Nell Hill's Decorating Secrets: Easy and Inspiring Ways to Bring Style into Your Home [Hardcover]

Mary Carol Garrity (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2004

In this handsome and accessible guide, a popular decorating expert offers tips and ideas for re-creating her classic, relaxed style in the reader's own home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Garrity’s Atchinson, Kansas, home furnishings and accessories store gives this book its title, and its aesthetic—which also draws on G. Diebolt’s (Garrity’s fabrics store) and Garrity’s (furniture and antiques). The three stores sell $4 million worth of goods every year, and it’s easy to see why: Garrity has found a gentle and pleasing way of infusing 18th-century Americana into Martha Stewart-like simple-fussiness, producing more conservative and more blocky rooms that nevertheless feel grounded and harmonized, like Restoration Hardware à la Ben Franklin. (There’s some irony to this, since Kansas was not even a twinkle in the 13th-colony Franklin’s eye.) The book is divided into space-and-arrangement-based chapters ("The Garden Room"; "A Gracious Setting") where Garrity gives forthright opinions on how to actualize one’s design ideas without relying on rules ("I have a soft spot for pretty table lamps and chandeliers"). Two-page spreads focus on individual elements: centerpieces, napkins, pillows, bedside tables, "a lady’s desk" and much more. The book’s more than 100 gracious color photos are of friends’ interiors, decorated with Garrity’s goods but arranged to suit their own needs.
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From the Publisher

Mary Carol Garrity is a known and acknowledged design voice with a welcoming and achievable approach to home decor. Like the customers who flock to her stores in Atchison, Kansas, from hundreds of miles around, thousands of readers respond to her classic yet comfortable style.

In NELL HILL’S DECORATING SECRETS, Mary Carol brings her wealth of experience to the task of bringing a home to life, addressing such questions as how to find or create a beautiful centerpiece, how to best update a room without spending a fortune, how to bring character to a small bathroom, how to display a collection, and ways to dress a bed.

Her practical decorating ideas—far removed from the realms of highbrow magazines and expensive designers—complement the way most people like to decorate and live.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821229036
• ISBN-13: 978-0821229033
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 1 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Carol Garrity is the dynamic proprietor of Nell Hill's in Atchison, Kansas, a landmark retail store that has become legendary in the decorating world--more than 95 percent of Nell Hill's patrons travel more than 100 miles to visit Mary Carol at her flagship store. She has garnered national media attention, with Forbes magazine dubbing her "one of the hottest little retailers" in America. Her designscapes have been featured on the Today show, The Early Show, and in the Wall Street Journal, and more. Nell Hill's O Christmas Tree is her latest book, and joins Nell Hill's Feather Your Nest, Nell Hill's Stylish Weddings, Nell Hill's Entertaining in Style, Nell Hill's Christmas at Home, and Nell Hill's Style at Home, all from Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars move over Martha Stewart--Ms. Garrity is *the* diva of decor!, July 1, 2005

By 

S. Donovan (Prairie Village) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nell Hill's Decorating Secrets: Easy and Inspiring Ways to Bring Style into Your Home (Hardcover)

I am fortunate enough to live within driving distance of Mary Garrity's stores in Atchison, KS. Visiting Nell Hill is an amazing experience. Atchison is a little town out in the middle of nowhere, but on the weekends, chartered buses arrive...the store opens at 9 on Saturday and by 10 it's packed. And the chic & cheerful Mary C. Garrity is always on the floor, greeting customers by name, personally carrying garden statuary out to their station wagons...

Her personal skills are amazing, but what is truly inspiring is her flair for display--a flair that is highlighted in this book. For enthusiasts of traditional, Paris Apt, shabby chic, English country, or any pretty decor, "decorating secrets" is a visual feast. I esp. love how it doesn't rely on priceless pieces of furniture and objets, but rather in a skillful mix of accessible elements to create a beautiful home. Bravo Mary!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book!, November 30, 2004

By 

Patricia Vinson "decorating diva" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nell Hill's Decorating Secrets: Easy and Inspiring Ways to Bring Style into Your Home (Hardcover)

Mary Carol Garrity has writen a book that deserves a place in every 'home decorator's' library! It's easy reading and pictures a lay person can relate to~inspiring is an understatement!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a bit disappointing ..., March 19, 2008

By 

A reader in Central America - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nell Hill's Decorating Secrets: Easy and Inspiring Ways to Bring Style into Your Home (Hardcover)

I'm a big fan of the Nell Hill romantic style but I was a bit let down by this book. I am not a minimalist - I love this "romantic-eclectic" style, full of used, found, inherited and new objects.

I had hoped to see photos of whole rooms decorated in this style, but the book is only full of photos of sections of stairs and walls (with beautifully arranged mirrors and picture frames), sofas (with tons of different pillows), beds (again with tons of different pillows) and dozens and dozens of "tablescapes" and table settings and vignettes and collections of objects (sometimes more than a dozen, all of which will have to be picked up, dusted and put back each time you clean). The objects are interesting, varied, obviously cherished and the arrangements are artistically done, but there is no way to see the effect of an entire room decorated in this style. There are, however, two photos of baker's racks loaded with silver and blue and white china that are to die for .....

The "decorating secrets" are a few pages at the back of the book with lists of very predictable general instructions like "vary the heights", "mix it up", etc. No surprises or even detailed "how-to" here. Somehow there was very little that I could sink my teeth into. Disappointing.