By Marianne Cusato & Ben Pentreath
Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid
✓ Over 1000 hand drawings of architectural details — what to use and what to avoid
✓ The vocabulary and grammar of traditional architecture, explained visually
✓ Ideal for builders, designers, as well as homeowners
✓ Paperback, 272 pages
“Get Your House Right is every bit as important to home building as a hammer and nails.”
✓ What’s Inside?+
Over 1000 hand drawings comparing the right and wrong way to detail a house: windows, doors, porches, columns, cornices, roofs, dormers, chimneys, railings, moldings and more — each shown side by side as “Use” and “Avoid”.
✓ Who Is It For?+
Builders, architects, designers and homeowners — anyone who wants to understand why some houses look right and others don’t, and how to fix it.
✓ Shipping & Returns+
Shipping options and rates are shown at checkout. See our refund policy for returns.
Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid
Marianne Cusato & Ben Pentreath, with Richard Sammons & Leon Krier. Foreword by H.R.H. The Former Prince of Wales. Sterling, 2008.
Architecture is a language. Like any language it has a vocabulary and grammar. So often when you see a building that doesn't look quite right, it is because the grammar is not being used correctly.
Filled from cover to cover with over 1000 hand drawings, this book illustrates contrasting avoid and use examples of the details you need to know to Get Your House Right. Ideal for builders, designers, as well as homeowners.
What the Experts Are Saying
Published reviews of Get Your House Right from the design and building press.
Fine HomebuildingMarch 2013
“Every bit as important to home building as a hammer and nails.”
It’s not often that we include a book in our ‘Tools & Materials’ department, but if you ask me, Get Your House Right is every bit as important to home building as a hammer and nails.
Minneapolis Star TribuneDecember 2008
“A marvelous assemblage of house-building wisdom.”
‘Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid’ by Marianne Cusato ... is a marvelous assemblage of house-building wisdom.
USA Today HOME
“The taller the molding the wider the molding can be.”
The taller the molding the wider the molding can be, says Marianne Cusato, author of Get Your House Right.
“Every bit as important to home building as a hammer and nails.”
— Fine Homebuilding
Architecture is a language. Like any language it has a vocabulary and grammar. So often when you see a building that doesn’t look quite right, it is because the grammar is not being used correctly.
Get Your House Right shows you, drawing by drawing, what to use and what to avoid.
From the designer of the Katrina Cottage
Marianne Cusato’s houses are built on the same principles she teaches in this book: proportion, honest materials and details that work.
Give a copy to your builder or architect so everyone on the project speaks the same language.
Keep one. Give two.
The 3-copy set is our lowest price per book. Keep one on your own shelf and hand the other two to the people shaping your next project — your builder, your architect, or a friend about to renovate.
When everyone works from the same drawings, the details come out right.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote Get Your House Right?+
Marianne Cusato and Ben Pentreath, with Richard Sammons and Leon Krier. The foreword is by H.R.H. The Former Prince of Wales.
What format is the book?+
Paperback, 272 pages, with over 1000 hand drawings.
Do I need an architecture background?+
No. Each element is shown side by side as “Use” and “Avoid”, so the lessons are clear to homeowners as well as builders and designers.
Can I buy copies as gifts?+
Yes. Choose 2 or 3 copies above to save on each book.
What is your return policy?+
See our refund policy.