House Beautiful “The Home Book” Book Review

House Beautiful’s “The Home Book” is a gorgeous, educational and inspirational decorating guide-book filled with over 460 pages of design advice and more than 500 photos of rooms designed by top interior designers. “The Home Book” is the literary equivalent of having your very own on-call personal interior stylist available to answer your pressing design questions (How do I pick the right decor colors? or What patterns work together? – to name a few),  and offers up fresh, decorating advice at the turn of a page.

“The Home Book” contains three sections:

Understand Your Home: Lays the foundation for understanding the importance of your home’s exterior location, architecture and space/floor plan. This section is critical as this is the foundation on which the ensuing layers of design shall rest. Learn how to highlight your home’s design assets and diminish its design liabilities with the sage advice of designers who’ve overcome design challenges hundreds of times over in their profession of creating beautiful, comfortable and livable interiors. One of the interior designers highlighted in this section is Shawn Henderson of Shawn Henderson Interior Design (New York). Mr. Henderson explains the importance of achieving balance “between the space and the decorative elements within it”, and offers insightful advice for how you can achieve it.

Elements of Design: Learn how to use the seven elements of Design: Ambiance, Color, Lighting, Fabric & Trimmings, Walls & Ceilings, Floors and Window Treatments to create your dream home interior. If the thought of introducing color into your home frightens you, the section on color which includes a very straight-forward color primer will assuage your color fears and prepare you to boldly introduce color to your home. I’ve learned over the years from my readers that choosing decor color is their number one design fear. Their number two decor terror? Patterns, and how to correctly use them. The fabric and trimmings section includes “Instant Room” illustrated guides to mixing and matching fabrics and patterns – I think this section alone will give a confidence boost to all who shudder when faced with the task of adding patterned decor to their rooms.

Design, Room by Room: Over 200 pages filled with beautiful photos of rooms (from bedrooms to bathrooms to kitchens to living rooms to home offices to kids rooms to outdoor living rooms) designed in all manners of styles and tastes provide a visual learning experience with an exciting dose of inspiration that will set the heart aflutter of any decorating diva worth her salt. On page 363 a home office designed by the immensely talented Celerie Kimble (one of my fave designers) illustrates the results of expertly bringing together varied design elements and smartly designing the room’s layout to accommodate for the flow of everyday living while working in a beautiful organized space.

Equally compelling design advice and tips show you how to get the look at home. Designer Ernest de la Torre explains his top ten rules for using and hanging wall art.   Ellen Kennon shows you how to create a holistic sanctuary-style bedroom,  a place you can retreat to from this increasingly maddening world of economic upheavals and geo-political strife. With over 45 pages dedicated to expert “how-to decorate a bedroom” advice, and the accompanying photos of bedrooms designed in a range of styles: Contemporary, French country, Neo-classic, Eclectic and so many others; you’re sure to find one that will inspire your future bedroom design.

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Decorating..The Professional Touch Book Review

Carol Donayre Bugg, DDCD, ASID, Vice President & Director of Design, INTERIORS by Decorating Den has penned her fifth decorating book, Decorating…The Professional Touch.  Her latest decorating book is aimed to the non-DIY types or decorating divas who are short on time and who would rather outsource their home’s decoration to a professional decorator, and, in my opinion,  Decorating…The Professional Touch is also a wonderful, inspirational source for aspiring decorators.

Decorating…The Professional Touch is a how-to guide to selecting the right decorator who can “solve and complete your home decorating dreams with colors, fabrics, window treatments, paints, furnishings, lighting, and more”  while highlighting client / Decorating Den franchisee stories accompanied with decor eye candy photos.

Mrs. Donayre-Bugg’s outlines what criteria a homeowner should seek in a professional decorator. She debunks the myth that if you hire a decorator that you have to start from scratch, and she discusses throughout the book numerous solutions (illustrated in over 200 full color photos of beautifully designed rooms) to common, and often frustrating design dilemmas.

Living room	Sample design board

Decorating…The Professional Touch is filled with page upon page of beautifully styled rooms and homes – most decorated by Decorating Den franchisees and the rest by Mrs.  Donayre-Bugg’s (her home is GORGEOUS) .  A little light on before and after images, but I tend to want to know how every room looked before the big reveal. There’s nothing quite like showing the “ugly duckling” transformed into the “swan” to get one inspired to update or renovate their home’s decor.  However, the limited before and after photos do highlight the creative talent and design skills of the Decorating Den franchisees and serve as design inspiration even for the intrepid DIYer who would rather decorate on her own.

Decorating…The Professional Touch is also a good book for aspiring decorators to pick up and review.  The story of Mrs. Donayre-Bugg’s pursuit of her dream to decorate (and own a decorating business and subsequently empower other decorating women to pursue theirs) and the dozens of inspirational stories of Decorating Den’s franchisees (one such story of a daughter who followed in her mother’s footsteps and opened her own successful Decorating Den franchise) are sure to encourage those with decorating dreams to follow their hearts and go for the dream.

The Decorating Diva LLC will be giving away 2 copies of Decorating…The Professional Touch on October 2nd, 2009. To enter in the giveaway add a comment telling us why you want this fabulous book. (Give away limited to USA only. Please include your email for us to contact you if you are the winner. Winner will be selected by random drawing using random.org.  Comments are moderated  so don’t fret if you don’t see the comment appear right away. Good Luck! )

Decorating…The Professional Touch is available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Cross-posted at Curbly: The Decorating Diva at Curbly (Professional Touch Book review).

Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me – Book Review

I had the pleasure of reviewing “Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me: A Guide to Living with Impeccable Grace & Style” written by the renowned style diva of the Times of London, Lucia Van Der Post. Things I Wish My Mother….is, in my opinion, a must read and library staple for the modern gal. Ms. Van Der Post’s conversational writing style converts her from author to friend in a matter of minutes. As you read her advice, whether it be on beauty and glamour, wardrobe selection, gracious entertaining or home decoration you feel as if she is chatting by phone sharing, guiding and offering her secrets to a stylish life to a good friend – you the reader.

Ms. Van Der Post’s modern-day guidebook for stylish living contains a warm and engaging section, “Home Sweet Home” that addresses several aspects of at-home living. This is less of a how-to decorate section than it is a how-to live-at-home section with timeless advice, tips and shop information. Considering the economic crisis in which we now find our nation and even closer to home, our households – it’s comforting to have a book that lays out the spiritual importance of “home” rather than just the material. My favorite quote, “…[I]t’s a home, not a museum. It’s for living in, not for looking at. Have things you love” captures the essence of the “Sanctuary Home” trend I wrote about earlier this month.

Throughout the book, Ms. Van Der Post generously shares advice from style gurus in a variety of industries, from beauty to fashion to entertaining to relationships and to home design. One such style diva is, Suzanne Imre, editor of Livingetc.   Ms. Imre shares her top ten tips for achieving “economy glamour” at home without sacrificing style, elegance or glamour.

Preview Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me: A Guide to Living with Impeccable Grace & Style at Google Books. Buy at Amazon or Barnes & Noble – this little book will make for a wonderful holiday treat for the stylish gal.

3 Top Books to Help You Create Stunning Tabletops and Tablescapes

Make your next party your best ever with tips, how-to instructions and inspiration from the following three books:

Tablescapes by Kimberly Schlegel Whitman – learn how socialite and event planner Kimberly Schlegal Whitman plans and designs creative tables for her amazing parties. She shares her secrets for creating decorating themes for a variety of events from holiday parties to bridal showers to beach parties and many others.

Tabletops: Easy, Practical, Beautiful Ways to Decorate the Table by Barbara Milo Ohrbach – Designer Barbara Milo Ohrbach guides you through the process of creating stunning tabletop designs. She explains how to use color, find inspiration, coordinate accessories, arrange flowers and how to give the tablescape a polished finishing touch by using decorative table decor and accessories.

The Party Planner- David Tutera, party planner to the stars, book inspires with creative party ideas, gorgeous event photos and party planning ideas. Though this book is a couple of years older, not as recent as Kimberly Schlegal Whitman new tablescape design book, it still holds the power to inspire – and that’s the spark of creativity all decorating divas seek.