Use What You Have Decorating : Transform Your Home in One Hour With Ten Simple Design Principles -- Using the Space You Have, the Things You Like, the Budget You Choose

List Price: $16.95 Discount Price: $7.91

Customer Reviews:

One of my favorite decorating books... [Posted on 2007-04-26]
...and yet I only give it 4 stars. Why? Because first of all, there is very little advice that applies beyond the living room, and that's a formal living area - not the family gathering and watching TV area. I would love to see a book of hers that will address other areas in the house.

Beyond that though, I love this book. I'm a down to earth person, always looking for a quick and cheap way to re-do things. This book taught me decorating principles that were easy to put into practice. I like the before and after pics, explanations and the occassional room layouts. After studying this book a few times, it took me less than an hour to re-arrange my living room. It's so much more inviting and comfortable now, that I don't want to leave it! As for color vs. black and white photos, of course I'd prefer color. But I can live with it, because the content is so helpful. I have the older version too that has a middle insert of color photos as well.

This book will be helpful if you already have a house of furniture or maybe suffer from TMS syndrome (too much stuff) and if you enjoy being creative with what you have. If not, then this book will probably frustrate you.

Use What You Have [Posted on 2007-05-29]
This is a good book for people who have no experience or formal training with decorating. I found the top 10 tips for avoiding design disaster to be helpful and easy to understand. The pictures in the book are very outdated, but made me feel like I might have a fighting chance with my own space.

I love this book! [Posted on 2007-08-26]
I am a professional interior designer and I found this book great because it provides great information in a easy to read format. I read more than half the book in one evening. Some people have stated that even though they love the book they wished it was in color. I love the book in black and white because the emphasis really is on the placement and not so much the color. I find that when items are related in color it is easy for the eye to make the "connection" and ignore the real placement of the items. When the pictures are in black and white, it forces the eye to look at where and how the items are placed. This is a great book and I would recommend it to the novice, lay person, or professional designer/decorator looking to add an additional service that they can offer their clients. I give it two thumbs up!

practical budget friendly [Posted on 2007-10-21]
I give the book a 4 star rating. Would have been good if we had some colour photos and show some living rooms that do not have the fire place a the focal point of the room but some other feature. Also how do you decorate a room with steep dormer features, that create angles. I like Lauri's books though I have Home Therapy.

Good book but it gets tiresome [Posted on 2008-01-10]
Laurie Ward has hit on a great idea here - redecorating with your own stuff. And she does give some great advice in this book about creating a conversation area situated around a focal point, and about how high to hang art. I have been "tweaking" my house ever since I read the book and for the most part her suggestions are very helpful. I also enjoyed the "before" and "after" photos of real peoples' homes. But a couple things bothered me about this book. The first two-thirds of the book are basically paraphrased repetitions of this idea: create a U-shaped conversation area around a focal point. By the fifth or sixth example, you're thinking "gee, I wonder what genius furniture arrangement she'll come up with this time...SURPRISE! U-shaped conversation area!" She gives only a little information on how to re-arrange a dining room, bedroom, bathroom, or ANY OTHER room in the house (and what about those of us with open floor plans? throw me a bone here!), and what few suggestions she does give seem to have been added as an afterthought. The other thing I did not like is a matter of taste more than anything else: I thought some of her advice was a bit old-school (and not in a good way), in particular her advice about how to arrange and group art and other decorative objects (i.e., "don't mix media"), but also her advice against using fridge magnets and patterned paper towels comes off as a bit snobby. However, overall I do recommend the book if you need some help rearranging your living room.

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