This book makes it tough...

to choose a color concept for a room. "Paint the Big Book of Natural Color" by Elizabeth Hilliard and Stafford Cliff is page after page of breathtaking rooms and sources of inspiration: the deep Mediterranean blue walls of a home on Santorini with window frames the color of cumulus clouds; the gray of stone gargoyles on an ancient French cathedral brought into an elegant bathroom in England; and humble whole wheat bread, toasted rich and maybe a bit charred,used as an accent color in a folk art museum in Sweden. Oh and the whites are just as compelling: the color of birch tree bark, the pale face of a barn owl, a morning"s frost. I've mentioned books by Stafford Cliff here before and each one is a treasure. Take a look and tell me, what do you think?

Borrow this book!

Today I found a book at the library by one of my favorite interior design authors, Stafford Cliff, and I am thrilled! It is called 1000 Home Ideas and like his earlier The Way We Live, this book has hundreds of gorgeous photos, organized in subject areas such as "Openings and Closings" (doors and transitions), "Shelf Life" and "Stylish Storage" I've shown a page from "Steps and Bannisters" here. The "Walls of Wonder" section shows displays of things people collect and/or use every day such as workboots, cutting boards, wooden kitchen utensils. Believe me, these are NOT sterile Pottery Barn interiors!

another good book...

Here's a book full of great photos and ideas of quick decorating fixes. "Speed Decorating" by Jill Vegas is great for people who are putting their house on the market and need to spruce it up fast but it offers lots of inspiration for anybody tired of their same-old rooms.. I have known for a long time that the inside of my closet needs patching and painting ( pieces of, what? wallboard? are falling to the floor) but the thought of tackling that job was too forbidding to entertain. Her book inspires -- I can do this nasty job! Now the project is on my list.