Friday, January 31, 2014

Room Recipes: A Creative and Stylish Guide to Interior Design by Tonya Olsen

Home Interior Decoration
272p.
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Available Now
Source: From publisher for review
From exciting entryways to DIY dining rooms, these tried-and-true interior design recipes are the ultimate resource for homeowners looking to spice things up or decorate a space from scratch. With this book, creating a show-stopping master suite or home office is as simple as cooking dinner---just follow the instructions! Turn your house into your dream home one room at a time by incorporating these no-fail recipes for delicious designs.

My thoughts:
 The book was thought up by the author with the idea of doing home design like a recipe. This way of organization is designed to help you plan and create a room that you would enjoy. The examples are from jobs she had in the past and then she breaks down the "recipe". It is set up like this:

  • Ingredients: The major elements of the room like a wall treatment, flooring, couch, tables and other items like this.
  • Tonya's Take: Which is like her version of the recipe where she makes substitutions and where your own ideas could take off for your own recipe. 
  • Garnish: Taking an element and specifically showing you how she did it. For example, how to arrange a wall of artwork/pictures. 
You can find many examples of her work on her website: Room Recipes. She does break it down a bit more in the book.

I give this book 4 stars. Someone who does diy can take some of these ideas and run with them as well as figure out a way to organize their ideas into a cohesive room. It isn't for the complete diy'er, however. It really is a kind of book where you have a budget and create a room with the help of a professional.

15 comments:

  1. It's interesting, I don't think I've ever read something like but not sure for now it would help me.

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  2. I cannot pick this book up Melissa. I CANNOT! If I do, I will want to redo every single room in my house and I have neither the time nor the budget to do that at the moment. The room on the cover is gorgeous, so I can only imagine what's inside! *wants desperately to peek*

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  3. I always like looking through books like this, especially when I'm getting the itch to redecorate. Better to change just a little rather than scrapping everything and starting over (as I wish I could do sometimes).

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  4. Ooh, I should check this out! I love re-decorating my room (although most of my re-decorating just means finding more room for books!) but this seems like a worthwhile read. Thanks for sharing, Melissa! :)

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  5. I like to do some redesigning in my home. And simple stuff tool. I'm not very creative when it comes to those things but if a book can show me how then why not?

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    1. I don't believe for one second that you aren't creative!!

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  6. There were some good diy projects. I just wish there was more. :)

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  7. This sounds interesting and I like the idea of looking at a room like creating a recipe

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  8. I LOVE DIY & decorating books. Especially if they are made easy. I am forever on Pinterest looking at the awesum DIY/Decorating Pins.
    I have a cool rocker chair that I need to lightly sand then pain. I am trying to think of colors. I wanted to do the chair one color then the "rungs" on the back one color and the "rockers" the same color. But they have to be something that looks nice together and colorful. Not blah. IDK. Meanwhile my poor chair is just there..lol..

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  9. I love reading diy/decorating blogs and this sounds super cool! I'm with Keertana, most of my decorating just means finding more room for books. :-) Thanks for putting this on my radar!

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  10. I'm not very good at DIY but I like looking at decorating books. Sometimes they're overwhelming but they can be inspirational too.

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