Chapter 1: Sleeping
Chapter 2: Bathing & Dressing
Chapter 3: Cooking
Chapter 4: Dining
Chapter 5: Cleaning & Fixing
Chapter 6: Reading, Writing, Living




Purge the clutter.  Outfit your home with care: The 34 essential kitchen tools. The 9 essential cleaning and fixing products. The 13, and only 13, things a bedroom needs to make it a haven of rest and privacy. Each item has been field-tested and rated for its environmental, social, and aesthetic impact. There is high-tech: the miraculous microfiber mop, the low voltage electric blanket, the truly responsive iron. And there is low-tech: the French press coffeemaker, the can opener, and the feather duster. Practical, entertaining, opinionated, Flanagan's Smart Home is a timely remedy for the age of excess. Above all, it’s necessary. Behind the bath mat, soupspoon, sofa, and lamp lies a far deeper question: how to live.


"A wonderful trip through our everyday household objects. I love the histories behind the things I live with, and Barbara Flanagan has given all of us so much more to live with. She is a master storyteller." —Michael Graves, Architect and Designer

Barbara Flanagan is a writer and designer trained as an architect at Yale. She is the author of The Houseboat Book (Rizzoli) and has written extensively for The New York Times, as well as The New York Times Magazine, Elle Décor, Metropolis, and I.D., where she is a contributing editor. She has designed products for the MoMA Design Stores, and also designed her own tiny, high-tech house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Distributor: Workman Publishing Company
Publication Date: 11-01-2008
Pages: 216
Measurements: 7.96in X 5.0in X .63in X 0.63lb