets. "Home Office Haven" demonstrates how to create an efficient home office and still welcome houseguests. "Living Large" helps you to reduce clutter by making use of space you never knew you had. "Dining Room Drama" shows how to bring romance into any room of the house. There are also plenty of tips, secrets, and shortcuts to tackling a stylish Deco bathroom mirror, faux-finished kitchen cabinets, a chic chaise lounge made from plywood, and more. Best of all, most of these projects can be completed for under $100.
Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design solves decorating dilemmas by encouraging you to look at a room piece by piece, layer by layer, from the floor up. By following this process, home decorators can avoid costly disappointments and learn inexpensive tricks for changing the personality of a room. With his colorful presentation of the Seven Layers (Paint & Architecture, Installed Flooring, Upholstered Furniture, Accent Fabrics, Non-upholstered Furniture, Accessories, and Plants & Lighting), Lowell lays the groundwork for simple yet stunning home design. He demonstrates how color is the foundation of a room, why decorating a room around a favorite upholstery fabric is a recipe for disaster, how to create fabulous fakes using paint and plywood, why you should never paint a ceiling white, and how to deal with an interior designer.
Each chapter of Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design walks you through room makeovers with dramatic before, during, and after photos, and solves a variety of design problems. In "Even the Kitchen Sink," Lowell works his magic within the constraints of existing walls and appliances, countertops, and cabinets. "Home Office Haven" demonstrates how to create an efficient home office and still welcome houseguests. "Living Large" helps you to reduce clutter by making use of space you never knew you had. "Dining Room Drama" shows how to bring romance into any room of the house. There are also plenty of tips, secrets, and shortcuts to tackling a stylish Deco bathroom mirror, faux-finished kitchen cabinets, a chic chaise lounge made from plywood, and more. Best of all, most of these projects can be completed for under $100.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
7 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 27, 2022
Review previously published August 2003
Home & Garden TV is a very popular cable television channel devoted entirely to programs on homes and gardens. Some of the shows include Extreme Homes, Trading Spaces, and Chic on a Shoestring.
Recently the need for a change came over me, and I decided to revamp my living room. The flooring was off-white wall-to-wall carpet and the walls were wood. The room has never had ceiling lights. The upholstered furniture was mostly white and now that there is a year-old grandson that visits and always seems to have juice and crackers in his hands; the furniture had to go!
The first thing I did was go to the bookshelves at the library to find the books that related to my project. The ideas are endless, but with all the pictures in both books and magazines, it was easy to find things I liked and wanted to try.
One particularly helpful book was Seven Layers of Design by Christopher Lowell. The Emmy Award-winning Lowell is the host of the Christopher Lowell Show which was formerly called Interior Motives. On his television show, you can watch Mr. Lowell as he aims his experience and creative talent at decorating homes and making improvements that are achievable, affordable, and fun. In his book, he encourages the reader to look at a room piece by piece, layer by layer, from the floor up. There are plenty of tips, secrets, and shortcuts for a novice decorator that will help you make the correct choices for your room.
On the library’s public computers, if you type in “interior design” under "Subject Heading," it brings up 243 titles available. If you find a book you would like to see and it’s not at this branch, we can have it sent to our West Salem location via our delivery service.
Besides Seven Layers of Design, some of the books I found to be invaluable were Lighting Ideas , Fireplaces and Hearths, Creative Color Schemes For Your Home, Accents on Accessories, and Decorative Paint Finishes. Computer software available for check-out called Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Your Home and videos Making the Most of Your Space, Martha Stewart’s Decorative Finishes and Make-Overs For Less might also be something you want to look at.
Paging through some of the magazines on our shelves might give you inspiration, too. We have Better Homes and Gardens, Country Decorating Ideas, Country Home, Country Sampler Decorating Ideas, Family Handyman, Home, House and Garden, House Beautiful, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, This Old House, and Veranda available for check-out.
Next, my husband and I discussed what we could do and what we would have to hire professionals to do. We gave away the furniture, ripped out the carpet, made a few phone calls and began.
We started our project in May, but, because there are so many other things to do in the summer, it’s taken quite a while to finish. My husband laid a new sub floor and, after weighing all the options, we again went with wall-to-wall carpet for the warmth, and so a wobbly baby won’t get hurt when he falls. Dry wall with paint or wallpaper were options for the walls but we chose to have professionals wallpaper over the existing wood, which involved painting on a layer of sizing, applying a liner that went on horizontally, another application of sizing and finally the wall paper.
An electrician put in can lights around the perimeter of the room and a ceiling fixture in the middle. The ceiling was painted and furniture ordered with custom fabric. Now all that’s left is painting a door, arranging the furniture, deciding on a window treatment and finding the perfect accessories. It was inconvenient to have the room torn up for so long, but now it seems well worth the wait.
I should’ve taken "before" and "after" pictures of my living room like they do on the HGTV shows because the change was huge! This was a fairly big project, but it was fun, and with some research in the books from the library, I’m sure I saved some money by making educated choices.
Please stop in the library if you decide to redo one of the rooms in your house and you should find plenty of books and magazines that will help you out!
Find this book and other titles within our catalog.
Home & Garden TV is a very popular cable television channel devoted entirely to programs on homes and gardens. Some of the shows include Extreme Homes, Trading Spaces, and Chic on a Shoestring.
Recently the need for a change came over me, and I decided to revamp my living room. The flooring was off-white wall-to-wall carpet and the walls were wood. The room has never had ceiling lights. The upholstered furniture was mostly white and now that there is a year-old grandson that visits and always seems to have juice and crackers in his hands; the furniture had to go!
The first thing I did was go to the bookshelves at the library to find the books that related to my project. The ideas are endless, but with all the pictures in both books and magazines, it was easy to find things I liked and wanted to try.
One particularly helpful book was Seven Layers of Design by Christopher Lowell. The Emmy Award-winning Lowell is the host of the Christopher Lowell Show which was formerly called Interior Motives. On his television show, you can watch Mr. Lowell as he aims his experience and creative talent at decorating homes and making improvements that are achievable, affordable, and fun. In his book, he encourages the reader to look at a room piece by piece, layer by layer, from the floor up. There are plenty of tips, secrets, and shortcuts for a novice decorator that will help you make the correct choices for your room.
On the library’s public computers, if you type in “interior design” under "Subject Heading," it brings up 243 titles available. If you find a book you would like to see and it’s not at this branch, we can have it sent to our West Salem location via our delivery service.
Besides Seven Layers of Design, some of the books I found to be invaluable were Lighting Ideas , Fireplaces and Hearths, Creative Color Schemes For Your Home, Accents on Accessories, and Decorative Paint Finishes. Computer software available for check-out called Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Your Home and videos Making the Most of Your Space, Martha Stewart’s Decorative Finishes and Make-Overs For Less might also be something you want to look at.
Paging through some of the magazines on our shelves might give you inspiration, too. We have Better Homes and Gardens, Country Decorating Ideas, Country Home, Country Sampler Decorating Ideas, Family Handyman, Home, House and Garden, House Beautiful, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, This Old House, and Veranda available for check-out.
Next, my husband and I discussed what we could do and what we would have to hire professionals to do. We gave away the furniture, ripped out the carpet, made a few phone calls and began.
We started our project in May, but, because there are so many other things to do in the summer, it’s taken quite a while to finish. My husband laid a new sub floor and, after weighing all the options, we again went with wall-to-wall carpet for the warmth, and so a wobbly baby won’t get hurt when he falls. Dry wall with paint or wallpaper were options for the walls but we chose to have professionals wallpaper over the existing wood, which involved painting on a layer of sizing, applying a liner that went on horizontally, another application of sizing and finally the wall paper.
An electrician put in can lights around the perimeter of the room and a ceiling fixture in the middle. The ceiling was painted and furniture ordered with custom fabric. Now all that’s left is painting a door, arranging the furniture, deciding on a window treatment and finding the perfect accessories. It was inconvenient to have the room torn up for so long, but now it seems well worth the wait.
I should’ve taken "before" and "after" pictures of my living room like they do on the HGTV shows because the change was huge! This was a fairly big project, but it was fun, and with some research in the books from the library, I’m sure I saved some money by making educated choices.
Please stop in the library if you decide to redo one of the rooms in your house and you should find plenty of books and magazines that will help you out!
Find this book and other titles within our catalog.
December 30, 2017
Practical design resource.
January 29, 2012
Like Apartment Therapy, Seven Layers of Design is a font of information for the design-challenged – but unlike any other design book I’ve ever seen, Christopher Lowell’s books really get to the heart of how difficult it can be to feel like you know what you’re doing with decorating. It’s like psychology for the housefashion-challenged!
Seven Layers focuses on the seven layers of design that Lowell has devised with the help of countless real people: paint & architecture, installed flooring, upholstered furniture, accent fabrics, non-upholstered furniture, accessories, and plants & lighting. You should build your rooms up in the order, instead of focusing all your creative efforts around a really great pair of curtains or a piece of art. That way the big pieces remain neutral and can be changed on a whim or with the fashion of the moment, instead of looking dated.
Lowell’s upbeat and positive vibe carry through the book, and close-ups of DIY projects fill the end of the book. I wish there had been a few more rooms showcased, since it seemed like it was a really small handful of scenarios that they were trying to fix, but the results were admittedly dramatic, and this book was also read with a notepad by my side to jot down ideas for my new house. I also may have Pinterest’ed a few images from the book!
If you’re looking for a design guide with a fresh twist and some personality behind the words, Seven Layers (or probably any book by Christopher Lowell) is a great bet.
Seven Layers focuses on the seven layers of design that Lowell has devised with the help of countless real people: paint & architecture, installed flooring, upholstered furniture, accent fabrics, non-upholstered furniture, accessories, and plants & lighting. You should build your rooms up in the order, instead of focusing all your creative efforts around a really great pair of curtains or a piece of art. That way the big pieces remain neutral and can be changed on a whim or with the fashion of the moment, instead of looking dated.
Lowell’s upbeat and positive vibe carry through the book, and close-ups of DIY projects fill the end of the book. I wish there had been a few more rooms showcased, since it seemed like it was a really small handful of scenarios that they were trying to fix, but the results were admittedly dramatic, and this book was also read with a notepad by my side to jot down ideas for my new house. I also may have Pinterest’ed a few images from the book!
If you’re looking for a design guide with a fresh twist and some personality behind the words, Seven Layers (or probably any book by Christopher Lowell) is a great bet.
November 5, 2012
Mr. Lowell has a fresh approach and I believe, has succeeded at communicating what FEW others have been able to do for us novices...in a very comprehensive manner. Perhaps from some of the well known...veteran Interior Designers standpoint..Lowell has over simplified...that I don't know and because of my own lack of decorating experience I cannot answer. The book thoroughly goes over each step he presents in such a way that one can be inspired and actually DO some of these things. Not to mention he seems to be conscious that the majority of Americans live on a budget and don't have $5000.00 to spend on a couch. I appreciate he's not just interested in having a great looking decor..but is conscious of the fact that his readers don't want to go to the poorhouse to accomplish this. I certainly don't love every single make over in the book...but that's about personal taste...not his ability to teach us a students. He's done a great job in this book...I highly recommend it to anyone looking for help in sifting their way through all the fog of interior decorating know how...ENJOY!
January 18, 2012
I was delighted to receive Christopher's book for Christmas. It has broken down the design process into 7 layers. This books is meant to teach you how to decorate your home. It is a layering process that starts out with paint and architecture then ends with plants and lighting. For those who are not sure where to start decorating a room or how to pick a color. This is a great book to help you without having to hire someone to do it for you. Even though, I would love to be that person someday soon. I have learned so much from his design process. Simple, fun and fresh with a touch of fabulous.
November 23, 2009
Great book, great ideas, but he's a little overly convinced on some principles that probably are good ideas, but not decorating failures in reality if you stray from them. But I love the guy and so I love this book.
March 17, 2012
My favorite part of this book made me realized that the ceiling is an additional wall - don't neglect it! As a Realtor, I now make special notice of what is done - and not done - to this forgotten space, and I often think of Christopher Lowell as I show homes.
March 30, 2015
I love this book so far. It's practical and really provides so much useful advice and realistic suggestions. I have no skill in this area and it provides a really helpful basis on what elements to incorporate to accomplish a decorative room.
March 3, 2008
I love his ideas and techniques in decorating. Just simply and easy to do
Read
October 6, 2013don't agree with theory, but might work for some ... probably no $ left for lighting though
December 30, 2013
Lowell breaks down interior design in easy steps for the amateur to follow.
August 8, 2012
I found this book to be on the drab side. His other books are more helpful.
September 19, 2014
This is a great book for those of us that do not have a clue about home decorating.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews