This is a stunning, photo-driven book that shares enchanting and timeless ways to live more elegantly.

    This New York Times bestseller provides both the inspiration and the clear, essential guidelines you need to create a home that perfectly reflects you. Have you ever wondered exactly how high to hang your artwork? How about the light fixture over your dining table? Do you know how to ideally size a rug for any room, or the best way to arrange your furniture? Beloved designer Vern Yip answers these questions, and more, by revealing the right formulas and measurements that can make any room feel just "right." And once you know these key design principles, you're free to confidently create a home that uniquely celebrates your needs and style. With gorgeous photos throughout, Vern Yip's Design Wise is a book you'll return to again and again.

    Whether decorating a dorm room, an apartment, or a little cottage, what we strive for is a look and feel that expresses our individual personalities. Part style guide, part idea sourcebook, this handy volume--designed to meet the needs of real people with real budgets--is bundled with smart ideas, basic design principles, and enough inspiration to get you off the sofa to make it happen. In her lively, informative text, design guru Marisa Bartolucci takes readers inside 33 small homes from cities across the U.S. to reveal how a strong sense of style--rather than design know-how or unlimited resources--is the most effective tool for transforming an ordinary cramped living space into a smart yet functional private sanctuary.

    Among significant mid-century interiors, none are more celebrated yet underpublished as the homes created by architects and interior designers for themselves. This collection of newly commissioned photographs presents the most compelling homes by influential mid-century designers, such as Russel Wright, George Nakashima, Harry Bertoia, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eva Zeisel, among others. Intimate as well as revelatory, Williamson’s photographs show these creative homes as they were lived in by their designers: Walter Gropius’s historic Bauhaus home in Massachusetts; Albert Frey’s floating modernist aerie on a Palm Springs rock outcropping; Wharton Esherick’s completely handmade Pennsylvania house, from the organic handcarved staircase to the iconic furniture. Personal and breathtaking by turn—these homes are exemplary studies of domestic modernism at its warmest and most creative.

    Nosy by nature, he wanted to see how personal style was reflected in private spaces. Lucky for us, he found his answer in the color-rich and eclectic quarters of a diverse group of subjects, including Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler, Faris Rotter, Andre Walker, and Olivier Zahm, in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and London. Each profile is accompanied by Selby’s watercolor portraits of the subjects and objects from their homes, and illustrated questionnaires, which Selby asks each sitter to fill out. This book consists of over thirty profiles, many of which have never-before-seen, selected exclusively for the book. The result is a collection of unique spaces bursting with energy and personality that together create a colorful hodgepodge of inspirational interiors.

    In Creating a New Old House, architect Russell Versaci shows you that it is possible to design and create a new house that looks and feels like it has always been there. Versaci explores how architects, builders, and craftsmen are reinterpreting the traditional American house. Through photographs and engaging text, discussions of history and craftsmanship, and sidelong glances at the workings of real old houses, Versaci explains how traditional houses go together and what gives them their unique design appeal. Features 17 new, old-style houses -- from colonials to farmhouses -- from all over the country Versaci identifies Eight Pillars of Traditional Design that create a solid foundation for combining authentic, traditional design with livability to create homes that feel old yet work for the demands of modern family living.

    That man is Orlando Crispe, universally acknowledged as one of the finest exponents in the world of classical and creative cuisine, and at present languishing in a Roman prison, charged with the murder of at least four people. The confessions of Orlando Crispe constitute a detailed and frank account of the love affair between a master and his medium. For Crispe, the consumption of flesh is essentially an act of love, a communion as intimate as the act of sex, and such intimacy inevitably achieves its own proper apotheosis between persons. The novel gives Orlando Crispe's classic menus and readers who wish to try them are advised that whenever human flesh is specified, animal flesh can be used instead - indeed it should be.

    She Sheds provides the instruction and inspiration.They’ve got their man caves, and it’s time for you to have a space of your own. She Sheds shows you how to create cozy getaways with inspiration from across the country. You will start by defining the goal and purpose of your space. Will you use it for entertaining? Crafting? Alone time?Then, use the gallery of over 100 photos as inspiration for your decor, paint colors, and landscaping. Construction ideas, as well as ideas for upcycling, and other green resources are at your disposal throughout so you may truly personalize your she shed. Explore:She sheds in a variety of styles…rustic, colonial, Victorian, Spanish, modern, and moreShe sheds for a variety of purposes, including crafting and art, gardening, meditation, work, socializing, and simple alone timeStyle tips for decorating and organizing your she shedBuilder’s notes with tips on choosing and working with materialsPhoto-illustrated step-by-step instructions for building a kit shedGet inspired, and get started on your very own tricked-out retreat!

    In 2004 The Wabi-Sabi House helped popularize this ancient Japanese philosophy in North America. Simply Imperfect is a fully revised and updated edition of The Wabi-Sabi House aimed at moving past our belief in life, liberty, and the pursuit of stuff to finding beauty in austerity, serenity, and authenticity.Far more than home decor, wabi-sabi is a state of mind: living modestly in the moment, stripping away the unnecessary, and finding satisfaction in everyday things. Simply Imperfect recounts wabi-sabi's rich history, tracing it from its Zen Buddhist roots through to the present day. This beautifully-illustrated book reveals ways to introduce wabi-sabi into your home such as:Clearing clutter and blocking noiseIntegrating salvaged and recycled materials Making and growing things yourself (or supporting local artisans who do)Taking time and space for self-reflectionWabi-sabi is everything that today's sleek, plastic, technology-saturated culture isn't. Simply Imperfect asks readers to see that mass-produced perfection is seductive but boring. This gentle book is for anyone who is overwhelmed by consumerism or whose focus has shifted from getting more to getting by.Robyn Griggs Lawrence is editor-in-chief of Natural Home magazine and a prolific writer and speaker on topics ranging from green building and ecological design to organic gardening. She has been instrumental in introducing the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi to a Western audience.

    Now she shares her recipe for a stylish home: take a whole lot of Scandinavian influence, mix in a dash of flea-market finds, and then top it all off with expressive handmade touches. The result? An entirely fresh approach to home dcor and contemporary living. In this lavishly illustrated book, Lotta shares her decorating secrets, design resources, entertaining tips, and family traditions. Tucked away at the back shes included stencil pages and perforated recipe cards featuring classic Swedish dishes. Equal parts inspiration and how-to, this charming book shows readers how to create a warm home with elements of simple Scandinavian-influenced style.

    200 color photos.

    It's about living simply – finding the essence of what makes you happy at home and creating spaces that reflect your needs and style. Filled with clever ideas and creative spaces it shows that you don't need a huge budget to create a beautiful home. This is Home provides examples and case studies of places with a global and timeless feel that haven't always been renovated in the traditional sense but are true homes.Featuring eight case studies from Australia, the US and Europe, and nearly 200 color photographs, This is Home will inspire you with beautiful, authentic places you want to be – today.Chapters include:The big picture: how to determine your decorating personality, and what's authentic for you.Starting over: let go of the past and create a home for the person you are today, with a focus on decision-making and the art of editing.Living for now: Work out a budget for your time and money using your values as a guide. Where you can spend and save when it comes to creating lasting interiors.The Art of ingenuity: Think creatively, not expensively, when it comes to making changes at home. Going beyond the usual suspects can help you to create a home that's distinctively yours.The poetry of space: Successful spaces are all about addition and subtraction, positive and negative. How to create balance within a room while reflecting your decorating style.The feel of a home: Create interiors that make you feel, and have an emotional connection. How to introduce decorative elements that make for authentic interiors.Surrounding spaces: Key ideas to consider when creating your place in relation to its environment - from the surrounding landscape to local community.Maintaining the focus: Ways to evolve what's important for you and keep focussed on your aesthetic and lifestyle.Happy renewal: How to keep your home fresh without exhausting or expensive overhauls.Rest and revive: How our homes can function as a place to rest our bodies, rejoice in our relationships and restore our values.

    "I believe in plenty of optimism and white paint," she declared, "comfortable chairs with lights beside them, open fires on the hearth and flowers wherever they 'belong, ' mirrors and sunshine in all rooms." The rooms that Americans inhabited in the middle of the twentieth century still today owe much to de Wolfe's tastes.

    This is the biography of a house, the history of a home. It’s an ordinary house, an ordinary home, and ordinary people have lived there for over a century. But start to explore who they were, what they believed in, what they desired and they soon become as remarkable, as complicated and as fascinating as anyone.That is exactly what Julie Myerson set out to do. She lives in a typical Victorian terraced family house, of average size, in a typical Victorian suburb (Clapham) and she loves it. She wanted to find out how much those who preceded her loved living there, so she spent hours and hours in the archives at the Family Record Office, the Public Record Office at Kew, local council archives and libraries across the country. Like an archaeologist, she found herself blowing the dust off files that no-one had touched since the last sheet of paper in them was typed. As she scraped the years away, underneath she found herself embroiled in a detective hunt as, bit by bit, she started to piece together the story of her house, built in 1877, as told by its former occupants in their own words and deeds. And so she met the bigamist, the Tottenham Hotspur fanatic, the Royal servant, the Jamaican family and all the rest of the eccentric and entertaining former occupants of 34 Lillieshall Road. The book uncovers a lost 130-year history of happiness and grief, change and prudence, poverty and affluence, social upheaval and technological advance.Most of us are dimly aware that we are not the first person to turn a key in our front door lock, yet we rarely confront the shadows that inhabit our homes. But once you do – and Julie Myerson shows you how – you will never bear to part from their company again. This is your home's story too.

    She has always felt that an intentionally designed environment is one of the greatest gifts you can give to your family. That the items and decor one chooses tell a story. That a home is truly a child’s first and favorite picture book and the comfort she reaches for when she needs it most. In this, her first book, Blair offers a room-by-room manual for keeping things sane, organized, creative, and stylish. She provides advice on making a foyer more functional; which sofas work best for different kinds of families; how to organize family photos; throwing birthday parties; kitchen organization; cooking with children; keeping a home office; how to deal with a never-ending stream of toys; traveling with children; how to balance it all; and much, much more.