Book review: Home Design Ideas

Howdy there! I'm hoping you had a splendiferous weekend. It was our wedding anniversary and Mr Modern Country whisked me away for a surprise night away. Oh, I do so love being whisked away.

I do believe it's time for another Modern Country Style book review. It's been a little while since the last one here, hasn't it? I've been so caught up with letting you know about the kitchen. More on that soon, I promise. Today's choice is Home Design Ideas: How to plan and decorate a beautiful home by Caroline Clifton-Mogg (love that name!), Joanna Simmons and Rebecca Tanqueray.

It's another book by the publishers Ryland, Peters and Small who, in my humble opinion, do the very best interiors books and they do A LOT of them! You won't be short of interiors books once you discover this publisher. A veritable feast of loveliness.

Home Design Ideas is divided by chapters into rooms, as you can see:

Each of the chapters has information pages on Design and Decoration, Planning, Lighting, Storage and Flooring (basically, trying to cover all aspects of the room design), as well as specifics appropriate to each room (Baths and Basins, Beds and Mattresses...).

At the end of every section, there are a plethora of styles tailored to that room. For example, the Living Room chapter has a feature on Modern Country Style (yay!), Romantic Florals, Grown-up Glamour, White Nights and Modern Retro.


While the bathroom section has a whole different bunch of styles: Traditional Style, Classic White, Coastal Style and Hotel Glamour:


Herein lies what I see as the problem with Home Design Ideas. Each author has written two or three chapters and the book doesn't feel terribly cohesive from chapter to chapter beyond the ways in which I have described above. The editors have obviously tried to incorporate the basics into each chapter but it's hard to know who this book is trying to appeal to. The featured styles are different in each chapter so it isn't really for anyone wishing to specialise. But it's not laid out in a particularly user-friendly way to allow for beginners to easily find their niche either.


Having said that, the pictures, as ever with Ryland, Peters and Small are GORGEOUS and, on the whole, right up my Modern Country Style street. Restrained colour, very little clutter but obviously loved and lived in (who'd *really* want to live in a show home?). And it's these photos that go a long, looooooong way to redeem the book's faults. In fact, there's so much redemption from the photos that, after getting the book from the library, I ordered it from Amazon.


Don't you just love this desk chair?


Not one of my favouritest ever choices but certainly a keeper.