Book Review ~ Nell Hill's Style At Home

In 1981, those of us who can't decide on just one "style" got lucky when Mary Carol Garrity opened her eclectic store called "Nell Hill" (named after her Grandmother) in Atchison, Kansas.
Garrity says she attracts customers with a unique product mix offered at competitive prices. "I like to think we work a little harder and dig a little deeper to stock interesting items." she explains.

Then in 2001, the same afore mentioned indecisive folks got lucky again when she wrote a 123 page book titled "Style At Home", making it easy to combine the

things we love that we formerly were taught don't always "go" together. In five chapters, she not only shows us every corner and vignette of her store (now expanded to three stores!) but her home as well, to give us ideas and permission to combine un-like styles!

Chapters include: Layers and Backdrops, Setting Still Lifes, Fabric Moods, Walls and Pictures and Romancing The Home,

each with plenty of color photos and tips on displaying our cherished treasures. It's definitely a "more is more" concept that keeps the eye flowing through a room!

As she states, "When someone visits a room I've had anything to do with, it usually takes a while to drink in the whole scene." You'll find yourself examining each photo for things you can try in your own home. (Make sure you see how she cleverly displays things in spaces you didn't know you had!)

In the back of the book is a further education on her Golden Rules of decorating and the use of each room in your home, 10 items that she has multiple uses for, and lists of even more tips on accessories, layering, quick changes and

seven decorating myths to happily ignore!

Who would like this book? Someone who can see the beauty in a huge gold framed mirror just as easily as the beauty of a white paint-chipped armoire. Someone who wants to be freed of having to choose sides when it comes to cottage, French, rustic and all the other styles we collect as we go through different stages in our lives! Someone who loves it all and wants to be surrounded by it!

This book will open the eyes, take the hand and whisper "welcome home" in the ears of everyone who has collections of unique items.

Nell Hill's Style At Home

Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City

ISBN: 0-7407-1874-6

Hardback $27.95 USA

Flea Market Finds

You need this book. Why? Your first clue is: you look around your house and find it hard to find a flat surface to fold your laundry. Did you say "Yes"?

Yeah, we heard you. Don't be ashamed my fellow Roomie. It's only an outward sign that your brain has lots of ideas! Now it's time to go "Jefferson" with those ideas and move on up to the next stage of actually DOING something with them.

This book takes "old hat" and makes it new again!

You already know where to find the goods if you're in need. (Hey--we've got these old windows in the shop right now!)

And these look really familiar too!

But if you've already got linens, trays, furniture, china (yes, keep going)....

or a collection of unusually cool stuff

that you want to utilize in a completely new way for a one-of-a-kind look that will knock your friend's (or your own) socks off

then YOU, my true blue Roomie friend, NEED this book! There are 160 pages waiting to help you turn your finds into something fabulous. Not only are there are TONS of projects, but clear instructions on HOW to transform them.

Get green and use that fireplace screen!

See this garden border made of chipped china plates? This is something I've always wanted to do myself.

But if I found some busted-up plates, this would be the next project on my list:

You'll be a fan soon enough!

On a scale of 1-4 (one for each chamber of my DIY heart) this soft-cover book gets a four! Priced at $19.95, it's a FIND in itself!

Flea Market Finds: Instant Ideas & Weekend Wonders. Published by Leisure Arts (http://www.leisurearts.com/) ISBN:1-57486-246-4

Vintage Vavoom

When this book came out about a year ago, it was given its own party! I asked for it and received it as my Mother’s Day gift! Its 217 pages are packed with luscious bliss, multiple full-color photos, and tons of tips. If sweets were a treat for your eyes, THIS is what they would look like!

There are eight organized chapters to help keep your swirling mind on track. It covers everything from what you might already collect to how to care for whatever you’re about to buy. Included at the end of every chapter is a “Dream Diary Workshop” with 3 - 5 exercises to help you discover your personal vavoom preferences. Each chapter is sugared with how-to’s: paint a floor, mixing styles, color combinations, the basics to shop for, and so, so, so much more.

I suggest you keep a notebook nearby to jot down the informative bits served to you as you find them, because there is so much to look at, you’ll forget where you first saw it!

On a scale of 1 – 4 (one for each chamber of my heart) this book gets a FIVE! I think with all the eye-popping, heart-thumping photos, I may have developed an extra chamber! It’s a little pricey at $35.00, but check with your local library to see if, like mine, they have it, before you decide to buy. One look and I guarantee, you'll want it to vavoom your room!


Vintage Vavoom: Decorating With One Of A Kind Finds / the editors of Romantic Homes Magazine. Published by Random House/Potter, ISBN 978-0-307-38274-0

Country Living Storage Style

On a scale of 1 - 4 (one for each chamber of my heart) this book gets a 4! It's been a while since a home decorating book has filled my heart with such love! Yes, it's about the practical subject of storage, but it's also about using vintage pieces to store (and organizationally display) the myriad of needful not-always-so-pretty objects we use in everyday life. From the five glossy photo-filled chapters for each room in the home, be it a mansion or small cottage, it was impossible to pick a favorite. Heck, I found an idea on page 2 that I've already put to use at home: I'm using an old wall plate rack to store my favorite books and magazines!!! There is page after page of colorful ideas, and in each chapter, there is a photo of a room where they point out and label five storage ideas cleverly used in the room that you could easy incorporate into your own rooms! It doesn't get any easier than that!

Huh? What's that you say? You wish you had some of the cool pieces like in the book to use in your own home, sweet home? Well, sharpen your pencil and mark these dates on your calender:

March 19, 20, 21 & 22 -- those are the next sale dates when all the Roomies will be gathering at Room With A Past to get the goods! Until then, get your hands on this book (Hearst Books ISBN 13:978-1-58816-660-9), get some ideas and get your heart pumping on all four chambers!