Why should you care for leather? What has leather conditioner to do with environmental protection? How do I get my shoes to shine? What saddle soap is best suited and most available for saddles? Anyone who wants the answers to these questions and wishes to learn more about the history, application, and benefits of leather care will want this standard and very successful work. In many of the over 500 beautiful images, custom shoemakers show how to expertly maintain leather shoes, furniture, bags, automotive leather, coarse and fine leather, watch bands, saddles, horse tack, suede, and more. By following their leather care techniques, readers will win a small victory over the usual transience of our favorite leather objects. Also included are histories of influential international leather care product companies, providing readers with a sense of the scope of products available today. A wealth of leather information is covered, including leather types defined by dyeing and consistency, products from wax pastes, creams, and emulsions to oils, soaps, sprays, and grease, polish formulas, and much more. Readers may even decide that maintaining the rich glossy surfaces of their leather products creates a more sophisticated personal appearance.

A stunning visual journey through the homes of people from around the world who have taken steps to simplify their lives and embrace the principles of slow living. Still is an interiors book that invites readers to take on the philosophy of the SLOW movement. Living Sustainably; Local; Organic; and Whole. It talks not just to the question of the physical structures we choose, but also the surrounding environment, and what effect that can have on general happiness and wellbeing. Still includes about a dozen case studies featuring escape homes and owners who live according to these aforementioned principles, enlightening readers as to why they chose this path and how it has benefitted their lives. It is the follow-up to Natalie Walton's successful first title This is Home, and once again features location photography by Chris Warnes.

Designing Your Life meets The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up in this guide to creating a space that promotes calm, clarity, and positivity. In Designing for Calm, designer and Stanford instructor Olga Trusova offers easy-to-follow tips for cultivating a calming environment at home or at work. Discover how simple changes can make any room-and its inhabitants-feel more inspired, clear, and energetic. Using the principles of design thinking, Trusova distills essential design wisdom, revealing how to use light, color, sound, furniture, and more to make simple, intentional changes for a profound impact on your mind, body, and spirit. Illuminating examples, accessible tips, and short exercises reveal how easy it is to transform a space, whether you're targeting a small corner or multiple rooms. Brimming with smart, digestible design tips and life-changing techniques, this stylish handbook makes a lovely self-purchase or gift for creatives, design enthusiasts, at-home workers, and anyone looking for simple, proven ways to design a soothing space.

There are more complex ways to do it., with fancy controls, a hundred different burning tips. But here Dick Armstrong reminds us that the art of woodburning is more in the technique than the tools. Using a single-tip, simple woodburner, he goes back to the basics, starting with the skills that every woodburner should know and then applying them in three projects. The projects are designed to move from the easiest, a lighthouse, to one of medium difficulty, a dilapidated barn, to one that requires some skill, a clipper ship. Every step is illustrated with a clear photo and description. In addition, a gallery of Dick's work gives the reader many ideas for application of these skills. This is the book for beginning woodburners, but the techniques and experience Dick shares will be valued by pyrographers of every level.

More than 500 period photographs explore the Spanish Revival movement (1915-1940) in architecture. Original Spanish and Mediterranean buildings inspired partrons on "the grand tour" in Europe to build for themselves these sturdy homes in the 20th century that reflect a strong Mediterranean heritage. Tiled roofs and floors, arched windows and passageways, and stone walls and floors characterize the style. Exquisite details are explored, both inside and out, from residential, commercial, and public projects. Sections in the book focus on exterior details including outdoor rooms and staircases, verandahs, patios, and courtyards, pools, fountains, chimneys, and garden gates. Inside, revel in beamed ceilings, fireplaces, tile details, lighting and flooring. In addition to dozens of private residences, this book tours retail and commercial spaces, churches, schools, libraries, theaters, and private clubs. Work by celebrated architects who helped pioneer the Spanish Revival movement is featured, including George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, Gordon Kauffman, Morgan, Walls and Clements, and many others. Also, some architectural renderings and floor plans are included. Architects, designers, and remodelers will find inspiration for today's structures on every page.

Interior designer David Jimenez has lived and worked in Paris for years, where he s celebrated for his distinctive and sophisticated interiors. With a classic and modern style, Jimenez creates the type of chic French-influenced interiors that so many of us aspire to. And in these pages he imparts ideas and inspiration for how we can design our own space with French flair. Organised by project, the book features Jimenez s interiors in France (including his own incredible pied-a-terre on Ile Saint-Louis as well as his new fixer-upper chateau north of Paris) as well as the United States. From grand nineteenth-century Parisian apartments to more contemporary spaces in New York and San Francisco, Jimenez shows us how to create elegant and romantic spaces by layering in art and books, textures and colours, along with distinctive antiques and our own collections. The last part of the book contains an elegant how-to section sharing Jimenez s secrets and tips for decorating in the French style, including: Essential French Colors, Modern French style, and How To Hang Art along with tips for designing a small apartment, creating chic arrangements, and finding the best antiques and materials. Also included is a source section of Jimenez s favourite Paris and New York flea markets, antique dealers, and art galleries. With stunning photography and inspiring texts, Decorate as the Parisians Do is a dream for style Francophiles, or anyone looking to artfully decorate their home, wherever they may live.

Create charming holiday decorations that double as small toys with this easy-to-follow guidebook. Full-size patterns and step-by-step instructions are provided for 14 working wooden toy ornaments. From tugboats and tractors to windmills and wagons, these nostalgic moving toys make great Christmas ornaments as well as keepsake gifts for family and friends. And these simple projects don't take a lot of time, wood, or tools to make. They're a great way to reuse and repurpose scrap wood, and require only minimal painting. All you need is a scroll saw, a drill, and some glue to create memorable family heirlooms. You can create them assembly-line style and fill a tree--or make a lot of gifts--with just an afternoon's work. Better yet, get a youngster or two involved in the cutting, painting, and assembling.

In 40 Ways to Fold a Napkin you will discover 40 ways to turn your meal into a tablescaped event, worthy of an Instagram post. From simple folds that can hold cutlery to elegant knots, quirky envelopes and more, your event will instantly become more refined and classy. There are even some special folds for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and more. From birthdays to DIY weddings, dinner parties or just a Friday night at home for two, this stylish guide is for anyone who loves to entertain. Make every meal an event by folding your napkins.

This title offers expert advice on essential home decoration and maintenance, including painting, papering, tiling, laying floors, carpentry skills, insulation, and outdoor projects and repairs. Projects include painting and varnishing wood, tiling a work surface, laying foam-backed carpet, replacing window panes, fitting window locks, making a garage storage wall, insulating roofs, repairing roofs and guttering, laying decking, making pergolas, building rock gardens, installing water features, and many more. It features a guide to tools for a wide range of do-it-yourself jobs, including using chisels, saws, drills, hammers, screwdrivers, pliers and sanders. Over 2400 photographs illustrate each step-by-step project, to provide instant reference. Looking after your home is economical and satisfying, and this book is filled with practical tips for do-it-yourself jobs. All areas of the home are covered, both indoors and out. There is clear step-by-step advice on internal and external maintenance, repairs, carpentry, flooring, brickwork, roofing, fences, walls and paths.The book includes instructions for painting and papering walls and ceilings, laying ceramic tiles, fitting floor coverings and carpets, making bookshelves, draught-proofing doors, repointing brickwork, laying patios and installing ponds and fountains. The book also contains a guide to tools, from saws and drills to spanners and paintbrushes. A reference for beginners and experienced do-it-yourselfers alike, this is an essential manual that you will refer to again and again.

Handmade Tile is a contemporary guide for ceramic artists and anyone interested in custom tile installations-from making, designing, and decorating to designing your space and installation. No matter how many years of experience you have as a ceramic artist or how many home-improvement projects you've tackled, nothing prepares you for the unique world of ceramic tile. From concept and design, through firing and installation, ceramic tiling is one of the few places in a home where art is permanently installed as a feature of a room. In Handmade Tile, Forrest Lesch-Middelton shares everything he's learned as the founder and owner of the custom tile business FLM Ceramics and Tile. From his years as a one-man operation to his current production facility, Forrest has seen it all and helps you every step of the way. Whether you want to make your own tile, or want to use artistic and custom-made tile in your home, this book has everything you need. Key features of the book include: Making Tile: key tools, rolling, cutting, extruding Decorating: glazes, image transfer, cuerda seca, underglaze, slip Designing Your Space: tile in context, choosing your tile, codes and standards Installation: removing old tile, backing, preparing surfaces, setting, grouting Galleries and interviews with today's top workings artists in tile round out the package. Featured artists include Allison Bloom, Boris Aldridge, Disc Interiors, PV Tile, and more.

This book contains a comprehensive range of data, which is required in the metalworking workshop and by those designing a wide range of engineered items, tools and machines. It provides, in a single concise volume, data that is only otherwise available by reference to many different sources or more expensive publications. For those involved in restoration work, the book also includes details of items not now used, and for which data is not easy to locate. Harold Hall was, for a number of years, the editor of Model Engineers' Workshop magazine and is the author of four previous books in this indispensable series.

#1 - The Best Country and Rural Living Books* #1 - 15 Best Homesteading Books for Beginners in 2021** For more than 50 years, this homesteading classic is the essential book of basic skills and country wisdom for living off the land, being prepared, and doing it yourself. Keep your family healthy, safe, and independent--no matter what's going on in the world. From homesteaders to urban farmers, and everyone in between, there is a desire for a simpler way of life: a healthier, greener, more self-sustaining, and holistic approach that allows you to survive and thrive-even in uncertain times. With its origins in the back-to-the-land movement of the late 1960s, Carla Emery's landmark book has grown into a comprehensive guide to living a self-sustaining lifestyle. Learn how to live independently in this comprehensive guide, including how to: * Can, dry, and preserve food * Plan your garden * Grow your own food * Make 20-minute cheese * Make your own natural skincare products * Bake bread * Cook on a wood stove * Learn beekeeping * Raise chickens, goats, and pigs * Create natural skincare products * Make organic bug spray * Treat your family with homemade remedies * Make fruit leather * Forage for wild food * Spin wool into yarn * Mill your own flour * Tap a maple tree And more! Basic, thorough, and reliable, this book deserves a place in urban and rural homes alike. This 50th anniversary edition includes updated resources. * Bookscrolling ** OutdoorHappens

Every board has edges, faces and end grain. So every workbench should be able to easily work the edges, faces and ends of boards. But most benches built during the last 100 years will fail you on at least one of these tasks. This book dives deep into the historical records of the 18th and 19th centuries and breathes new life into traditional designs that have lain dormant for decades and were utterly fantastic to use. These old-school benches are simpler than modern benches, easier to build and surprisingly perfect for both power and hand tools. Encompassing years of historical research and real-world trials, this book boils down centuries of the history and engineering of workbenches into simple ideas that all woodworkers can use. With this book, your very first workbench will do everything you need it to do for the rest of your career in the craft. This revised and expanded edition includes 64 pages of new information including a step-by-step build and measured drawings for an 18th-century French bench and a knockdown English bench, as well as recent advances in workholding

The largest blanket manufacturer under one roof in the United States by 1920 was the Beacon Manufacturing Company, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and later of Swannanoa, North Carolina. Cotton, wool, and blended blankets came off their looms in plain, geometric, and Indian designs by the millions. They were sold at dry goods stores and large orders were filled for American troops in the World Wars. This book displays a large selection of Beacon blankets and color catalog pages from 1917 to 1957, together with original blanket designs, a history of the company, advertisements, and all the Beacon labels. There are special sections on crib blankets, bathrobes using Beacon fabric, related blankets, and Skookum Indian dolls dressed in Beacon remnants. These blankets are diligently searched for by collectors of folk art and textiles because they represent a nearly-lost chapter in textile history and bring a sparkle of color to interior decoration.

The bestselling alternative energy reference book in North America--now in an updated edition

Want to take advantage of solar power in your home? Whether you're looking to save on your energy costs by adding a few solar components or you want to build a solar-powered house from the ground up, "Solar Power For Dummies, 2nd Edition" takes the mystery out of this energy source and shows you how to put it to work for you

This new edition gives you hands-on tips and techniques for making your home more energy-efficient though solar power--and helping the planet at the same time. Plus, you'll get all the latest information on changes to federal, state, and local regulations, laws, and tax incentives that seek to make solar-power adoption more feasible.Expanded coverage of the technology that underpins full-scale solar-power systems for the homeNew small- and mid-sized solar products, projects, and applicationsRik DeGunther is a design engineer who started his own energy consulting firm

Featuring ten of the easiest and cheapest DIY solar projects, "Solar Power For Dummies, 2nd Edition" is the fun and easy way to meet your energy needs with this clean power source

Tom Wolfe goes back to basics. With easy to follow, step-by-step instructions, Tom helps the novice carver bring life to a block of wood. With a single knife Tom carves a relining country figure and teaches the basic methods of woodcarving. Each cut is illustrated with a full-color photograph, an important visual aid to learning this fun craft. These projects are simple and fun. The new carver will find that the mysteries of this art quickly disappear and that they can quickly learn the skills they need to create a nice piece of art.

How to Run Your Home without Help, as its title implies, is a book first published in 1949 about housework. It is a fascinating historical document, and, from the vantage point of sixty years on, it is a funny and at times extraordinary bulletin from a vanished world. The wartime overalls were off, the pinny was put back on or, in many cases, worn for the first time, as the market in uniformed domestic help died away.

Touching on topics like fear, worry, dissatisfaction, anxiety, and body image, Alyssa Bethke walks you through issues that rob you of your joy and helps you recognize them for what they are: distractions. With all of its expectations and contradictions, this world can take a major toll on us. Be skinny, but not too skinny. Work and hustle but stay home and be a good mom. Be wild and free while tidy and pure. Love your husband but be independent. In Satisfied, Alyssa Bethke shares a compelling collection of relatable essays that will help you stop focusing on what you lack and start feeling grateful for what you have. Along with healthy recipes and cozy home images, Satisfied will provide you with the knowledge that you are not alone in your fight to be fulfilled. Alyssa shows you the ways in which you are enough-not only for those around you, but for yourself.

In the act of enclosing space and making rooms, we make and define our aspirations and identities. Taking a room by room approach, this fascinating volume explores how representations of domestic space have embodied changing spatial configurations and values, and considers how we see modern individuals in the process of making themselves 'at home'. Scholars from the US, UK and Australasia re-visit and re-think interiors by Bonnard, Matisse, Degas and Vuillard, as well as the great spaces of early modernity; the drawing room in Rossetti's house, hallways in Hampstead Garden Suburb, the Paris attic of the Brothers Goncourt; Schutte-Lihotzky's Frankfurt Kitchen, to explore how interior making has changed from the Victorian to the modern period. From the smallest room - the bathroom - to the spacious verandas of Singapore Deco, Domestic Interiors focuses on modern rooms 'imaged' and imagined, it builds a distinct body of knowledge around the interior, interiority, representation and modernity, and creates a rich resource for students and scholars in art, architecture and design history.

Accomplished carver and teacher Mary Finn shows how to create all kinds of charming animals, each "born" from a commercially available wooden egg. Egg animals can come out of the egg in any direction and can be made standing, sitting, or lying down. Here, step by step instructions and color photography illustrate carving techniques for a crouching rabbit, sitting bear, chubby pig, and fire-breathing dragon. Readers will learn how to orient the egg, establish the basic outline, complete eyes, ears, feet, and other details, and paint the finished animal. These projects require only minimal working space and are great for those with limited access to saws or other large equipment. Each egg has the potential to become a favorite pet, a wild animal, or an imaginative character, and all provide lots of fun and enjoyment for the carver.