Not So Big Solutions for Your Home Susanka :: Education by Design Store

Editorial Review
Sarah Susanka's Not So Big Solutions for Your Home explores practical design ideas that can transform any house into a great house that looks, works and feels right for the owner.

Sarah Susanka, whose previous best-selling books showed homeowners how to appreciate and create a house that is beautiful, visually expansive and reflective of how families really live, now offers readers practical, everyday design ideas on everything from selecting a site for a new home to designing a mail-sorting space. Photographs, along with over 150 drawings from Sarah Susanka's own sketchbook, illustrate practical home design ideas for everyday living.

Customer Reviews

My house isn't so big. Where do I put everything?

2008-06-22
The nice thing about this book is that it can be considered when you are thinking about building a new home, or considering remodeling your current home. And the remodel doesn't need to include a contractor. What if you have a window on a short wall, and think "Hey, I could put a bench seat there with bookshelves on either side to create a window seat!"

Those are the kinds of ideas I got from this book.

Great Guide for Remodelers

2008-01-03
This book will be invaluable for anyone looking to build/remodel their home. The author provides creative suggestions for rethinking how we live and ways to reconfigure existing space rather than construct extensive (and expensive) additions to our homes. Susanka admirably supports her ideas with background information, diagrams and case studies. Ultimately, however, few ideas in the book are applicable to anyone not planning a large scale construction project of some kind. If you're interested in what you can do with your existing small space, check out one of the author's other books instead.

Everyone should read this book!

2007-10-15
I think every person who owns or is considering buying a home should read this book first. The concepts presented here will make you rethink the idea that you need more...bigger is NOT better. Utilizing space effectively and making a house your own with personalized touches are much more likely to make one more satisfied than buying bigger. While I have been investigating going smaller for a while now, this book really helped me to focus on the details of actually making that change work in real life. A must read for anyone feeling cramped in their spaces.

Love this concept!

2007-07-25
I now am a HUGE fan of Sara Susanka. I went to the library and read ALL her books. The pictures are very helpful if planning a remodel or building new. Finding an architect that is in-tune is a challenge, most are men and do not think this way.

Not So Complete Ideas

2007-03-11
Nice book of concepts. Albeit incomplete and some what frustrating.

The Author presents concepts in text, images, sketches and floor plans.
Problem is the floor plans and text lack any measurements to put the
plans in perspective. There are no size minimums or guide lines.

A textbook for design details

2007-01-25
Sarah Susanka's Not So Big Solutions for Your Home explores practical design ideas that can transform any house into a great house that looks, works and feels right for the owner.

Not So Big Solutions for Your Home is a compilation of over 30 columns written by Sarah Susanka for Fine Homebuilding magazine.
-- Makes architecture and design accessible to people who are not trained in the field
-- Provides a wide variety of practical, accessible, everyday solutions

Solutions for the real world 2007-01-13
This is the ideal continuation to Sarah Susankas earlier books. Well written and full of ideas for many different lifestyles. Although repeating some of the earlier real life projects, she has developed the themes and showed us how to live better not bigger. If I have any criticism at all, it is that she has based most of her ideas around her cold climate environment and there is very little written about the warmer climates. The theories however are sound and using our own imagination, can be extrapolated to any environment.

Fine Homebuilding Reprints 2006-08-04
This is typical Susanka style, but looking at individual details, and helping to solve specific problems.
Definitely a good book, but if you subscribe to Fine Homebuilding, you'll find that you've already read this.

A must!!! 2006-07-14
Susanka's books are a must for anyone who's planning a house or remodeling. I used many of her ideas to remodel our last place, and when we sold it, it sold for a record amount for the neighborhood....

Susank hits the mark! 2006-03-17
Excellent work! As a design professional it was very enlightening to see may examples of quality spaces and useful tips for awkward and often tight areas. Well done and I look forward to more of Susanka's books.