This is the best decorating book I have read. Although I confess to being an HTV addict, the emphasis on trendy design on that network sometimes gets old; this book is refreshing because it is filled with practical advice about how to make your home suit your own tastes. I found the photos less inspiring than photos in most home decor books because most of the rooms shown are too formal or too country for me. However, the excellent text more than makes up for that. I borrowed this book from the library but now I am going to buy a copy. Decorating Without Fear: A Step-by-Step Guide To Creating The Home You Love
I am in the process of having a new home built for me - I haven't a clue what I am doing but this book helped. The book is written with a ease that the do-it yourself decorator will understand the basics and the pictures help you to see this in your own way for your own style. I have found that my decorating style is Cottage design and I now know what I have been doing will always be with me and now I can begin to pick up pieces for my new home and it will work - for me.
This book was a huge letdown for me. I realize that design is pretty much whatever you want to do, but I wanted tips on why designers choose to do certain things more often and why they choose those things. For example, I tend to put my sofa and love seat at a right angle to each other with a rectangular rug in front of them and a coffee table on the rug. I'm told this isn't good design and the sofa should sit partially (or completely) on the rug, etc... I want to know why and how to do a better job of this type of design.
I also found the photography to be terrible, with shots of rooms with open sunlit windows washing out the entire photo in many cases!
There was also lots of bad design in the book. A bathroom full of diagonals that made me DIZZY looking at the picture and florals that would have made an 80 year old woman proud. This was just not what I was looking for at all. - Home Decorating'
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