The Home Style Sourcebook: inspirational decorating schemes for every home

I'll come right out and say it now: this book is heaven.

The Home Style Sourcebook is one of a million excellent books by Ryland, Peters and Small publishing. It's written by a collaboration of Leslie Geddes-Brown, Katherine Sorrell and Judith Wilson, who have all written other great interior design books in their own right. This was the first book I saw that put a name, Modern Country Style, to the look I knew I loved.

The book is divided into two main sections. The first examines a variety of different styles: Contemporary (Sleek, Mellow Modern, Scandinavian and Contemporary Modern), Country (Traditional Country and yummy Modern Country) and Period Styles (Classic Period Style and Vintage and Retro). It's not only the Modern Country section that's utterly gorgeous. All the pictures are drool-worthy, and there's some especially good ones in the Mellow Modern, Traditional Country and Vintage and Retro chapters.

The second part looks at how to apply these styles to individual rooms, with general application and a case study for each style.

The fantastic thing about this book is that it has superb pages on Modern Country Style...

...but lots of aspects of the other sections could also be adapted. For example, here are some photos of pages from Vintage and Retro (loving those taps):

Mellow Modern (far left pictures...nice!):

and Traditional Country (nothing too twee in sight!):

Home Style Sourcebook helps to narrow down specific styles so that you don't end up with a hotch-potch of different looks but, instead, have harmonious continuity throughout your home.

This book has to be one of my absolute best, a continual reference, as well as eye-candy. Definitely full marks from me.