Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid


Marianne Cusato - 2007
    She presents the definitive guide to what makes houses look and feel right, revealing the dos and don'ts of livable home design. Hundreds of elegant line drawings--rendering the varieties of architectural features and displaying “avoid” and “use” versions of the same elements side by side--make this an indispensable resource for designing and building a timelessly beautiful home.

Treehouses: The Art and Craft of Living Out on a Limb


Pete Nelson - 1994
    They inspire dreams. They represent freedom: from adults or adulthood, from duties and responsibilities, from an earthbound perspective. If we can't fly with the birds, at least we can nest with them. With lively writing and beautiful photographs, Treehouses paints a fascinating portrait of this ingenious branch of architecture. It provides a brief history of treehouses, from Caligula through the Medici to Queen Victoria. It shows how to design and build a treehouse, from picking the right tree to shingling the roof. And it tells the stories of dozens of treehouses and the people who built them, from simple platforms nailed together by kids to arboreal palaces constructed and lived in by grown-ups. The centerpiece of the book is a photo essay showing Pete Nelson building a spectacular octagonal treehouse thirty feet up an old-growth fir on Saltspring Island in British Columbia. With two hundred square feet of floor space, cedar paneling, and leaded French doors, the Saltspring treehouse is one of the finest specimens of the treehouse builder's art. Anyone who has ever built a treehouse, or dreamed of it, or read Swiss Family Robinson, will find Treehouses irresistible.

Charles Faudree's Country French Living


Charles Faudree - 2003
    Charles Faudree's Country French Living features his newest room designs. From the entryway to the dressing room to walls, dining rooms, and outdoor spaces, Charles teaches principles of design that make a house a Country French home:The importance of the bedroom and how to make it a soothing sanctuary, deserving as much attention to beauty and detail as the rest of the home.How to identify a pivotal fabric, a dominant color, or one magnificent antique that will dictate the style and design for a whole room.How books can create an inviting atmosphere and add a warmth all their own.How a valance is the ultimate decorating deceit, and how window treatments express the personality of a room and add a proper finish.How to use walls as they are meant--as a stage on which to display one's favorite collections.How to use symmetrical groupings that provide a sense if balance and order in a roomCharles Faudree's Country French Living also shows how to make the most of accessories like lamps, pillows, baskets, paintings, and more to finish a room and provide the charm and character so important in a well-designed French Country setting. Country French Living reveals that the true test of a beautiful room is in the details.Charles Faudree's clients are found throughout America as well as in Spain and Jamaica. Five individual homes designed by Charles, including his own, have been featured on HGTV. During his twenty-five-year career as an interior designer, his work has appeared in many design magazines and decorating books. Six of his own homes have been featured in Traditional Home magazine, where he was a Design Award Winner in 1995. He has also been featured in Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications, Renovation Style, Veranda, Southern Accents, and House Beautiful. In 2002 he was named one of America's top 100 interior designers.

The Selby is in Your Place


Todd Selby - 2010
    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.

Prefabulous and Sustainable: Building and Customizing an Affordable, Energy-Efficient Home


Sheri Koones - 2010
    The book is divided into 3 categories—green, greener, greenest—and the homes featured vary in style, design, type of construction, and size. All of the homes included in Prefabulous and Sustainable have been customized to create a level of sustainability beyond the inherent qualities of prefab.Written in an easy to understand and approachable style, author Sheri Koones walks the readers through each of the homes, explaining the materials, strategies, and systems used to create a sustainable living environment. Photographs, captions, floor plans, and sidebars illustrate to readers that green living is not as complicated as one might think, and attainable for everyone. Also included is a resource guide, making this book a hand-on guide for homebuilders. Praise for Prefabulous + Sustainable “Authoritative and beautiful. Once again, Koones builds her case for pre-fab thoroughly, and presents it in a compelling, well-organized package.” —Allen Norwood, NAREE Book Competition Head Judge

Make Life Beautiful


Syd McGee - 2020
    This book offers the fans of Syd and Shea McGee a new and intimate look into how they built their business. For the one million-plus followers who turn to Syd and Shea McGee for advice on building a beautiful home and life, Make Life Beautiful is a behind-the-scenes look into how the couple transformed Shea’s small room of fabric samples and big dream of becoming a designer into one of the most successful and fastest-growing interior design businesses in the country.Both long-time and new fans will not only gain insight into how the McGees built such a successful company but also be inspired to apply design principles to their lives. Inspirational topics to help readers build an authentic life includeRenovate your lifeVisualize the outcomeListen to your gutElevate the everydayWant to live the best version of your life? Read this book to follow Syd and Shea’s lead and learn how to Make Life Beautiful.This is an essential book for:EntrepreneursInterior DesignersWorking ParentsCouples Building Family and CareerSelf-Startersand Anyone Chasing Their DreamsNew York Times Bestseller / Wall Street Journal Bestseller / USA Today Bestseller / Publishers Weekly BestsellerPraise for Make Life Beautiful:"Make Life Beautiful is a necessary reminder there is inherent beauty and warmth in all moments. Shea and Syd invite us into endearing conversations filled with wit, humor, creativity and an honesty shining light on the couples beautiful focal points." - Alyssa Rosenheck, interiors and architectural photographer, stylist, and author of the New Southern Style“In a world of picture perfect, Syd & Shea are a much needed breath of fresh air. It takes courage to admit that things aren’t always perfect. I applaud them for authentically sharing their story with the world.” - Mikel Welch, interior designer, lifestyle expert, and TV show host"Make Life Beautiful is raw, honest and motivating. A captivating read as Shea & Syd navigate us through the early days of their relationship, family and growing business. A form of a modern day romance success story. I enjoyed reading about their compelling journey that shaped their design empire we know as Studio McGee. Truly inspiring in every way.” - Monika Hibbs, Founder and Creative Director of Monika Hibbs and author of Gather at Home"There’s nothing more beautiful than taking a leap and devoting your life and your heart and your work to helping other people enjoy beauty in their own homes. We’ve all come to know and love and yearn for the Studio McGee look but hearing the humble “how's” behind the empire is even more moving and motivating. This isn’t about just making your home beautiful—this is about making your LIFE beautiful. Shea and Syd are talented (obviously) but they’re also dreamers and supporters and risk-takers and pioneers and somehow, still completely down-to-earth. My heart is warm and I’m now taking notes on more than just mixing patterns.” - Julia Marcum, Co-Founder of Chris Loves Julia, Good Influnce_r and Proper Tee

Living Large in Small Spaces: Expressing Personal Style in 100 to 1,000 Square Feet


Marisa Bartolucci - 2003
    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.

Design Mom: A Room-by-Room Guide to Living Well with Kids


Gabrielle Stanley Blair - 2015
    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.

A Field Guide to American Houses


Virginia McAlester - 1984
    17th century to the present. Book was reprinted in 2006

Surf Shack: Laid-Back Living by the Water


Nina Freudenberger - 2017
    Peek inside the homes of longtime enthusiasts and dedicated newcomers that reflect not just a sport or passion, but also a way of life. Blake and Heather Mycoskie of TOMS, hotelier Sean MacPherson, Gypset author Julia Chaplin, and others have set up their spaces to embrace a casual ease and be the break between the waves. With vibrant photographs of design details and bright beaches—from Malibu to the Rockaways, from Japan to Australia—this book captures the soulful milieu of a lifestyle we all aspire to."Surfers are a breed onto themselves and their homes . . . Nina Freudenberger has taken a good look at not only a number of these vastly different abodes but also a quick glimpse into the particular and even peculiar lives that are lived there. Because after all, to a surfer at least, surfing is the only life." –Gerry Lopez, renowned surfer, innovator, and author of Surf is Where You Find It

Small Space Style: Because you don't have to live large to live beautifully


Whitney Leigh Morris - 2018
    In her debut book, Whitney shares her best ideas for making any tiny space efficient and stylish—whether it’s a rustic A-frame in the woods or a chic microapartment in the city.Featuring 300 tips for making the most of your tiny home, Small Space Style is the must-have, incredibly inspirational guide for living large in the smallest of spaces. Join tiny home expert Whitney Leigh Morris as she demonstrates how to craft floorplans so spaces do double duty, personalize storage to look chic, go vertical when surface space is limited, DIY your own clever custom built-ins, streamline media devices, use furniture for more than one function, keep clutter to a minimum, and even entertain a crowd in a small area.With chapters on all that we do in our homes (living, sleeping, eating, and bathing), Small Space Style features real-life examples from Whitney’s own delightful and sophisticated cottage in Venice Beach, California, as well as home tours of some of her favorite tiny houses, micro apartments, and otherwise small spaces.

Real Life Organizing: Clean and Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes a Day


Cassandra Aarssen - 2017
    Organizational expert Cassandra 'Cas' Aarssen, the guru from YouTube's ClutterBug channel, reveals her tips, tricks and secrets to a clean and clutter free home in just 15 minutes a day. Aarssen, spends her time organizing other people's homes, teaching college workshops on organization, and creating weekly videos and blog posts. Cas offers diy Pinterest type tips to people like you who are interested in how to get rid of clutter and how to organize your home. Organized person on the outside: The secret to her success? She's a giant mess on the inside, but an organized person who can teach you how to get rid of clutter and organize your home once and for all. Simplify your life: In her debut book, Real Life Organizing, Cas walks you through the steps you can take to create a beautiful, organized, clutter free, and almost self-cleaning home ─ a DIY Pinterest home. Simplify your life. You do not have to get rid of all of your things, you do not have to be a yoga loving minimalist, and you do not have to radically change your lifestyle or personality in order to simplify your life and have an organized home. The truth is that you do not need to actually be an organized person to live like an organized person. Organize home: Through her years of experience as an industry expert, Cas has uncovered easy and inexpensive tips, tricks and solutions that allow her to maintain a clean, organized and functional home with minimal effort. After you've read Real Life Organizing, you too will be able to live a more organized life without having to give up your sanity. In Real Life Organizing: Get a Clean and Clutter-Free Home in Just 15 Minutes, you will learn how to: - Create a Household Management Binder - Make a -Kids Cupboard- in your kitchen - Create an IN/OUT system - Organize paperwork based on your unique style - Create a Kitchen Command Center - Organize your holidays with a gift closet - Build the best toy organizing system - And, enjoy a diy Pinterest home

Restoration House: Creating a Space That Gives Life and Connection to All Who Enter


Kennesha Buycks - 2019
    A place to gather and connect. A place of beauty. A place to restore your soul. Creating a restored home—the kind that you and your loved ones want to return to again and again—is as much about making everyone who enters feel cared for and comfortable as it is about creating a beautiful space.In Restoration House, home decor and lifestyle guide Kennesha Buycks of Restoration House blog shows you how to embrace your home and your story as you create mindful spaces that give life to you, your loved ones, and all who enter.With gorgeous photography and pages of practical tips for curating and decorating your home (even on a small budget) and welcoming others, Restoration House will help you make purposeful design decisions as you create renewing spaces for you to enjoy with family and friends.Whether you live in your dream house or you’re still dreaming about it, you can feel at home in the home you have.

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.

House Beautiful Decorating with Books: Use Your Library to Enhance Your Decor


Marie Proeller Hueston - 2006
    But did you realize that, open or closed, books can also make your real world--your home--more fabulous? As legendary designer Billy Baldwin pointed out, they're “the best decoration,” capable of bringing incredible warmth, color, and character to a room. From grand bookcases in home libraries to casual stacks artfully arrayed on chairs, House Beautiful presents countless eye-catching ideas for displaying and arranging your hardcovers, paperbacks, encyclopedias, and even valuable first editions. Useful tips shed light on how to organize a large collection; situate bookcases in the room for the best effect; and make the most of books' appealing visual and tactile qualities. From traditional interpretations to contemporary visions--such as putting a book on a pedestal as an objet d'art--these concepts write a new page in design.