Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life (Susanka)

• #12 in Best Architecture Books

21 Reviews

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There was a time when I wanted and even could say needed a McMansion type house. At the time I had a wife and a house, a boy and a girl, a dog and a cat, a car and a pickup. But the boy and girl grew up, the dog and cat passed on, wife went away and the house wasn't where I wanted to live (or clean, or cool, or heat). So I moved to a less than 1,000 foot house whose age was listed by the tax assessor in 1942 as 'old.' And now I'm in the remodelling mode.

This book is a fairly typical architecture picture book. What makes it unique is that it is filled with houses about the size of mine. It shows the interior treatment that some 23 small house owners have used to get the most effective use out of the small space available.

What I wanted, and what I got out of the book was a lot of ideas about how to do things. I haven't decided just yet what I'm going to do, but re-doing the floor is next. Then the kitchen. I think I want to do something like page 56 of this book.

This book follows up on the other books by the author, The Not so Big House, and Creating the Not so Big House. When published, those books created a sort of mini-revolution in the "bigger is better approach" to homes.
This book follows up to the original idea of a not so big house by offering attractive and functional details one can add to it.
There is nothing overtly wrong with this book, it is beautifully photographed, but I did not gain a whole lot from reading it. As the title indicates, it's about detail, the stuff that is extra to an already well built house, (ie built in bookshelves, window seats, etc.). Because the possibilities with detail are nearly endless, the author chooses some of her favorites and devotes the book to exploring them. If those details are exactly what you are looking for in your plans, this book is probably worthwhile, albeit pricey, but if the details are not suited to your lifestyle or aesthetic consider skipping it.

In this astonishing book, which is filled with wonderful ideas, as well as being a beautiful coffee table book, we are granted an inside look at a truly new concept in home design in our age of teardowns and mega-mansions, a concept that smaller can be more satisfying than larger, if properly done. Here we are presented with something seldom viewed these days, how to make a house a home. There is something for every taste herein, and it is even multi-cultural, with oriental viewpoints as well on both furniture and flow of the home. Spend some time with this excellent book to see how every size home can be made more personal and beautiful, no matter what the budget.

I discovered this book from an Orlando Sentinel review. It just makes so much sense, not to have all the duplicated spaces that today's big American homes have. Now really, how many places do you need to have for eating (a breakfast room, a dining room, an eating counter, and a table on the patio)? Think about it.
I like the sampling of cosy homes in the book, especially the houseboat. Let's start asking home builders for quality, not just quantity.

This book (as all of Susanka's books) is ideal for both the home owner as well as the house hunter.

Regardless of whether you have a large or small home or an expensive high-end or sheet rock box, this book will help you turn your house from a place where you reside into a home where you LIVE.

My only complaint about this book is the lack of floor plans. However, you can download most of the floor plans of the projects in this book by going to Susanka's web site (if you can't find it, just google "notsobighouse").

Best-selling author of "The Not So Big House" Sarah Susanka teams up with architectural design writer Marc Vassallo to present Inside The Not So Big House, an interior decorating guide that explores both the tangible and intangible that add life, character, and aesthetic appeal to the inside of a home. From evoking the "Classic Cottage Simplicity" atmosphere to "Texas Tuscan", and more, chapters cover a wide assortment of moods as well as more general tips such as how to define space with light and how to evoke a serene atmosphere on a budget. Easy-to-follow instructions, tips, tricks and techniques for organizing space, and gorgeous full-color photographs on every page make this a vivid and expressive sourcebook of inexpensive ideas for both amateurs and professionals to make a home look great.

Sarah books are a staple in my books of design collection. I refer to them frequently. She has a wonderful sense of design as it relates to organization, usefullness,and asthetically pleasing. I wish more designers and architects would use her sensibility and we would not be over run with all the hideous, vapid,mac mansions everywhere. I would reccommend all of her books without hesitation.

Sarah Susanka's books finally explained why I've never been comfortable in many large homes and why I've always hated huge master suites with tall ceilings. I've been asked many times who my designer is and have friends and colleagues asking me to help with their home design. I just sold a home and buyers were asking my advice with their design problems. The home sold within a week for a record amount for the neighborhood. I owe it all to Sarah's books for rewiring my way of thinking about architecture and design.

I love this book and read through it often. It's a wonderful coffee table book but also has real concepts you can apply to your own remodel or decorating. It has given us our inspiration for remodeling our family room. Check out her other books as well.

Read the book cover to cover and enjoyed a fresh look at residential design. As an architect myself, it made me rethink some of my own design processes. Bigger isn't always necessarily better!

I have been devouring the pages of ideas in this book. I think I have looked all through it a dozen times, because many of the concepts and ideas seem to improve and become more usable as I think them over. We live in a ca. 1970's "split-ranch" house and this book has me thinking creatively about using the space in our house in ways I haven't done before.

Finally, someone breaks down how to pull your house together. A must read (OK, really look at the pictures) for the pre-kickoff re-modeler.

I bought and then gutted a 1960s, three-story, 3,700 SF office building. Serving as my own architect and general contractor, I completed the two lower floors as offices for my professional engineering firm. I then turned my attention to converting the third floor into a luxury two-bedroom apartment.

Although my original intent was to make the apartment a rental space, family circumstances of a regrettable but common kind will soon require me to make the apartment my own residence. With the floor plans nearly completed, I realized that the "oh my God" reaction from first-time visitors that I was seeking required great attention to detail.

During the design of the office portions, I had studied about a dozen design books from Amazon and now wanted resources for the architectural details of the apartment. (Architectural details include windows and doors, floor, ceiling, and wall finishes, cabinetry, molding and other millwork.) With architectural details well done, the apartment or home looks inviting and interesting even before furnishings and decorator items are added.

This book was the third to arrive of the ten I ordered so far. The first two were entirely forgettable, but this one yielded a dozen good ideas.

The 210-page book has a chapter for each of twenty-three projects, each by a different architect. Most projects were renovations of a home of 1,200 - 2,100 SF. Architectural interior detail styles range from craftsman and usonian, to contemporary and gentle modern. Each project is notable more for the interior design details than for the building exterior or site.

My favorite, but not my only source of ideas, was a Block Island cottage by the Newport architect, James Estes. My apartment, located at a charming 1900-vintage village center of a NYC suburb is 15 miles from the nearest salt water, but the quiet serenity and color palettes of an ocean-front cottage had been in my mind as an organizing concept for some time. No matter that the large band of windows on the east end overlook a parking lot instead of beach and ocean.

The Amazon listing shows the cover photo, a project not to my liking. You can page through the other pages available on Amazon for other samples. Note the excellent color photography and the expert and well written commentary of Sarah Susanka, the principal author of the many volumes of the Not So Big House series. Co-author Marc Vassallo is an architect, and he now writes fulltime, including fiction.

I've purchased all of Sarah Susanka's books and by far, this is the best. I've picked up so many ideas that my wife shudders each time I say, I really like this solution.

Ralph Cox

Susanka's attention to detail is awe-inspiring, and probably more information than the average person wants, but the book has great photos and some wonderful ideas that anyone can use. If you've been able to acquire the perfect furniture, best use of space and light, but you're still missing the ingredient to really pull it all together -- balance, aesthetics, personality, etc -- this book may help you.

I bought this book because I am looking to renovate my house and I found it very useful. There are plenty of photos of the various details in the houses and a great explanation of how to achieve a similar look. It is an excellent source of ideas if you're looking to transform your home.

Absoultely amazing insight ....worth every penny; the quality of the photos alone will justify the purchase....it will be the single best expenditure that you can make in building a new home or remodeling an existing area. Makes things so clear that everyone will get it. They say "You don't know what you don't know"....after reading this book and her others in a series....you will know what you did not know that you did not know...Just buy the book and you will understand what I am saying

This is one of my favorite books. I love Susanka's style - modern, but also friendly and warm. The layout of the book is excellent too, lots of photos with helpful annotations.

I enjoyed reading this book a great deal - Ms. Susanka has a lot of wonderful ideas on making your home simpler but somehow richer at the same time. She stresses quality over quantity and with the lovely photos seems to prove her point. If you are contemplating a remodel or new construction, this book certainly provides food for thought when it comes to design and planning and I would certainly recommend it.

I am hooked on Susanka's books describing how to give our homes more of the character found in 50+ and older homes. I'm hoping to build using some of the detailing she explains, instead of having to buy an old house and renovate, in order to get a cozy, unique and homey dwelling.

This is exactly the type of architecture that everyone should use in these days of 'excess'. Highly recommended as a source of ideas whether building or remodelling!