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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

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Manufacturer: Perigee Trade

List Price: $16.95
Our Price: $6.50
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Average Customer Ratings:

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.


PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 747
EAN: 9780399525360
ISBN: 039952536X
Label: Perigee Trade
Manufacturer: Perigee Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 1999-10-01
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Release Date: 1999-09-13
Studio: Perigee Trade


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Home Therapy: Fast, Easy, Affordable Makeovers
• Trade Secrets from Use What You Have Decorating
• Decorating Idea Book (Idea Books)
• Downsizing Your Home with Style: Living Well In a Smaller Space
• Designed to Sell: Make any home the hottest property on the block with expert advice from the popular HGTV series


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

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.

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.

I love this book! -
I am a professional interior designer and I found this book great because it provides great information in a easy to read format. I read more than half the book in one evening. Some people have stated that even though they love the book they wished it was in color. I love the book in black and white because the emphasis really is on the placement and not so much the color. I find that when items are related in color it is easy for the eye to make the "connection" and ignore the real placement of the items. When the pictures are in black and white, it forces the eye to look at where and how the items are placed. This is a great book and I would recommend it to the novice, lay person, or professional designer/decorator looking to add an additional service that they can offer their clients. I give it two thumbs up!

Use What You Have -
This is a good book for people who have no experience or formal training with decorating. I found the top 10 tips for avoiding design disaster to be helpful and easy to understand. The pictures in the book are very outdated, but made me feel like I might have a fighting chance with my own space.

One of my favorite decorating books... -
...and yet I only give it 4 stars. Why? Because first of all, there is very little advice that applies beyond the living room, and that's a formal living area - not the family gathering and watching TV area. I would love to see a book of hers that will address other areas in the house.

Beyond that though, I love this book. I'm a down to earth person, always looking for a quick and cheap way to re-do things. This book taught me decorating principles that were easy to put into practice. I like the before and after pics, explanations and the occassional room layouts. After studying this book a few times, it took me less than an hour to re-arrange my living room. It's so much more inviting and comfortable now, that I don't want to leave it! As for color vs. black and white photos, of course I'd prefer color. But I can live with it, because the content is so helpful. I have the older version too that has a middle insert of color photos as well.

This book will be helpful if you already have a house of furniture or maybe suffer from TMS syndrome (too much stuff) and if you enjoy being creative with what you have. If not, then this book will probably frustrate you.

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