House Beautiful Decorating Style

Great style -- timeless, graceful, livable -- is within everyone's grasp. All that is required is ingenuity, not extravagance. In this handsome new book, the editors of House Beautiful present hundreds of ideas for bringing style to every room of your home, exquisitely illustrated with more than 250 color photographs of homes throughout the country.

The first lesson is in The Essentials, those decorating basics that bring harmony and unity to a room. Learn to use color to enlarge small spaces, give bigger rooms a feeling of intimacy, impart tranquility to any busy area. There are also strategies for maximizing space and updating rooms to fill changing needs.

The Elements of every room must be considered -- walls and windows, ceilings and floors. Dozens of ideas and products are presented: using paint techniques and wallpaper; finding the perfect floor covering; even choosing window treatments that control light and noise.

The Details come next -- those final touches that make a room unique and truly personal. Here are dozens of exciting, original ideas for screens, mirrors, flowers, art, even personal collections.

In Great Transformations, House Beautiful takes us on a tour of the fruits of all this loving attention and effort: five American homes whose decorating style is an unqualified success.

Based on interviews with architects and interior designers across the country author Carol Cooper Garey has compiled a book of decorating ideas, one that is filled with confidence, energy and a glorious sense of achievable style.