Christophe Pourny learned the art of furniture restoration in his father s atelier in the South of France. In this, his first book, he teaches readers everything they need to know about the provenance and history of furniture, as well as how to restore, update, and care for their furniture from antiques to midcentury pieces, family heirlooms or funky flea-market finds. The heart of the book is an overview of Pourny s favorite techniques ceruse, vernis anglais, and water gilding, among many others with full-color step-by-step photographs to ensure that readers can easily replicate each refinishing technique at home. Pourny brings these techniques to life with a chapter devoted to real-world refinishing projects, from a veneered table to an ebonized desk, a gilt frame to a painted northern European hutch. Rounding out this comprehensive guide is care and maintenance information, including how to properly clean leather, polish hardware, fix a broken leg, and replace felt pads, as well as recipes to make your own wax, shellac, varnish, stain, and more."

The Elements of a Home reveals the fascinating stories behind more than 60 everyday household objects and furnishings.

Brimming with amusing anecdotes and absorbing trivia, this captivating collection is a treasure trove of curiosities.

With tales from the kitchen, the bedroom, and every room in between, these pages expose how napkins got their start as lumps of dough in ancient Greece, why forks were once seen as immoral tools of the devil, and how Plato devised one of the earliest alarm clocks using rocks and water—plus so much more.

• A charming book for anyone who loves history, design, or décor
• Readers discover tales from every nook and cranny of a home.
• Entries feature historical details from locations all over the world, including Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa.

As a design historian and former managing editor of Design*Sponge, author Amy Azzarito has crafted an engaging, whimsical history of the household objects you've never thought twice about.

The result is a fascinating book filled with tidbits from a wide range of cultures and places about the history of domestic luxury.

• Filled with lovely illustrations by Alice Pattullo
• Perfect for anyone who adores interior design, trivia, history, and unique facts
• Great for those who enjoyed The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy by Rick Beyer, An Uncommon History of Common Things by Bethanne Patrick and John Thompson, Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins

Use the power of the humble house plant to combat the stresses of modern life! Succulents and indoor house plants may seem extra trendy right now, but these plants have more benefits than simply looking beautiful. Everyday products pollute the air in our homes and our mental wellbeing is threatened like never before. This gardening book reveals the best life-enhancing houseplants that can reduce stress, fight fatigue, and even lower your blood sugar. Winning Gold for the accompanying exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021, My Houseplant Changed My Life draws on groundbreaking research, profiling the best air-purifying plants you can put in your home to reduce pollutant gases, particulates, and volatile compounds. Discover how these indoor plants can actively clean the air and improve your mental health through their colours, scent, habit, and nurturing needs. Explore how having leafy companions can help to unlock your potential: - Profiles of the 50 top air-purifying and mood-enhancing plants - Easy-to-follow advice and expert tips from David Domoney, award-winning horticulturalist - Informative text highlights the natural wonder of each plant - Feature spreads show plant combinations to enhance your mood in different ways - Step-by-step demonstrations of essential care techniques Packed with expert advice, this book will equip you with everything you need to keep your plants thriving. It also highlights mindful ways to nurture and increase your green guests: by misting, wiping, feeding, pinching, pruning, and propagating. Discover the Power of Nature The ideal gift for your green-fingered friends, this book is perfect for urbanites with little or no outdoor space who want to increase the amount of greenery in their life.

From subtly shimmering white subway-style walls to dramatic colorful mosaics, tile is one of the most seductive ways to enhance the beauty of a space. Long prized for its durability, tile has become more of an object of aesthetic desire than ever before. Your heart may be set upon using it, but with thousands of imaginative options available, you may not know where to begin. Now, "The Art of Tile" beautifully illustrates what to use, how to use it, and where to use it.
First, design writer and tile enthusiast Jen Renzi walks you through the basics of using the medium: selecting the best materials for certain spaces; installation and maintenance considerations; and aesthetic aspects, such as using tile as an accent or pairing tiles with different patterns in the same area. She then helps you answer the big-picture questions: Do I want eco-friendly bamboo tile in the bathroom? Gorgeous gold-leaf Italian glass tile on my backsplash? Or just a neutral-colored tile with a raised texture? Along the way, you'll see dozens of installations to spark your imagination, including all of the latest advances and never-before-seen options, such as luxurious leather tile floors that coddle the feet, surprisingly realistic imitation-wood tiles made from porcelain, and an explosion of roses in a red-and-white dining room mosaic.
If you'd rather page through thousands of options to make your choice based simply on what strikes your eye, the catalog section of this book is the ultimate resource: more than 1,500 tile options organized in groupings such as:
* Color (typical color families, as well as pastels, vivids, and pure white)
* Pattern (damasks, dots, loops, herringbone)
* Motif (such as nautical themes, animals, food, or flowers)
* Texture (from subtle to dimensional)
* Shape (beyond squares, circles, and rectangles to hexagons, diamonds, and ovals)
* Material (including ceramic, cement, stone, and shell)
* Mosaic (from interlacing vines to abstract geometrics)
With inspiring photographs of tile installations from Montauk to Morocco, an extensive resource guide, and expert advice from architects, designers, homeowners, and tile manufacturers, "The Art of Tile" is as much a feast for the eyes as it is an indispensable and comprehensive resource.

This volume features the recent projects of McAlpine, one of the country s most highly respected architecture and interior design firms, renowned for its timeless houses exemplifying the charm and elegance of traditional and vernacular English, American, and European styles blended with a modern sensibility. Following from their first book, The Home Within Us, this book profiles twenty stunning projects, from a stone tower folly standing in the gardens of a Tudor-style house to a humble yet elegant wooden lakeside retreat. Through his poetic voice, Bobby McAlpine narrates the story of each residence, pointing out its unique qualities. Featured are an exotic Florida Panhandle beach house; a Tuscan-style horse farm; a rambling Colonial Revival compound; and a miniature European manor house, among others. These dwellings are classically understated and welcoming. With its gorgeous photography of inspiring interiors and exteriors, Poetry of Place will appeal to those interested in design romancing the past.

Rich treasury of 60 lovely, copyright-free designs adapted from authentic Tiffany creations: landscape and memorial windows, panels, transoms, skylights, glass screens, and other stained glass projects. Patterns for "Pumpkins and Beets," "The Deep Sea," "Sir Galahad," "Sunset," "Peace," many others. Also practical for varied craft and coloring activities.

A heavily photographed guide to making natural plant dyes and using these dyes to create clothing and home decor, with over two dozen projects and ideas for every season, detailed instructions on dye methods and botanical information about the plants used. Natural Color shows how to create vibrantly hued pillows, napkins, clothing and accessories using centuries old techniques of dyeing. Natural Color focuses on achievable projects throughout the seasons.

An in-depth review of the latest trends in residential interior designs from internationally renowned architects and designers, showcasing 150 full-color profiles and 500 pages of color photos-an outstanding addition to the popular 150 Best series. In 150 Best Interior Design Ideas you'll find the most attractive, functional, and cost-effective design solutions for every room in the house. Some of the top architects and designers working around the globe today experiment with arrangement, color, texture, material, and finishes to create personalized spaces to suit every aesthetic preference. Featuring full-color photographs and diagrams, this exciting entry in the highly successful 150 Best series is an inspirational source of ideas to help you create beauty in your everyday surroundings, and is an essential reference of current trends in interior design for designers, decorators, architects, and homeowners.

For more than twenty years, globe-trotting English-born, Los Angeles-based photographer Roger Davies has shot stunning, luxurious, and unique residences by the world's most acclaimed designers and architects for the most prestigious magazines. In Beyond the Canyon, he trains his camera on residences in the Golden State, his adopted home, driving the coast to shoot interiors from Malibu to Marin County, Laurel Canyon to Rancho Mirage. Davies takes readers into the often glamorous, always compelling homes of the artists, film directors, actors, interior designers, art collectors, and others who lend the West Coast its cachet. Across the variety of spaces represented-among them legacy works by midcentury masters John Lautner, A. Quincy Jones, and Craig Ellwood, and contemporary designs by Tadao Ando and Frank Gehry-he captures the essence of California living in his portraits of spectacular spaces and breathtaking views, all bathed in a warm glow. As one of the world's top photographers of interiors, Davies's work has appeared in many interior design and architecture monographs. In Beyond the Canyon, his own first book, he provides in his own words a rare behind-the-scenes, industry insider's experience of photographing the stunning residences.

As one of the world's foremost interior designers, Tricia Guild has a passionate belief that the way we choose to live has a significant impact on our well-being and happiness. The homes that we live in, the things that we surround ourselves with, and the everyday choices we make, can profoundly affect our outlook and positivity. It is no surprise, then, that Tricia practises what she preaches: she finds it impossible to separate her work as a designer from other aspects of her life, and she believes that, in seeking creative inspiration in each experience, especially in enjoying the things that bring pleasure to our lives, we can perfect the art of living. For Tricia, Italy is a particularly enduring passion: the culture, landscape, architecture, food and music all strike a creative chord. She has had a house there for many years. The last home was a rustic farmhouse, but when Tricia and her family began the search for a new property, she knew it would be decidedly different. In this new Italian home, Tricia found the perfect opportunity to create a contemporary interior reflecting a love of modernity and simplicity that has evolved over the years. In Tricia's view, modernity does not mean a lack of colour, pattern or texture; a contemporary interior can be both decorative and minimal - in fact, a confident use of colour and pattern can be the very thing that makes it even more wonderful. Here, working with the architect Stephen Marshall and the garden designer Arne Maynard, Tricia has created a special home - a contemporary interpretation of the local vernacular - that represents her kind of modern. In In My View, Tricia charts the creation of her stunning Italian home set amid verdant oil groves. We are taken on an extensive tour of the breathtaking property, right from the entrance steps and the rooms/spaces in the main house to the outdoor dining areas, studio, guest accommodation, kitchen garden and pool house. Stephen and Arne offer insight into their collaboration with Tricia, describing, among other things, the selection of materials - local stone, concrete, glass and galvanized metal - for the house, and the planting on the terraces and around the rolling lawns of the garden. Local artisans and craftspeople also played a crucial role in bringing this truly magnificent yet relaxing and comfortable home to life. Tricia also presents her new London home - a Victorian townhouse in a corner plot, where, with the same team of Stephen and Arne - she set about creating an urban retreat comprising three distinct areas to accommodate living, dining and resting. While life in Italy for Tricia is about seasonality and nature, her life in London is centred on her work at Designers Guild, the company she founded in 1970. Her London home therefore is, she says, `sharply experimental', her version of a lab, where she tests designs and assesses how colours work together. In this section of the book, Tricia provides a glimpse of working life and the design process at the company headquarters in west London. Throughout the book, Tricia shares the moodboards that helped her to realize her dream homes in Italy and London. For Tricia, moodboards are vital in the early stages of any project, large or small, because they help to stimulate the creative process, even define how one wishes to live, by establishing the language, rhythm and style of each space. The choices that one makes here, the process of selection and careful editing, lie at the heart of finding one's own style. In My View reveals the personal choices have shaped the way Tricia lives now, and will inspire the reader to develop their individual style and thus create their own special view.

Get organized, declutter, and find more calm in your days with this accessible, step-by-step guide to lasting order in your home sweet home. Do you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious about the clutter in your home? Have you spent countless hours organizing your home only to find it all destroyed in a matter of seconds? Does it seem like you will never get organized enough? Keeping order in your home can feel like a daunting and never-ending task, especially when you have little ones, but with Home Sweet Organized Home, you will be able to declutter your home easily and maintain lasting order in your sacred space. Jessica Litman, the mama, organizing expert, and creator behind The Organized Mama will help you optimize and maintain order in your home, so you can find more calm in your everyday life. Her practical organizing and decorating advice will make it simpler for you to keep your space exactly how you like it. Each chapter offers a step-by-step guide to organize a single room in your home-from your bedroom closet to your junk drawer to your kids' rooms and toys-you will learn how to keep it all tidy. Have a stress-free and clutter-free home. In Home Sweet Organized Home, you will: Learn how to easily keep lasting order in your home. Tackle toy clutter and kid spaces. Use realistic tips to create a home that is welcoming. Beautify your space so it always feels fresh and calm. Find ways to keep yourself motivated and tricks to help you feel more at ease. Transform your space and your life with this guide to a cozy and peaceful home. Now more than ever, the idea of "home" is incredibly important. Home is not only where the heart is, but it has also transformed into a school, workplace, and self-care sanctuary. The Inspiring Home series explores how to expertly feather your nest and create spaces for you and your family that are both purposeful and cozy. Learn how to get every family member organized even when everyone is on different schedules, find the balance between great design and helpful function in every room of the house, and update and upgrade your spaces to the latest trends without breaking the bank. With amazing style suggestions and spot-on tips from experts in the home design and organization fields, the Inspiring Home series will have you living the luxe life faster than you can say "accent wall." Also in this series: Blissful Nest and Simply Spaced.

Bring the joy of flowers into your home with 30 stunning projects for every season. From spring planters to summer floral crowns and autumn vase arrangements to winter wreaths; life is better with flowers all year round. With clear, step-by-step instructions, expert florist Ashlee Jane leads you through her inspirational ideas for floral designs to bring the calming presence of flowers and foliage into your home. There is something for every occasion here, from small place settings and everyday bouquets to show-stopping displays for a mantlepiece or staircase, and everything in between. Including styling tips, a directory of favourite flowers and gorgeous ideas on every page, you will be inspired to fill your home with flowers throughout the year.

Skoolies - school buses that have been converted into living spaces - are a natural extension of the tiny house craze. School buses are an ideal choice for tiny homes because they're essentially ready for interior design and construction from the get-go: you've got a frame, a roof, and a floor, right from the start. Skoolie! offers an inspiring inside look at the appeal of the on-the-road lifestyle, with profiles of skoolie fans and dozens of stunning photos of interiors designed for simple living. In addition, this is the first book on the topic to include a complete conversion guide, along with step-by-step photos showing the process, from taking out the seats to choosing the best layout of the living space to accommodate the needs of the residents.

Home decor expert Bre Doucette invites you to explore the possibilities in every space of the place you call home. Bre reveals the secrets to loving where you live right now, while you implement fresh ideas that add beauty and purpose to every room. When you look around your home, what do you see? Imperfections and disappointments around every corner, or a blank canvas just waiting for your creative brushstrokes? Bre Doucette is here to help you break free from your decorating disillusionment with expert advice on how to view your home from a new perspective, overcome the obstacles that keep you from trying new ideas, and be happy in the here and now as you transform your spaces into places filled with warmth, joy, and love. Room by room, Bre will share her expertise and encouragement with you, so you can see your home the way it was intended-as a gift for you and your loved ones to enjoy.

Urban Jungle: Living and Styling with Plants is a source of inspiration, ideas and a manual for all of those who want to bring more plants into their home. The book guides the reader through different "green" homes in five European countries and shows how beautiful, unique, creative and even artistic living with plants can be. More than that the reader finds endless ideas for styling from the bloggers of the "Urban Jungle Bloggers" community. To complete the topic of indoor plants the book offers easy help for taking care of the plants and DIY tips.

For many years, Maud Lewis was one of Nova Scotia's best-loved folk painters. In the 1990s she was embraced by the rest of the country when the landmark exhibition of her work "The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis" travelled across Canada. By the time the tour was over, half a million people had become acquainted with her delightful work.

Between 1938, when she married Everett Lewis, until her death in 1970, Maud Lewis lived in a tiny one-room house near Digby, Nova Scotia. Over the years, she painted the doors inside and out, the windowpanes, the walls and cupboards, the wallpaper, the little staircase to the sleeping loft, the woodstove, the breadbox, the dustpan, almost everything her hand touched. Her house was a joy to behold, and it became a magnet for tourists as well as a focal point in her village. In 1979, after Everett Lewis died, the Maud Lewis Painted House Society worked diligently to raise funds to acquire, preserve, and display the house as part of the cultural heritage of the area as well as a memorial to their beloved artist.

In 1984, the house and its contents were purchased by the Province of Nova Scotia for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In "The Painted House of Maud Lewis," Laurie Hamilton, the conservator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, shows how all the different parts of the house -- the building itself, the painted household items, even the wallpaper -- were catalogued, conserved, and prepared for exhibition. The preliminary stages of conservation treatment began in 1996 in a most unusual location: the Sunnyside Mall in Bedford, just outside Halifax., where conservators worked in full view of the public. The conservators used established techniques and invented new ones to complete their unique project and documented every stage of the restoration photographically.

The book also features more than sixty-five colour photos including several taken by noted photographer Bob Brooks in 1965 for the "Star Weekly." Today, anyone can visit the tiny house that has become a folk art phenomenon. The restoration story spans two decades, but the story of the Painted House continues as each new visitor to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia finds delight and inspiration in Maud Lewis's joyous vision.

This is the indispensible, inspirational and practical guide to being resourceful by design in your home. Save money, save the planet and stay ahead in the style stakes: if there's something going spare, there's a use for it somewhere. With a wealth of tricks and tips, design examples from leading luminaries such as Jasper Morrison and Marcel Waanders, and step-by-step projects you can try around the house, Remake It: Home provides design inspiration and practical `know how' in equal measure. Smart, savvy, entertaining and fully illustrated throughout, this book will show you how to make the most of the things you already have - in style.

About 15,000 people live permanently afloat on canals, rivers and coasts in Great Britain alone, but thousands more enjoy holidaying on boats or own them as weekend retreats in the UK and abroad. This book will feature not only static residential boats and floating dwellings but also those used as holiday homes and funky modern businesses - houseboats can range from canal boats, riverboats, narrow and wide beam boats, barges, Dutch barges, static houseboats and even seaworthy cruisers moored in marina. The book will cover stylish boats from the UK, North America, Europe and Australia. The houseboats engage the reader through their history and owners' stories, which are told in lively text and colourful images. People fall in love with boats and own them for a variety of reasons: out of affordability and necessity; a love of the water; closeness to nature and the environment; or just because they yearn for a different and more relaxed style of living/working space. This book shows how houseboats can offer an attractive, practical and alternative solution, as well as amazing and often idiosyncratic solutions to living successfully in a small space. My cool houseboat covers the following themes: stylish architectural, from San Francisco to Prague; thrifty and eclectic, as an affordable solution to conventional city dwelling; businesses, using houseboats as unusual workspaces, from a book barge to an allotment; modernist, from a Finnish floating office to an Amsterdam watervilla; recycled, ranging from an Ellis Island ferry houseboat to a converted minesweeper; and soulful, covering alternative ways of life, relaxation and recreation, from a New York City houseboat to a stylish Paris home. Word count: 25,000

Chedis, chofahs and intricate decorative details are some of the salient architectural features that represent the distinguished Thai style, where function is combined with an innate beauty of form. In this revised edition, some of the most beautiful hotels in Thailand, such as the pagoda-like Sukhothai Hotel and the internationally acclaimed Chiva-Som are featured. Other enchanting depictions include elements that are found throughout rustic and modern settings, occasionally bringing the reader into the artfully designed interior. From chic Bangkok residences to provincial country dwellings to picturesque seaside resorts and luxurious hotels, the essence of this fascinating and beautiful country is revealed in the stunning photos.