1 comments about Urban Eco Chic: How to live in an eco-friendly way without compromising on style.

1. If you're thinking about remodeling your kitchen, bathroom, or any other room in the house, this book can help you create a natural, comfortable, energy-efficient home. I'm about to do an eco-renovation of my kitchen, and reading about all of the different sustainable flooring and cabinet and countertop materials is a huge help. I would have wasted hours researching this stuff on the Web if I didn't read this book, but thanks to Oliver Heath all of the information I need is beautifully presented in Urban Eco Chic...and the photos are gorgeous and inspiring.

5 comments about The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics.

1. This book is full of unusual details such as-drawers in staircases and wall niches. Many of the details focused on are what give a house character. I'm designing my own house and it helped me to think above issues rarely addressed in the "how to books". Conran addresses light and space in a very compelling format. There are tons of photos. My only complaint is that with all the photos its hard to go back and find things again.



2. This is the best design book in existence. Conran's ideas come off as modern/contemporary, but without the usual coldness or starkness. Think of his designs as simply functional, and without airs or pretense. This is the way we live today. And it's fun!



3. The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics is a must have for anyone that ever wanted to live in a home and make it all your own. Once again, the reigning champion of good design and master of style, Sir Terence Conran delivers the crème de la crème of home décor books.

   Page per page, this book is the most prized in my home design/decorating collection (believe me, I've got a few hundred). Conran offers so many helpful tips and tidbits of information, it's hard not to pull this one off the shelf and reread chapters over again. Chock full of practical solutions and helpful content, amazing photographs (the kind that make you dream for hours) and easy to follow guidance for better living, The Essential House Book lives up to its name. The book is vast with knowledge offering information for all things from flooring to lighting to painting and much more.

   The pure simple design and thoughtful information has made this book a staple in this genre of books. With so many books out there to choose from, time and again this will surface as the best available regardless of price.




4. We have had this book for years and it is still such a pleasure to go through it! The Essential House Book is a wellspring of ideas on how to make your house a home....with taste, humor and a grounded, down to earth approach. We have given it so many times as a present and are about to do so again. It's an easy choice for a great gift.



5. I'm a tough sell when it comes to books of this genre - I want them to be aesthetically pleasing and well designed, I want them to demonstrate good design within their content, I want them to be informative (i.e. give me information about a home that I don't already know - not just fluffy design ideas that are regurgitated over and over again) and I want them to be readable, accessible, and engaging to accommodate my ADD! This book does it all and with style. I love paging through it when I've got a few minutes to kill. I also consult it when I need specific reference info like this evening's pursuit of information on my home's electrical system.
   This is a great purchase for design oriented homeowners and a great housewarming gift too!

5 comments about Complete Party Planner.

1. I was a little disappointed in this book. I had seen the author on the View and she and Rosie made a bunch of really cute things you could make from store bought food. Easy and inexpensive and imaginative. Very few of them were in this book which I bought for my daughter who has small children.
   Karen Eitel



2. I purchased this book for my daughter for Valentine's Day after she saw the author on "The View". She loves the ideas and presentation of the food items. I am sure my grandchildren will get years of fun foods out of the book!



3. It is full of wonderful ideas but it is all very time consuming and difficult.



4. Don't like this book so much. It does not have a lot of ideas.
   The ideas shown are very common, nothing very original.
   YOu will find a lot more ideas just surfing on internet.
   I don't recommend this book.



5. Not great not bad, but most importantly it is better than anything I have found so far on the subject. Putting together some ideas for catering a fun kids party has been quite challenging for me and this book gave me ideas. This was the most important aspect of this book and if you actually read it and not only look at the pictures you may find this to be true for you as well. For the price it is definately worth it.

5 comments about Straight Talk on Decorating from Lynette Jennings.

1. 
   I am an almost pathologically non-visual person who simply can't think outside the box when it comes to shapes, colors, or design or decorating of any kind. It didn't take me long to find that among all the home decorating and craft shows on TV, Lynette Jennings produced by far the most helpful and instructive show for brain-dead people like me.
   
   What DID take me awhile to realize, however, is WHY she is so much better than the others. She approaches each topic just as if she were an instructor in a real-life classroom, albeit with the benefit of being physically placed in beautiful homes and rooms that she can display to the viewer. As a teacher myself, I looked at her with a sort of professional eye, and realized that she was in fact a superbly talented teacher and communicator.
   
   Her book is more of the same outstanding material you get on her show, but this time organized according to various themes, such as how to use color, how to decorate in small spaces, etc. The book is gorgeously illustrated, and includes concrete ideas that can be understood by those of us who lack her instinctive talent for the subjects of decorating and design. Highly recommended!



2. I just recently started to watch Ms. Jennings on the Discovery channel. Shei sfunny, witty, and a delight. She brings real ideas for real people. Please let me know how I can purchas her merchandise? Thank you. Nancy McDougal



3. This is one of my favorite decorating books for two reasons. First, Ms. Jennings is forthright on the importance of arranging your house to suit your lifestyle and provides entertaining examples with nice, big photos. Second, her discussion of color schemes is truly outstanding in its simplicity and thoroughness (and nowhere does she ask the reader to understand tertiary colors). The only flaw, to my mind, is that she mentions regional color schemes based on the local earth, then never provides the full palettes.



4. Still don't know your colors? Get this book. Lynette Jennings does THE best job of helping the reader choose a color scheme. She walks you through an easy, step-by-step process that is so painless, you'll wonder why everyone doesn't know it. Her coverage of related topics in this book are also well done.
   
   This book is worth buying and keeping.



5. Mrs. Jennings does a fine job of helping the reader confront their fear of color/change. She's obviously got years under her belt of hearing the same explanation for 'WHITE' walls over & over that this book screams at you to..."Break Free" from white walls. About a yr prior to reading this...I had started to do so myself...what a breath of fresh air...to slowly be ridding my home..room by room from the sterile, clinical, boring background of white.
   
   Mrs. Jenning spends most of the book dealing with the color issue...& weaved in between are many decorating basics that can certainly get readers going in the right direction.
   My only annoyance with the book..sprinkled here & there...were odd comments like "the answers are within you" type jargon. This may sell books...but the fact of the matter is....fluff like this helps no one...if the answers were already 'within'...we wouldn't need the help of any books ...including Mrs. Jennings'.
   
   For the most part...I really enjoyed it...especially liked the process she went through of dispelling the 9 'myths'.
   
   She's got great taste too...as is demonstrated in her Canadian home...her US home was not quite my style...(Yikes)...but to each his own. She's a real family/friendly designer too...& that really comes across...which is so often lacking in many 'I only exist for photographs' design books that are always in circulation.
   
   Good book...good information...pictures are inspirational!

5 comments about Cut the Clutter and Stow the Stuff: The Q.U.I.C.K. Way to Bring Lasting Order to Household Chaos.

1. Clutter is often a result of having a busy life. Hence, it wouldn't make sense for a book intended to help you clear clutter to involve a lot of your time. The book is designed of short but extremely helpful tips, so that you can read only a little bit and take 15 minutes to fight clutter. In other words, it helps you keep from being overwhelmed by the daunting task of clearing your stuff. I've always been. and always will be, a packrat, but I'm a more organized packrat now.



2. After reading the widely disparate reviews, I got a copy from the library. I found the book to be delightful and helpful, and I have ordered a copy to own. I lead a complex life, producing beautiful, organized work but leaving debris around me as drafts, printouts, and other papers accumulate. The author is very understanding of the thought processes and problems of Accumulators and Paper Pilers. Her humor makes the task of organizing and disposing less of a chore. As a person with some ADD difficulties, often overwhelmed by distractions, I find her methods of working on little parts of a problem a big help.



3. I bought this book in the hope that it would help me dig out from all the clutter, I'm still reading, but already I feel the system outlined in the book has been useful. I think anyone who is in the same boat as me, should buy this book.



4. The author does a great job of being a cheerleader to people who are battling clutter in their lives. The quiz and explainations in the beginning make people feel like their habits are somehow normal or personality/emotionally based rather than a result of their choices or lifestyles. Some of the information is valid - ideas on organizations or resources who might be able to put your no longer needed stuff to good use, for example. Unfortunately, much of the advice is either common sense or unrealistic (rolling jewelry around paper tubes to keep it from getting tangled). I recommend getting the book from the library, reading the first couple chapters, and then moving on to another resource.



5. Have you accumulated so much STUFF that you have no room for your family, pets and friends? Then this book is for you! Edited by Lori Baird, she not only explains the problem, but teaches you, step by step multiple solutions, showing how you can prioritize, organize and rid yourself of unneeded clutter. The illisrations are helpful, and suggested solutions are given with small budgets in mind.
   
   There are those who can't part with something they don't need "because I paid good money for it and someday........."
   
   I have seen such cluttered homes in my home health nursing career that I know this book is written well for those who don't know where to start. It is gentle, yet firm on how and where to store clutter, and how to rid yourself of unnecessary "stuff." I is also written with a small budget in mind, so it is extremely helpful for someone on the lower end of the scale as far as ability to purchase items such as storage bins. Storage bins are helpful: however, they have become just another way to hide the "stuff" that many people can't part with.
   
   I would highly recommend this book.

3 comments about Country Living Country Chic: Country Style for Modern Living.

1. many decorating ideas and styles within the framework of
   Country. Although, I turn to this book when i am about to paint a room and need to study the effects of a color.Another person
   might find it useful to learn the skills of simplifying a type of decor.
   It starts with the stark simplicity and ulitarian work of
   the American Shaker and brings in English Country and
   proceeds to modern Cubism.
   The pastel colors in this book are a feast to the eyes, in
   their subtle combinations.
   This book shows how details of life are important, but in
   natural way without clutter prevailing in a room.
   Except for the Bazaar Style and the Ethnic section, most of it would be welcome in your home. It even spruces up a trailer
   for those who prefer to live on wheels.I highly recommend
   this refresing look at Country "Chic.



2. The first few times I paged through the book I thought I didn't like it much, but then [FLASH!!!] I realized that the book's strength is that it shows so many different variations of "country" that it forced me to define, redefine and narrow my choices until I knew what I liked and didn't like, what I wanted, and I was then ready to buy, build, re-do, scrounge, beg, borrow, etc. It really helped me devise a Plan of Action.
   
   The fairly in-depth chapters showed homes that I labeled Shaker-style plain, claustrophobically crowded, boarding house depressing, great house-ugly colors, great colors-ugly house,
   junk store mismatched and then finally Warm and Wonderful - Just my style. The chapter on the very Retro Airstream trailer-van is also a really nostalgic throwback to my childhood in the '50's - when you really saw these on the roads -
   
   I recommend this book for anyone with a yen for country, but no [as yet] very clear idea of how they will go about getting it.



3. This book was a nice picture book of country rooms and homes. I did enjoy looking through. However, I thought some of the rooms were rather "outdated" in the country look, and some like "ethnic" were...well, bizarre!
   
   I did like the Shaker and more modern designs, and thing it's a fine book to flip through.

No comments about Emyl Jenkins' Southern Christmas.

No comments about Heavenly Metal Twisted Wire: Create 20 Chic and Shimmering Accents for the Home.

4 comments about Nursery Decor for Beginners (Seams Sew Easy).

1. This book is an excellent tool to use in decorating a baby's room. I used it for our first baby's room because I was dissatisfied with the quality of items on the market for crib sets, in particular. As the name implies, it is for beginners, taking you through the steps one at a time, with illustrations along the way. The color pictures come in very handy while sewing and to gather ideas for your nursery.



2. This book really is quite good for beginner sewers. The directions are clear and pictures are good to help you along. I would recommend this to anyone who would like to learn more about sewing and make some nice things for a nursery.



3. I am a beginner, when it comes to sewing, I have not made anything from this book yet, but I have read through it, and I foune the instructions easy to follow, and all the basics for decorating a nursery are in here. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to make their own nursery decor.



4. I have only made the fitted crib sheet from this book so far, but plan to make other items. I have read through the directions for each item, and they all seem to be very appropriate for raw beginners as well as more experienced sewers. I like the fact that the directions for the crib sheet include directions for making a sheet to fit a non-standard sized mattress. I have used these guidelines to make fitted sheets for a pack-n-play with great results. The sheets are fast and easy, and they work up great.

No comments about Period Kitchens: A Practical Guide to Period-Style Decorating (Period Companions).