Mar 30, 2010

Book Review: At Home with Laurie Ann: A Decorator's Guide

Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB, asks you to choose two sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

At Home with Laurie Ann

"Whether you seek an all-out overhaul or a visual shake-up of your home, you'll begin the same place - with your taste, your needs and your dreams.

Spot your style" (p. 15)

At Home with Laurie Ann,  A Decorator's Guide: Turn the Place You Live into a Home you Love by Laurie Ann McMillin Ray, an interior designer from Southern California who shares her knowledge and experience in this how-to book.

I like her emphasis on developing your own style. The author describes basic decorating styles as "Formal", "Romantic," "Tranquil," "Contemporary," and "Eclectic" and tells the reader to "Try different combinations until you get it right." The 224-page book is very rich visually, with many full-page color photographs of the decorated rooms.
 I like her tips for the Guest Room: " Add a vase of your visitor's favorite flowers, preferred magazines, a framed photo of someone they love and a luxurious terry cloth robe hung on a decorative hook - your houseguest will be at home."
The photographs were eye-catching but I would probably choose only one item or piece furniture from each of the pages. I don't think Laurie Ann meant the rooms to be as they appear - they are too richly decorated. I would have preferred seeing simpler rooms in the five styles instead of overly decorated rooms that became a blur of color and pattern. The book has some good tips on how to approach decorating, though. I especially  liked the advice for a quick home make-over: "For an eternally fresh look, rearrange the furniture several times a year."
Publication date: February 2010
Publisher: Laurie Ann Publishing, Inc.
A copy of this book was provided for my objective review.

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18 comments:

  1. That is good advice, and what I always try to do at my house - some people's homes seems so impersonal and that always seems a shame to me that they don't trust themselves when doing interior decorating and simply go with the mainstream that doesn't reflect them as a person at all!

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  2. That's true, I always redecorate using the same theme.

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  3. Oh, to have the money to redecorate. My house needs it. Thanks for visiting my TT.

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  4. I really enjoyed the helpful advise in this book and you choose a wonderful teaser from it.

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  5. Great teaser, and it sounds like a very good book. I love reading design books or articles, and trying to get ideas -- for somewhere down the road when I have a wee bit of money and can actually implement some of them. :-)

    Anyway, my own teaser is at Bookishgal.

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  6. What great advice! I love to read and to decorate, so I'll have to check this book out.

    Here's my teaser...
    http://westietherapy.blogspot.com/2010/03/teaser-tuesday-forsaken.html#comments

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  7. This looks like an interesting book. I'm adding it to my TBR list.

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  8. Cute cover. I hope that you enjoy your book. Here's mine.

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  9. So true!

    http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/2010/03/teaser_29.html

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  10. That's my problem...I don't know what my style is!!!

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  11. Sounds like a book I could use. My style always seems to be anything that's much too expensive to even think about buying! Good teaser.
    Here's mine.

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  12. I think my problem is that I like too many clashing items haha. This sounds like an interesting book, great teaser!

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  13. Sounds like a fun book on decorating- I'm always looking for new ideas for my house!

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  14. Sounds like a good book, I always think it's the little touches in a room that make it 'homely'.

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  15. There are also recipes included in the book!

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  16. Sounds like a great book. I wish I could afford even the minimal makeover for my living room! Tried posting to this last week, but for some reason it would not go through.

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