Romantic Prairie Style


Fifi O'Neill - 2011
    It's a style that says 'home' wherever you may be because, more than anything else, it's a mindset: gentle but strong, welcoming and lasting, durable yet sophisticated and, above all, real. Over the centuries, the humble dwellings built by European immigrants to the US in the 1880s have evolved into sturdier, more comfortable homes, which, depending on their geographic location, took on a variety of designs, be it a ranch, cabin, farmhouse, cottage or adobe. Each of these styles plays a role in prairie style and its enduring aura of romance and nostalgia. Here interiors bear the influence of European settlers and the poetry of the heart-warming authenticity of simple, natural textures, hand-hewn beams, bleached wood, weathered planks, woven blankets, cow-hide and Navajo rugs. It's a style inspired by the honesty of homespun materials of the past wedded to a flair for the present. It's flower-sprigged brocade, tawny leather, crisp eyelet and soft linen, corduroy with crochet trims, woolen plaids, cosy flannel and wispy organza. It's history retold and all about the enduring connection between people and places and the nostalgia we feel for a rural country life, a yearning for a simpler life, as embodied in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie.

Down to Earth: Laid-back Interiors for Modern Living


Lauren Liess - 2019
    While Habitat walked readers through the decorating process step-by-step, Liess’s latest title takes a step beyond the basics and invites readers to incorporate the main components of her familiar design aesthetic: nature, easy living, and approachability. With evocative photos and substantive design advice, Down to Earth focuses on creating a lifestyle that inspires creativity and functionality.  Throughout the book, Liess shows readers how to incorporate six guiding principles in six unique homes: a new farmhouse, a classic American historical home, a lakeside contemporary house, a modern villa, a turn- of-the-century American Foursquare, and a cedar and glass house on a bluff. While each home has a different architectural style, fingerprints of Liess’s down-to-earth style are evident throughout.

Travel Home: Design with a Global Spirit


Caitlin Flemming - 2019
    Touring the homes of leaders in global design who share a deep affection for travel, the book explores interiors with influences as widespread as Marrakesh, Paris, Cuba, Tokyo, Portugal, and beyond. Vivid photography is supplemented with insightful essays, interviews, and hardworking tips for cultivating your own global home. For globetrotters and armchair travelers alike, Travel Home showcases the interplay between travel and design, revealing how we can take inspiration from the beauty we experience in the world and bring it into our everyday lives.

Found Style: Vintage Ideas for Modern Living


David Butler - 2003
    Unique style comes with successfully blending the old and new, the unexpected with the familiar - a white antique stove and modern chrome refrigerator placed side by side, or a 50s kidney-shaped coffee table accented by an Adirondack chair. Enter Found Style, the modern-day guide to the mix-and-match aesthetic. From vintage treasures to contemporary furnishings, family heirlooms to flea market finds, authors David and Amy Butler take a friendly approach to creating spaces that are courageously unique - and undeniably stylish. Illustrated with 200 inspiring color photographs, Found Style offers up a host of innovative ideas, as well as tips for honing one's flea market savvy, and blending old and new with unexpected dash. Found Style is a celebration of creating eclectic personal style and a resource for those who live for the hunt.

Pottery Barn Living Rooms


Bonnie Schwartz - 2003
    Drawing on the expertise of America's leading home furnishings brand, this essential guide addresses every aspect of creating comfortable, casual living spaces with ease and style. With more than 250 original color photographs, Pottery Barn Living Rooms is the ultimate sourcebook for decorating the heart of your home.Key Features:* More than 250 never-before-seen photographs illustrate everything you need to know, from choosing colors to arranging furniture* Hundreds of practical decorating ideas and quick styling tips help you create simple, beautiful effects throughout your home* Walk-through room tours of real-life living spaces include color palettes, design plans, and quick-reference guides to materials

Flea Market Fabulous: Designing Gorgeous Rooms with Vintage Treasures


Lara Spencer - 2014
    She takes readers through the step-by-step process of overcoming the challenges of the room, offering helpful tips and lessons along the way. She identi­fies the design dilemma; comes up with a decorat­ing plan; makes a mood board for inspiration; compiles a shopping list; scours flea markets for furniture and accessories that fit the bill; restores, repurposes, and reinvents the pieces she finds, giving them new life; and brings all the elements together in the gorgeous, finished space. With illuminating before, during, and after photographs of her DIY projects and the room installations, Lara demystifies the decorating process and allows readers to envision endless possibilities for what they can do in their own homes.

Flea Market Style


Emily Chalmers - 2005
    Emily Chalmers and Ali Hanan explain how to find fresh and unexpected uses of second-hand pieces and antiques, and reveal how to mix old and new with flair and panache. The first part of the book, Flea Market Finds, looks at household goods, from fabrics and furniture to china, kitchenware, glass and lighting, and describes how to find special objects and indentify them on the basis of their quality, character, resillience, colour, and texture. The authors advocate a subtle mixing of styles, patterns, and colours, and emphasize the beauty of objects that have seen a bit of life. They explain how to locate bargain copies of modern classics--or the real things--and how to mix flea-market or thrift-store finds with high-end basics. The second part of the book, Putting It All Together, shows how to incorporate the style in every room--from the spaces where you cook, eat, sleep, or relax to bathing spaces and work spaces. The book ends with an extensive directory of suppliers. -Add a large dose of originality to your home--at low cost. -Lively text illustrated with Debi Treloar's inspirational photographs.

Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Treasure Hunting & Decorating Guide


Rachel Ashwell - 1998
    The guide to discovering beautiful treasures on a budget from the acclaimed creator of the Shabby Chic style and line of home furnishings.

Old Home Love


Andy Meredith - 2017
    Their passion for saving and renovating old homes, which caught the attention of HGTV, sparked the creation of their new reality series, Old Home Love.Their stunning debut book features never before seen images of more than 15 homes, (including their own, renovated by the couple themselves), do-it-yourself renovation tips and guidance, and their family’s story. Old Home Love will inspire readers to discover the history and beauty behind their own homes, regardless of location or style.

Perfect English Cottage


Ros Byam Shaw - 2009
    Bestselling author Ros Byam Shaw takes a fresh look at this perennially appealing style, which she divides into five chapters: Character, Holiday, Romance, Simplicity, and Elegance. The featured homes are incredibly varied, from a tiny house with exposed beams to a pared-down Georgian gem, to a picture-perfect cottage with roses over the door—and plenty more adorning the interior. Each section ends with a Get The Look page devoted to ideas for recreating the style in your own home.

Design by Nature: Creating Layered, Lived-In Spaces Inspired by the Natural World


Erica Tanov - 2018
     Inspired by nature's colors, textures, and patterns, design icon Erica Tanov uses her passion for textiles to create beautiful, timeless interiors that connect us to the natural world. Now, in her first book, Design by Nature, Tanov teaches you how to train your eye to the beauty of the natural world, and then bring the outdoors in--incorporating patterns and motifs from nature, as well as actual organic elements, into simple ideas for everyday decorating and design.Design by Nature contains new and imaginative decorating ideas for an organic and bohemian style that mixes and layers rugs, pillows, throws, and drapery, and incorporates unique patterns and fabrics such as shibori, ikat, and jamdani, all stunningly photographed by renowned photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo.With topics ranging from embracing imperfection in your home, to seeking out flea markets, to displaying your collections, Design by Nature takes an enduring and intuitive approach to design that transcends fleeting trends and encourages you to find your own personal style, source of creativity, and connection to the natural world. You don't need to travel to distant locales to find beauty; it's all around us, from the crackle of fallen leaves to the jagged bark of a tree.

A Well-Crafted Home: Inspiration and 60 Projects for Personalizing Your Space


Janet Crowther - 2017
    Here are 60 projects for high-quality furniture, textiles, and accessories to enjoy all through the house--plus all the techniques you need for dyeing or sewing fabric, cutting leather, antiquing mirrors, working with wood, and much more.A Well-Crafted Home includes simple, creative details that will tailor a space to your taste. More than just -DIY- crafts, these carefully designed projects call for good materials--like linen, leather, and wood--so the finished product will last you a lifetime. Ranging from beginner to more advanced, each item elevates a room in a way you'd never expect: a large-scale painting with an effortless -dot- design looks like a modern piece of art, flax linen bedding sewn with a few easy seams is gorgeous way to set off the bed (and is more affordable than you would think), and a copper pipe rack for hanging clothes is so pretty, you'll want to keep it on display. There's something for every room in this book: The Entryway: Dowel Wall Hooks, Reclaimed Wood Bench, Woven Leather Basket, Soft Planter Cover, Block-Print Pillow, Looped-Tassel Wall Hanging The Living Room: Dyed Fabric Ottoman, Tassel Wall Banner, Bleach-Dot Lumbar Pillow, Flange-Edge Throw Pillow, Tied Shibori Throw Pillow, Gemstone Box, Air-Dry Clay Bowl, Rolling Trunk Storage, Glass-Cover Pendant Lamp The Kitchen: Wooden Herb Planter, Rustic Footed Cutting Board, Quilted Cushions, Leather-Loop Tea Towels, Ombre Ceramic VaseThe Dining Room: Heirloom Linen Tablecloth, Indigo-Stripe Napkins, Leather Napkin Rings, Clay Candlesticks, Boro Stitched Trivet, Beaded Light Fixture, The Bedroom: Framed Cane Headboard; Linen Bedding with Duvet, Shams, and Pillowcases; Simple Stitch Throw Pillow; Sewn Leather Pillow; Trimmed Waffle-Weave Blanket; Modern Latch-Hook Stool; Dyed Fabric Art in Round Mat; Natural Jute Rug; Painted Ceramic Tray; Acrylic Side Table; Refurbished Table Lamp; Boro Stitched Memory Quilt The Closet: Copper Garment Rack, Leaning Floor Mirror, Wall Shoe Display, Thread-Wrapped Pendant Light, Liberty Print Hamper, Antiqued Mirror TableThe Bathroom: Natural Wood Stump, Oak Tub Tray, Knotted Rope Ladder, Terry-cloth Towels, Leather Wastebasket The Outdoor Oasis: Simple Sewn Hammock, Painted Wood Stump, Restored-Frame Tray, Ice-Dyed Blanket, Colorwash Sheepskin With beautiful photographs of rooms styled with all of the projects, A Well-Crafted Home proves that even the smallest touch of handmade can make a house a home.

Found, Free, and Flea: Creating Collections from Vintage Treasures


Tereasa Surratt - 2011
    While renovating the decrepit cabins at Camp Wandawega, they kept stumbling upon curious objects, some dating back ninety years or more: a Boy Scout patch, an old sled, a pristine set of Fiesta Ware, dozens of midcentury aprons, an untouched box of board games in their original packaging. Tereasa knew the power that one mundane object has when grouped with its siblings. So rather than discard everything, she set out on a five-year expedition to turn the more than 150 found items into full-fledged collections. Relying on her own thriftiness, she only acquired pieces for free or at a bargain price: items that she found, negotiated for free, or unearthed at a flea market. Found, Free & Flea explores Tereasa’s passion for collecting while encouraging you to tap into your own with ideas on where to look to see collectibles. Throughout the book, she shares her secrets and historical tidbits behind these prized antiques, now used to create innovative displays and for entertaining guests at her renovated lakeside retreat. From vintage wine taster cups turned into a wind chime to cheese boxes reinvented as drawer organizers, to a chicken feeder that houses old tea cups for impromptu coffee bar setups, everything at Camp Wandawega earns its keep. Learn how to navigate flea markets and how to best negotiate, why “localvore” collecting should matter to the thrifty shopper (and what finds to expect on your travels), which vintage collections are easiest to start and the quickest to fill out, and what tips you should employ for turning even the most simple items into stunning displays. The beautiful photography and Tereasa’s clever DIY projects and sharp eye for design will inspire anyone to add charm and personality to interiors with a few well-worn objects. A celebration of Americana and ingenuity, Found, Free & Flea is a must-have for knowing how to spot treasures, complete collections, and display them artfully.

One Man's Folly: The Exceptional Houses of Furlow Gatewood


Julia Reed - 2014
    Antiques expert Furlow Gatewood's highly personal property in bucolic Americus, Georgia, where he has meticulously restored his family's carriage house and added intimate dwellings and outbuildings-several rescued from demolition-has evolved over decades to become a sublime expression of stylish living. The structures exemplify various architectural traditions-from mid-nineteenth-century Gothic to Palladian. He has collaborated with local craftsmen to create these follies and takes delight in designing the picturesque grounds and plantings and in devising comfortable areas for his beloved dogs and peacocks. A gifted designer and longtime associate of antiques dealer John Rosselli, Gatewood has a talent for discovering singular pieces with a poetic patina, composing custom paint finishes and subtle palettes, and knowing how to incorporate distinctive architectural elements. To accompany the book's atmospheric images, close friend Bunny Williams writes about the lessons she has learned from this master of discernment. Gatewood's seductive and hospitable Arcadian oasis, with its exquisite and timeless design, will have an enduring impact on the design community.

A Touch of Farmhouse Charm: Easy DIY Projects to Add a Warm and Rustic Feel to Any Room


Liz Fourez - 2016
    With the turn of each page, Liz Fourez leads you on a tour through her family’s house, restored to its 1940s rustic farm style, and teaches you how to make each handmade decoration yourself. The projects require minimal effort, yet add instant charm to any room. With your blue jeans on and a few of the most basic supplies in hand, you’ll be on your way to your dream home in no time.You’ll learn how to make a custom wood Family Name Sign for your living room, a Wooden Boot Tray on Casters for the entryway, a Ruffled Stool Slipcover for the kitchen and a Rustic Wooden Frame for the bedroom, plus decorations for the office, bathroom, kids’ bedroom and playroom. Farmhouse style is about cultivating a connection among family, home and nature; A Touch of Farmhouse Charm helps you bring the warmth and beauty of simpler times to your modern life naturally.