Real Life Decorating: Your Life, Your Style, Your Home (Better Homes and Gardens(R)) [Hardcover]

Linda Hallam (Author), Better Homes and Gardens (Author)

Book Description

Series: Better Homes & Gardens | Publication Date: September 1, 2000

Friendly decorating guide with broad appeal

Decorating ideas and tips for real people—whatever their lifestyles, life stages, and budgets.

Tours 10 real-life homes coast to coast and offers practical advice from homeowners.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Better Homes and Gardens here showcases ten homes inhabited by a sampling of people with different lifestyles: singles, couples, and families in urban and suburban settings. Each home is shown in numerous photographs, with tips from the inhabitants on decorating; the styles are all accessible and easy to achieve for amateur decorators. Excellent for public libraries.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Better Homes and Gardens; 1st edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0696210975
• ISBN-13: 978-0696210976
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,356,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Limited in style, but has useful tips, December 12, 2002

By 

Amy Hilliard (VA, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Real Life Decorating: Your Life, Your Style, Your Home (Better Homes and Gardens(R)) (Hardcover)

Here are what I think are the pluses and minuses of this book:

Pluses: The "style primer" section gives tips on color and paint, proportion and scale, furniture and floor plans, art and arranging, patterns and fabric, accessories and collections, lighting and lamps, storage and display, and sources and resources. This section alone will probably be worth the cost of the book to most people. Most of these tips can be generalized to different styles. Also the tips at the end of each case study can be useful to many people.

Minuses: However, the case studies themselves leave something to be desired. Even though the book supposedly shows the homes of a cross section of people, the style is the same through out the book. What I call "modern country." It has a country feel, but more choices of color than traditional country and some unusual eye catching design-elements.

If your style is modern country, or if you like a wide variety of styles and want a book representative of this type of style for your book colletion, like I did, then you will enjoy this book. Everyone else might want to pass.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible, October 1, 2000

By 

"jshelbyp" (Saratoga Springs, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Real Life Decorating: Your Life, Your Style, Your Home (Better Homes and Gardens(R)) (Hardcover)

I found this book to be fun, accessible and full of great ideas for people in all stages of life. I have already recommended it to many friends and suggest it as a "must have" for the home design library. The ideas are timeless and creative and the sources given are practical and fit the average homeowners budget.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource, November 14, 2005

By 

Sonya "readaholic" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Real Life Decorating: Your Life, Your Style, Your Home (Better Homes and Gardens(R)) (Hardcover)

There are so many decorating books out there that you can spend a fortune buying them. My mode of operatus is to check the book out of the library and if it is a "keeper" I purchase it. I am ordering this book today. Even though not all the styles are like mine, the glorious pictures and variety of decorating options represented definitely provide a great jumping off point. I would actually have given this book a 4.5 stars if that option was available, but felt it was better than 4 stars.

The book addresses several "styles" of decor and includes the actual homeowners and their comments about their decorating tastes. The pictures are beautiful and each section includes "real life lessons." These "lessons" are tips and secrets for incorporating each type of style into your decor. My one complaint - I do think there was often too much of the homeowner's "stories" and would prefer more tips and lessons. One great things included is the Sources & Resources section in the back of the book.