Customer Reviews

Use What You Have Decorating

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I am not a decorator by nature.

I'm constantly frustrated by decorating magazines, TV shows, and friends with the decorating gene who babble on about breaking "the rules" as if a person like me knew what "the rules" were in the first place.

Before you can successfully break rules, you have to know what they are in the first place.

All these decorator types had me frustrated and angry. They knew something, but were either unwilling or unable to share their ability to make stuff work.

Laughing off a serious question about placement or colour choice with "go with your gut instinct-- it's OK to break the rules" doesn't work if your gut instinct consistently leads you in the wrong direction.

I can singlehandedly prove to any designer born, that you CAN'T successfully "break the rules" at all times. I have made more than my share of mistakes that leaves my decorator friends stunned in disbelief that ANYONE could DO that!!!!

NOW I'm happy!

Lauri Ward's 2 books, this one and her second one TOLD ME THE RULES!!!

NOW I KNOW WHY SOME ROOMS WORK AND OTHERS DEFINITELY DON'T.

All I needed was someone to explain it. Lauri did.

I highly recommend both books.

I really don't care if some decorator types don't like people finding out the rules, or feel that someone like me will slavishly produce vanilla bland spaces.

This is a book about sharing decorating tools, showing people how it works, then expecting them to go off and make their own stuff look better in their own place.

BTW it's not about colour. It's all about placing furniture in a room to make it serene, calm and pleasing.

People who know the rules instinctively might not care for this book but for the rest of us who keep saying HUNH??? this book is for you and me.

It's going to give us the edge to put a room together and have it look good enough that our decorating friends will back off and quit giving us that pitying look.

For colour and life and so forth, I recommend the Pottery Barn books, they are great. I also recommend Dylan Landis's book Elegant and Easy Rooms which I also like for the paint "recipes" for rooms that work.

This book saves the day for anyone who has been moving their furniture around and has never been able to get it right. It shows common mistakes and how to fix them quickly. No need to buy lots of new things. Even after everything looks great, this book is so handy for reference. When questions crops up about lighting, displaying art or making new purchases, it has all the answers. Your copy will get dog-earred too!

If there is one book every home decorator needs it is this. Without spending thousands of dollars (okay, I spent nothing!), I gave my home a fabulous makeover. Lauri Ward, the author, recommends reading the entire book and then rereading, which helped me have a better overall idea of what my mistakes were so that I was able to pinpoint them quickly, before I started moving things around.
This book will probably make you ask yourself "why didn't I think of that before?" Fortunately, Ms. Ward, the pioneer of the "one day decorating" concept did and she provides the secrets for us novices and pros too who want to learn how they can do it .

This book is refreshingly practical and perfect for anybody who wants to make their home look like they have had professional advice. It is easy to understand, does not require complicated construction projects nor spending money and almost all of the ideas can be implemented in a couple of hours.
Not a coffee table book, but a book that explains the best location for the coffee table, it is full of clever ideas that will make readers feel like they have a designer right there helping them every time they open its pages.

I found this book to be a great help for a first time decorator, overwhelmed with the decorating process. I felt stumped on how to decorate my house until I found this book and some fresh ideas. I really enjoyed the before and after photos and the summary questions at the end of each chapter that help you to put your room in perspective. I found that I am already doing some things right and have some new ways to make things look even better in my home. This book will help you make peace with what you already have - you don't have to go out and spend thousands of dollars redecorating to have a beautiful home!

This is NOT a very realistic, real-life decorating book. The case studies were good, but only one or two of the presented cases showed where you can put a TV. About five or six showed where you can put a piano. Exactly whose apartments is the author writing this for? Clearly it's for people who has a piano in their living room and a separate TV room or something.

I liked this book. It contained very concrete information that I've never been able to find anywhere else such as "How tall should bedside lamps be?" Yes, it is formulaic and probably boring for people who've done a lot of decorating. But for those of us who don't even know where to start, this is a useful book.

How refreshing to read an interior design book that actually shows how a pro does it. Unlike most coffee table volumes that highlight upscale homes with color photographs, this book provides lots of before and after, black and white photos of typical homes. Readers can spot their own problems and apply the solutions quickly because the rooms are easy to relate to and the principles apply to all budgets and styles. Kudos to Ms. Ward for sharing her secrets and expertise. She has a new fan here.

Use what you have starts off by telling you what to buy. I really
expected a lot of colorful photos of taking some common items and
using them and re-arranging them in a stylish way. This book has
no photos what so-ever. Disappointing.

I was born without a decorating gene so I have been trying to find practical, down-to-earth information to help me learn. I've looked at several other books that did not help me at all. But this book I read cover to cover and it has literally changed my life. I had been making so many mistakes over the years. This book explains in easy, straight-forward terms all the basics of arranging a room. I'm already talking like I know something about decorating. I can look at rooms in a whole new light.

We recently moved into a new home and I have immediately begun to put what I have learned into practice. For the first time, I can actually see a beautiful room coming together and hope to be able to decorate the entire house soon using the design elements I learned in this book. Decorating should be much quicker, easier and satisfying now that I understand the simple secrets I've learned from this book.