Use What You Have Decorating : Transform Your Home in One Hour With Ten Simple Design Principles — Using the Space You Have, the Things You Like, the Budget You Choose
At last, a decorating book that teaches anyone how to achieve the look they want, using the space they have, the things they like and the budget they can afford. In fact, Lauri Ward demonstrates how to make dramatic changes to any home without spending a penny! In her unique book, Lauri Ward identifies the ten most common decorating mistakes and illustrates how they can be corrected without hiring a professional decorator. Using real before-and-after examples, complete with photographs and drawings, Use What You Have Decorating shows what most people do wrong--and how errors can be remedied in short order, easily and economically. Different from any other interior design book, Use What You Have Decorating provides the principles and techniques necessary not only to create an instant transformation but also to make the right choices and purchases in the future. And unlike most decorating books, this one remains timeless because it doesn't depend on current fads or fashions. It allows anyone to have the most inviting home based on the best taste--their own. Use What You Have Decorating works with any style of furniture, from traditional to contemporary; with any size room or home, from studio to estate; with any budget, at any stage of life and regardless of style or taste of each individual.
Customer Review: Good book but it gets tiresome
Laurie Ward has hit on a great idea here - redecorating with your own stuff. And she does give some great advice in this book about creating a conversation area situated around a focal point, and about how high to hang art. I have been "tweaking" my house ever since I read the book and for the most part her suggestions are very helpful. I also enjoyed the "before" and "after" photos of real peoples' homes. But a couple things bothered me about this book. The first two-thirds of the book are basically paraphrased repetitions of this idea: create a U-shaped conversation area around a focal point. By the fifth or sixth example, you're thinking "gee, I wonder what genius furniture arrangement she'll come up with this time...SURPRISE! U-shaped conversation area!" She gives only a little information on how to re-arrange a dining room, bedroom, bathroom, or ANY OTHER room in the house (and what about those of us with open floor plans? throw me a bone here!), and what few suggestions she does give seem to have been added as an afterthought. The other thing I did not like is a matter of taste more than anything else: I thought some of her advice was a bit old-school (and not in a good way), in particular her advice about how to arrange and group art and other decorative objects (i.e., "don't mix media"), but also her advice against using fridge magnets and patterned paper towels comes off as a bit snobby. However, overall I do recommend the book if you need some help rearranging your living room.
Customer Review: practical budget friendly
I give the book a 4 star rating. Would have been good if we had some colour photos and show some living rooms that do not have the fire place a the focal point of the room but some other feature. Also how do you decorate a room with steep dormer features, that create angles. I like Lauri's books though I have Home Therapy.
