Pottery Barn Outdoor Spaces: Easy Ideas and Inspiration for Casual Outdoor Living [Hardcover]

As far as I'm concerned, Pottery Barn is the ONLY home decorating store (even on a Walmart budget: steal the idea and buy look-a-likes for less or make your own. I made a "Pottery Barn" look-a-like white-leather, tufted headboard... GORGEOUS! ...like Pottery Barn...only, > I < made...so like $700 cheaper :) ) Only fitting that I should want a Pottery Barn hardcover to drool over. Practical too...as it also becomes part of my decor...or works as a decorative lift to display other objects (a Pottery Barn idea, using a Pottery Barn book ;P). SUPER :)

1 1/2 stars.

Pottery Barn is a commercial purveyor of many of the home-use goods which are featured throughout this book. As far as the quality of their products goes, they look fine to me (I really have never patronized them so I can't actually say one way or the other for certain) -- but the book is an egregious journey into a sphere of dreadful ideas.

A superior title for this dubious work would have been, "Dragging Your Indoor Stuff Outdoors (So It Will Get Ruined by the Weather, Dirt, Dust, Bugs, and Other Outdoor Hazards)". If you fancy the superficial in favor of the practical and useful, then you'll find this work right up your alley... but most people have better sense.

I will first point out a particular caveat of the numerous color photographs found in this volume which will serve to anchor and verify my comments in regard to life in the real world: there are no people in these photographs, no one who is attempting to partake of these manufactured outdoor spaces. The reason is because if they did attempt to use many of these questionable contrivances, it would become quickly evident that the bulk of them are totally non-functional.

The book's stated purpose is [paraphrasing]: to define a room in outdoor space, (patios, decks, porches, backyards, balconies, etc.), with emphasis on comfort, style, creativity, recreation, resting, dining, and entertaining.

I cook and entertain out-of-doors all the time and have set-up and preserved a number of sites on my property where such endeavors can transpire with great utility and comfort for my guests. I have also been involved in conducting hundreds of such events/activities at the resort lodge which was a facet of a larger state park resort operation which I managed for many years... so I know what I'm talking about.

Here are just a few particulars which exemplify the author's ideas which will provide you with some important insight on how [un]worthy many of these proposals really are:

-- The use of linens in an outdoor setting (page 15 and elsewhere) always generates a huge roll of the dice. I have been forced to use essential linens with some frequency (I typically used only enough to get by in terms of visual ambiance and utility) but it was always with the knowledge that whatever I put out would universally come back indoors with innumerable stains and sometimes otherwise damaged. The book places great emphasis on lots of linen items to generate a maximum of eye appeal but rain, wind, and bugs are sure to invade, and the latter always become especially prevalent when food is being served.

-- One concept dealt with laying out large pillows on the beach (page 45), along with the use of china, pitchers, and other showy tableware. Beach settings are especially uncertain when one goes overboard with such accoutrements because it's practically impossible to excise sand out of any porous item. Sand will also inevitably find its way into any food or beverage which is contained in vessels with large open tops. It's even hard to keep out of soda and beer bottles.

-- The book's "outdoor kitchen" is very charming but notably unworkable. The author recommends stones as a makeshift sort of fire ring. This practice is actually quite dangerous as very bad burns can occur (especially when children are around) when people either inadvertently or purposefully touch them - since they don't "look hot" people are less afraid of rocks and stones than they are of metal items placed near open flame, but really hot ones will immediately take the skin right off your hand on contact. Even worse, certain types of rocks such as sandstone will (and often do) explode if they get hot enough. Limestone can actually emit noxious gasses when heated by fire. The author recommends that cooks employ overturned colanders (over plates and platters of food) to repel hungry insects from the various dishes. This might look artful but it won't work in the least. Insects smaller than flies, of which there are millions, will easily find their way into any food which is "protected" in this manner. One has to use containers with matching lids to effectively achieve this essential end.

-- The "barn celebration" featured a pretty silly set-up wherein bales of straw were used for seating. Straw ends will punch right through clothing and skin if the bales are not adequately covered on top. It can also be chock-full of tiny biting critters. Most would wear slacks or jeans for such a gathering but, women who wear dresses will be sure to admonish any host who attempts to seat them on a bale of straw. The author also notes that new paintbrushes should be placed on the individual bales to whisk the straw from clothing - this is a truly goofy idea, in addition to being an expensive one. A paintbrush would be remarkably ineffective in removing straw [and appurtenant] debris from one's clothing.

-- In yet another setting a claw-foot bath tub has been dragged on to an outdoor deck, a snow-white sheepskin rug placed alongside it. Claw-foot tubs (if you could possibly locate one that's not profoundly rusted on the exterior) are made of cast iron and they weigh hundreds of pounds. If the idea is to take an outdoor bath, where will all the hot water come from? You'd have to carry water heated elsewhere to the tub location in buckets! And that beautiful, pristine sheepskin rug wouldn't look very nice at all after a few minutes in such an environment. A similar hazard exists where a full-sized cloth couch has been placed poolside - one would need plenty of help in a hurry should it come a sudden downpour.

-- The author's camp shower looks more like Da-Da art than it does a shower. It would be as non-functional as is the book's scenario of an open wall-tent (very expensive!) which houses a wood stove, a mattress, and an overstuffed cloth chair. First, the tent has no fly and will therefore not resist rain for more than a few minutes -- everything would get soaked in no time at all and a wet mattress is no fun to move. And if one decided to actually fire up the heavy woodstove then the smoke would soon penetrate every cloth item in the immediate vicinity. In other words, all this furniture would immediately smell like a boy scout's campfire and it would be the very devil to remove this odor -- I don't think it can be done, actually.

Probably the least important facet of all these outdoor situations becomes one of the most important in this book: matching the "color palette" of one's accessories (linens, furniture, etc.) with the natural environment. How goofy is that?!? Yes, I suppose it would be nice to do this, but as a final consideration, not a primary one. An influx of rain, dirt, dust, smoke, bugs, and other vermin will make one promptly disregard the purported value of the so-called color palette.

I can hardly recall when I've previously encountered so many questionable ideas within a single book. The products of this company might well be okay but good luck to you if you try to use them as it is suggested here. The people who put this book together clearly did not have the first clue about conducting these sorts of outdoor pursuits. They must have simply dragged their stuff outdoors for the purposes of the photos and then they must have removed it right away with no actual testing.

This book was housed at my local public library and, having now read it, I could not return it fast enough!

Not recommended!

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