The Fiance and I are relocating in about a week. (I need to get with the packing.) While I hate the physical act of moving, I am stoked about getting to decorate a new place. Our new digs have a huge bank of windows and lots of closet space. I've already got my eye on several walls that might need some DIY paintings.
In honor of my need to peruse home decor stores, I thought this month's Variations on a Theme would be decorating and DIY.
Young, House, Love: 243 Ways to Paint, Craft, Update & Show Your Home Some Love
Sherry and John Petersik
Design ideas for every style, skill level, and budget, from the beloved couple behind YoungHouseLove.com. This debut book by bloggers Sherry and John Petersik is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up a home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts, 5 million blog hits per month, and an ever-growing audience since the launch of Young House Love in 2007, Sherry and John are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Whether an experienced decorator or a total novice, on a tight budget or with money to spend, any homeowner or apartment dweller will find ideas for his or her own home makeovers here. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more. [My review]
Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy
Deborah Needleman
Domino: The Book of Decorating cracks the code to creating a beautiful home, bringing together inspiring rooms, how-to advice and insiders' secrets from today's premier tastemakers in an indispensable style manual. The editors take readers room by room, tapping the best ideas from domino magazine and culling insights from their own experiences. With an eye to making design accessible and exciting, this book demystifies the decorating process and provides the tools for making spaces that are personal, functional and fabulous.
Quick and Easy Paint Transformations
Annie Sloan
With this book in one hand and a brush in the other, you can learn how to create different finishes and effects with paint to change everyday rooms and furnishings into something special, all for the price of a pot of paint. The first section of the book tells you everything you need to know before you start - how to prepare surfaces properly, choose the right paint for the right place, use the best tools and select a colour scheme that will work with the room in question. Then, the 50 different techniques are divided into nine sections: colour washing; distressing and aging; fabric effects; wood effects; stone effects; metallic effects; stencilling and printing; stripes, checks, and spots; and, varnishing and glazing. There are step-by-step photos showing how to achieve the finished look, backed up by inspirational photos showing the effect used on walls and doors, furniture and floors. Learn how to bring old second-hand furniture bang up to date, or how to give modern pieces a softly aged appearance, as well as ways to treat and transform floorboards, doors and plastered walls, all with the aid of a pot of paint and a brush. Whatever the style of your interiors, "Quick and Easy Paint Transformations" will show you the best way to makeover your home.
Design*Sponge At Home
Grace Bonney
Design*Sponge didn't need its trademark asterisk to stand out. Grace Bonney's blog ranks as the most popular design site on the web, drawing over 75,000 unique visitors and 250,000 page views every day. This large-format hardcover is the book that its 280,000 followers on Twitter have been anxiously awaiting. Design*Sponge at Home has it all: Fifty do-it-yourself projects to personalize your space; home tours of 70 interiors featuring artists and designers; step-by-step tutorials on home improvement skills; fifty before-and-after makeover submitted by readers; essential tips on flower arranging; and, not least, 700 photographs to point the way. A fantasy feast.
Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design
Christine Lemiuex
Undecorate profiles twenty homes from all over the country, revealing their owners’ love of imperfection and penchant for surprise and unusual juxtapositions while inspiring readers to follow their own whimsy and practicalities in their personal spaces. An anglophile creates an English manor in Hollywood, mixing British flea-market finds with midcentury furniture. A car fanatic turns a vintage Airstream trailer into a master bedroom and situates it in the middle of a vast industrial loft in downtown Chicago. A couple transforms a log house in Nashville, Tennessee, by blending their modern and eclectic styles with the home’s rustic charm. Though the designs differ widely, the spaces all express an open-minded attitude. Some homes embrace their contexts, while others transcend them. All are shaped by instinct and imagination and share innovative ideas that readers can use to organically and elegantly create their home to match their lifestyle and tastes. Lemieux gets to the essence of the homeowners’ distinctive styles, pinpointing the transformative ideas, thoughtful details, and useful solutions that make each home memorable. With more than 200 full-color photographs, Undecorate will both inspire and guide homeowners to a new outlook on home design.
The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to be Beautiful
Myquillyn Smith
Popular blogger and self-taught decorator Myquillyn Smith (The Nester) is all about embracing reality---especially when it comes to decorating a home bursting with boys, pets, and all the unpredictable messes of life.In The Nesting Place, Myquillyn shares the secrets of decorating for real people---and it has nothing to do with creating a flawless look to wow your guests. It has everything to do with embracing the natural imperfection and chaos of daily living.Drawing on her years of experience creating beauty in her 13 different homes, Myquillyn will show you how to think differently about the true purpose of your home and simply and creatively tailor it to reflect you and your unique style---without breaking the bank or stressing over comparisons. Full of easy tips, simple steps, and practical advice, The Nesting Place will give you the courage to take risks with your home and transform it into a place that’s inviting and warm for family and friends.There is beauty in the lived-in and loved-on and just-about-used-up, Myquillyn says, and welcoming that imperfection wholeheartedly just might be the most freeing thing you’ll ever do.
Other Decor Books
Furniture Makeovers - Barb Blair
A Good House is Never Done - John Wheatman
Home By Design - Sarah Susanka
Linens: For Every Room and Every Occasion - Jane Scott Hodges
The Perfectly Imperfect Home - Deborah Needleman
Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design - Amanda Brown
The Things That Matter - Nate Berkus
Use What You Have Decorating - Lauri Ward
The Welcoming House: The Art of Living Graciously - Jane Schwab
In honor of my need to peruse home decor stores, I thought this month's Variations on a Theme would be decorating and DIY.
Sherry and John Petersik
Design ideas for every style, skill level, and budget, from the beloved couple behind YoungHouseLove.com. This debut book by bloggers Sherry and John Petersik is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up a home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts, 5 million blog hits per month, and an ever-growing audience since the launch of Young House Love in 2007, Sherry and John are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Whether an experienced decorator or a total novice, on a tight budget or with money to spend, any homeowner or apartment dweller will find ideas for his or her own home makeovers here. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more. [My review]
Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You HappyDeborah Needleman
Domino: The Book of Decorating cracks the code to creating a beautiful home, bringing together inspiring rooms, how-to advice and insiders' secrets from today's premier tastemakers in an indispensable style manual. The editors take readers room by room, tapping the best ideas from domino magazine and culling insights from their own experiences. With an eye to making design accessible and exciting, this book demystifies the decorating process and provides the tools for making spaces that are personal, functional and fabulous.
Annie Sloan
With this book in one hand and a brush in the other, you can learn how to create different finishes and effects with paint to change everyday rooms and furnishings into something special, all for the price of a pot of paint. The first section of the book tells you everything you need to know before you start - how to prepare surfaces properly, choose the right paint for the right place, use the best tools and select a colour scheme that will work with the room in question. Then, the 50 different techniques are divided into nine sections: colour washing; distressing and aging; fabric effects; wood effects; stone effects; metallic effects; stencilling and printing; stripes, checks, and spots; and, varnishing and glazing. There are step-by-step photos showing how to achieve the finished look, backed up by inspirational photos showing the effect used on walls and doors, furniture and floors. Learn how to bring old second-hand furniture bang up to date, or how to give modern pieces a softly aged appearance, as well as ways to treat and transform floorboards, doors and plastered walls, all with the aid of a pot of paint and a brush. Whatever the style of your interiors, "Quick and Easy Paint Transformations" will show you the best way to makeover your home.
Design*Sponge At HomeGrace Bonney
Design*Sponge didn't need its trademark asterisk to stand out. Grace Bonney's blog ranks as the most popular design site on the web, drawing over 75,000 unique visitors and 250,000 page views every day. This large-format hardcover is the book that its 280,000 followers on Twitter have been anxiously awaiting. Design*Sponge at Home has it all: Fifty do-it-yourself projects to personalize your space; home tours of 70 interiors featuring artists and designers; step-by-step tutorials on home improvement skills; fifty before-and-after makeover submitted by readers; essential tips on flower arranging; and, not least, 700 photographs to point the way. A fantasy feast.
Christine Lemiuex
Undecorate profiles twenty homes from all over the country, revealing their owners’ love of imperfection and penchant for surprise and unusual juxtapositions while inspiring readers to follow their own whimsy and practicalities in their personal spaces. An anglophile creates an English manor in Hollywood, mixing British flea-market finds with midcentury furniture. A car fanatic turns a vintage Airstream trailer into a master bedroom and situates it in the middle of a vast industrial loft in downtown Chicago. A couple transforms a log house in Nashville, Tennessee, by blending their modern and eclectic styles with the home’s rustic charm. Though the designs differ widely, the spaces all express an open-minded attitude. Some homes embrace their contexts, while others transcend them. All are shaped by instinct and imagination and share innovative ideas that readers can use to organically and elegantly create their home to match their lifestyle and tastes. Lemieux gets to the essence of the homeowners’ distinctive styles, pinpointing the transformative ideas, thoughtful details, and useful solutions that make each home memorable. With more than 200 full-color photographs, Undecorate will both inspire and guide homeowners to a new outlook on home design.
The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to be BeautifulMyquillyn Smith
Popular blogger and self-taught decorator Myquillyn Smith (The Nester) is all about embracing reality---especially when it comes to decorating a home bursting with boys, pets, and all the unpredictable messes of life.In The Nesting Place, Myquillyn shares the secrets of decorating for real people---and it has nothing to do with creating a flawless look to wow your guests. It has everything to do with embracing the natural imperfection and chaos of daily living.Drawing on her years of experience creating beauty in her 13 different homes, Myquillyn will show you how to think differently about the true purpose of your home and simply and creatively tailor it to reflect you and your unique style---without breaking the bank or stressing over comparisons. Full of easy tips, simple steps, and practical advice, The Nesting Place will give you the courage to take risks with your home and transform it into a place that’s inviting and warm for family and friends.There is beauty in the lived-in and loved-on and just-about-used-up, Myquillyn says, and welcoming that imperfection wholeheartedly just might be the most freeing thing you’ll ever do.
Other Decor Books
Furniture Makeovers - Barb Blair
A Good House is Never Done - John Wheatman
Home By Design - Sarah Susanka
Linens: For Every Room and Every Occasion - Jane Scott Hodges
The Perfectly Imperfect Home - Deborah Needleman
Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design - Amanda Brown
The Things That Matter - Nate Berkus
Use What You Have Decorating - Lauri Ward
The Welcoming House: The Art of Living Graciously - Jane Schwab
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