HOME DESIGN IN THE HERALD TRIBUNE BOOK REVIEW

Richardson Wright, editor-in-chief of House and Garden magazine, reviewed four new books on housing design reviewed this week in the Herald Tribune book review.

HOUSES FOR HOMEMAKING by Royal Barry Wills, a leading proponent of the Cape Cod style house which was a big favorite in the immediate postwar years. .

HOW TO CHOOSE, PLAN AND BUILD YOUR HOUSES by magazine journalist Helen Koues.

PLANNING YOUR HOME FOR BETTER LIVING by Clarence W. Dunham and Milton D. Thalberg. In print.

COLOR SCHEMES AND MODERN FURNISHINGS by Derek Patmore, a British poet and writer on interior design.

In his review article, Wright wrote, "Unless one commands an unfathomable purse, the building of a house at any time is a sorry succession of giving up features one fondly dreams on enjoying.” He scolded consumers for choosing their houses based on what they looked like from the outside rather than by their interior plans despite the admonitions of architects and interior designers.

Most of the houses presented in these books were traditional in style. Colonial and post-Revolutionary styles remained the most popular choices, followed by the Cape Cods that Wright wrote were favored by practical young brides. Here and there the French Provincial style lingered, particularly in regions where stone was available. Despite a spate of recent articles and books on the Greek Revival style, Wright saw no evidence that the style had returned to favor. The faux half-timbered English and Spanish baroque cottages of the Twenties seemed to have lost their appeal to builders and home buyers and “no one is shedding any tears,” Wright wrote.