A traditional handicraft can add warmth and character to a space. A graphic Amish quilt suspended as a headboard, a braided rag rug anchoring the coffee table, Grandma’s crocheted, zig-zag throw draped over the arm of a club chair. Or colorful, textural crewel embroidery. As a young girl, I spent many an evening cranking out chain and satin stitches, and flocks of french knots. You’d […] Read more »

Our Contributors here at HomeWorkshop.com are a talented tribe of design doers, and I am amazed daily at their creations. Excitement abounds today as I announce that our maven of makeovers and wrangler of reuse has published her first Ebook!! Diana Durkes put her sandpaper, paintbrush, camera and keyboard into overdrive, and Secondhand Shabby, her 90-page downloadable Ebook is here!! Inside, Diana demonstrates how to: […] Read more »

Alright, this is officially the design with toys week. First the fabulous Barbie Room Designs, and now this: I didn’t even know the back-story and I ordered the book. Just couldn’t get over the fact that someone had built a whole house out of Legos!! Yup. A talented design & build team, 1,100 volunteers from the British public, and 3.3 million Lego bricks later, and […] Read more »

I admit it. I’m a fan. Sarah Susanka just has what so many of us need, with her Not So Big House concept and books. So I snapped up her latest – More Not So Big Solutions for Your Home (Taunton Press, 2010). It didn’t disappoint. The Not So Big House movement began with Susanka’s 1998 book by the same title and has grown to […] Read more »

We’ve had some heated discussion here lately about books, and about book covers, as elements in one’s home decor. So when I found these new cover designs for classic F. Scott Fitzgerald books, from Senior Designer Coralie Bickford-Smith at Penguin Books, I just had to share. Penguin plans to release the books on November 4th. Now that’s marketing I can get behind. (via Notcot.)   […] Read more »

My walls have never been the place for the blah. If it’s bold, colorful, and graphic – sign me up. And as you know, I’m a fervent DIY’er. So when I saw Lola Gavarry’s new book, DIY Art at Home, 28 Simple Projects for Chic Decor on the Cheap (Watson-Guptill Publications, 2010), I snatched up a copy. Gavarry, a designer who creates artwork for residential […] Read more »

I learned about the most fascinating design niche recently, when—through trusty Twitter— I met Thatcher Wine of Juniper Books. Thatcher specializes in the design of home libraries for homeowners and designers around the country. We’re not talking the cabinetry here – we’re talking the books. I asked Thatcher a few questions and I think you’ll enjoy his answers. He’s given me volumes of ideas for […] Read more »

What’s best about producing HomeWorkshop.com? The friendships I’ve made with creative, colorful people, and the motivation we share on a daily basis. Some of the people I’ve become closest to are “designing women.” Not those from that comfy old TV show (RIP Dixie Carter), but real, design and decorating professionals who do incredible work; and talented DIY’ers that turn their homes into striking expressions of […] Read more »

Here’s the deal. You can put an outfit together, right? So why not apply some of that knowhow when it comes to outfitting your home? That’s Annette Tatum’s approach in The Well-Dressed Home, Fashionable Design Inspired by Your Personal Style (Clarkson Potter, 2009). Here’s Tatum’s theory: You’ve taken the time to choose styles, colors and textures you love for your clothes. Use that inspiration you […] Read more »

Judith Miller has the same affliction I do. Like cat hair to my velvet sofa pillows, she’s attracted to chairs. Adores them. Before leaving the house, she has to raise her right hand and swear to her husband that she absolutely will not bring home any more single chairs from the antiques market. My girl. I heard Judith—one of the world’s leading experts in antiques—relate […] Read more »

Wallpaper is back; we’ve talked about that in other posts. Clean, contemporary patterns and throwback designs are popping up in spaces of the style-savvy everywhere. But with the gorgeous array of papers available today, you can spice up more than your walls. That’s what Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith show us with their lively and fun DIY’s in Wallpaper Projects, More Than 50 Craft and […] Read more »

How often do things deliver more than promised? This book does. Billed as a volume to help you decorate temporary digs like rentals, dorms and such, Robin Bernard and Adrienne Nappi’s Decorating to Go, Easy Ways to Feather Your Temporary Nest (Creative Homeowner, 2009) is a dynamite little book for renters and homeowners alike. Its pages are teeming with design and decorating concepts and DIY […] Read more »

Some decorating and design books inspire us with professional designers’ rooms and others give practical tips for us to apply in our own homes. House Beautiful Colors for Your Home, 300 Designer Favorites (Hearst Books, 2008) does both. A truly useful handbook for choosing paint colors, I’ll be referencing it often. In the book, renowned designers share entries about their favorite colors and those they […] Read more »

What would your dream studio look like? Would you build a backyard cottage and place your easel by the window overlooking your perennial beds? Would you carve out a corner of your city loft and fill it with industrial storage and a weathered wood work table? Would you sketch designs at the same desk as you craft your projects? I find artists studios fascinating. Maybe […] Read more »

Some of the most striking interiors combine well-worn pieces with new ones, or classic period antiques with modern materials. Picture a Mid-Century Modern Arne Jacobsen chair paired with a contemporary Scandinavian desk, or a weathered, painted-wood cabinet suspended above a sparkling glass vessel sink. Place cutting-edge stainless steel kitchen appliances beside the rustic planks of an old farmhouse table, or mingle a vintage chandelier and […] Read more »