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Book Review | Winter Living by Selina Lake

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Winter Living by Selina Lake

It might not quite be winter yet, but it is close enough! We thought it would be a great opportunity to have a look at Winter Living by Selina Lake a book we bought a few weeks back whilst bed bound with illness (the amazon app is a dangerous thing!).  In the summer we bought our first book by Selina, Botanical Style and we loved it so with thought we’d give this a go.

Winter Living offer inspiration for making you home stylish through winter. It is stuffed full of gorgeous photography and countless ideas showing you how to turn your home into a romantic winter haven. This year there have been published countless books on Hygge, the Danish art of cosiness, this book has a broader scope but it definitely fall is into this category.

The book starts off by looking at winter inspirations before guiding through various winter styles. The first is ‘Homespun Charm’ a colourful style full of craft and vintage finds to create a warm and welcoming look. Next, it is onto ‘Faded Grandeur’ all about turning the tatty into the tasteful using rich textures and tones.  The third style is ‘Rustic Retreat’ an earthy simple and natural look inspired by old barns and log cabins. Lastly is a look at  ‘Winter Whites’ a clean and classic look inspired by snowflakes morning frosts and pale skies.  The book finished up by taking a look at festive celebrations, after all, winter is party season! There is some great inspiration here on different styles to decorate for christmas, along with some great ideas for parties.

Our favourite look is definitely ‘Rustic Retreat’ but there are plenty of other ideas for us to steal once we find our new home. Winter can be a depressing enough time of year but this book reminds us that being inside can be cosy and snug, to create a haven at home to forget about how horrid it is out! It is a great addition to our book collection and we will no doubt be referring back for many winters to come!

You can buy Winter Living by Selina Lake here

Follow Selina’s Blog here

Winter Living by Selina Lake
Winter Living by Selina Lake
Winter Living by Selina Lake
Winter Living by Selina Lake

Winter Living by Selina Lake
16th November 2016
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Book Review | Country Living American Style

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Country Living American Style

We love a bit of Americana, and we are massive fans of American interior design. When we found Country Living American Style we knew it would be right up our street.  We have friends in New England and every time we visit we fall in love with the spacious and relaxed homes we visit. We try and replicate this look back in Britain, it is not always so easy to scale down designs into smaller British home.

Country Living American Style

The book is compiled by the American version of Country Living magazine. It looks at country-style the length and breadth of the country ‘from Arkansas to Oregon, Maine, Texas and everywhere between’. They start by trying to define what makes up American Style, looking at various historical influences that have contributed to the nation’s style. The book also looks at different regional styles, the best in American furniture and the use of colour and textiles.

Country Living American Style

True to the book’s magazine heritage it is peppered with side notes, little features about American producers and manufacturers and styling tips. This makes it a great coffee table book, ready with little nuggets of information and inspiration whenever you flick through. We keep on returning and finding new ideas that we can try and replicate.

Country Living American Style

The last chapter of the book is dedicated to celebrating the great American holidays. These are always of constant fascination to us from this side of the Atlantic.  It is great to get some ideas on how others go about their festivities. Due to the time of year, we are really inspired by the Halloween and thanksgiving.  We also LOVE Christmas here, and therefore we love the Country Living take on the festivities.

Country Living American Style

We are glad we have this book in our collection.  It is not the most academic study of American design, but what it lacks in text it more than makes up with hundreds of beautiful images. If like us you love American interior design Country Living American Style is a must for your bookshelf.

Country Living American Style buy here
American Country Living website

Country Living American Style
14th September 2016
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Book Review | Botanical Style by Selina Lake

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Book Review Botanical Style by Selina Lake

We spend a lot of time planning home decor, it doesn’t matter if it was our rented flat or for our ideal future home.  It is one of our passions and, in part the reason behind this blog. As well as almost single handily keeping the magazine industry going and a healthy pinterest/instagram addiction, we do love a good interiors book to scour through and find ideas that we can us.  We also like to have a stack of beautiful books on the coffee table to delve into every so often.  It is the little things in life that makes us happy!  With that in mind it brings us to todays posts, a brief review of Botanical Style by Selina Lake, our latest interiors book purchase and a goldmine of stunning inspiration.

Selina Lake is a freelance interior & lifestyle stylist (that might be Rich’s dream job!) and Botanical Style is her seventh book. We first heard of the book when Selina did a book signing at Anthropologie in Guildford, being local to us we picked up the event on social media. We were’t able to make it along but our interest was peaked and we wanted to buy a copy!

Botanical style can mean many things to many people, and to this end the book is operated in to five separate styles: Vintage Botanicals, Boho Botanicals, Industrial Botanicals, Tropical Botanicals and Natural Botanicals. Different chapters will appeal to different people. Rich loves the vintage and natural chapters, Calum like the tropical style and we both love the industrial industrial.  As well as explaining the styles in depth there are also individual style tips and little make projects. Reading the book we were itching to get out to the local garden centre to add to our already healthy supply of houseplants!

The key to a good interiors book is plenty of great photos to illustrate the ideas, the photographer, Rachel Whiting, does a great job at bringing the style to life. We’ve already spent hours pouring over every gorgeous image for inspiration, and I am sure this is a book we will return back to time and time again.

There is so much inspiration packed into this book, from romantic summer houses to tropical glamour.  For anyone with green fingers (or wishes they did) we thoroughly recommend this book, it has made us very happy!

You can buy Botanical Style by Selina Lake here

Follow Selina’s Blog here

 

Book Review of Botanical Style by Selina Lake Book Review of Botanical Style by Selina Lake Read more…

10th August 2016
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