First Home: A Decorating Guide and Sourcebook for the First Time Around - Softcover

Linsley, Leslie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068815137X ISBN 13: 9780688151379

Publisher: Quill, 1998

Synopsis

Provides suggestions for simple, inexpensive ways to decorate each room in the house, and discusses color, storage, lighting, and related questions

About this title

Review:

Consider the circumstances that most first-time home buyers find themselves in. For weeks or months, they've been assaulted by choices, ending with the biggest, most nerve-wracking purchasing decision of their lives. They've already spent enough dough to rival a hamburger-bun factory, and now they've got to figure out where, in the vast cavern that is their new home, to put the meager belongings they've accumulated. Suddenly the house that looked so wonderful with those other people's furniture just looks ... empty. Yet most new homeowners also don't want to go further into debt, nor do they want to live with the shoddy results of bargain-basement decorating.

Leslie Linsley comes to the rescue with First Home, written expressly for those furnishing and decorating a house or apartment for the first time. Linsley's room-by-room approach is focused, relaxed, and helpful, and she stresses repeatedly that it doesn't all have to happen at once: "Don't be in a hurry and don't be embarrassed if your house or apartment is filled with empty space for a while. Take your time." Thinking, planning, buying the pieces that are most important first--what Linsley dubs the "I-can't-live-without-a-bed" items--and living in the space for a while before deciding exactly how to fill it help ensure that each room will reflect your personal style and go easy on your overall budget.

Linsley covers all the practical aspects of choosing a room's permanent and semipermanent fixtures--wall and floor coverings, lighting, furniture, window treatments, storage, hardware, and accessories--thoroughly and sensibly, always making a case for both high quality and good value: "Comfort is more important than anything. If it looks good but feels wrong, it won't last."

She gives great rules of thumb for space planning and furniture placement (e.g., allow three feet for opening drawers, and two to three feet for pulling dining chairs away from the table). Small tips in the margins offer everything from where to find online advice for wallpapering to a list of the toll-free phone numbers for major appliance manufacturers. Perhaps the book's only weak point is the sidebar tips from professional designers, which are too brief and oblique to be truly helpful. But Linsley's own advice is so solidly on the mark as to make this a near-perfect choice not only for first-time decorators but also for those considering a new look for their living space. --Barrie Trinkle

From the Publisher:

Decorating your first home can be overwhelming -- most people don't know what they want or need, let alone where to buy it all! FIRST HOME: A Decorating Guide and Source Book for the First Time Around by Leslie Linsley is the perfect book for those just starting out on their own. The chapters lead the first-time decorator through the house, room by room, each one brimming with ideas for what to buy and where, what to do and how. From how to determine your lighting needs to where to position your bed, from how to hang a curtain to where to place a towel hook, Linsley offers instruction and suggestions in a refreshingly clear tone. There are suggestions for furniture layouts, lists of questions to ask when making purchases, and invaluable advice on how to buy household items like lamps, rugs, appliances, hard and soft furniture, and accessories.

FIRST HOME also offers numbers to call for help when using specific products, addresses for free booklets and product samples, and listings of how-to videos, computer programs, and on-line services that can help the first-time homeowner to furnish his or her home.

About this edition

• Publisher: Quill
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 068815137X
• ISBN 13: 9780688151379
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 234
• Editor: Hoeny Pam