Country Living Simple Sustainable Style: Ways to Make a House Your Home
These days, the dearth of just-published interior-design books seems to signify the real-estate crunch and a real need to watch pennies and dollars. Yet home ownership is not a forgotten American dream. Country Living magazine contributor (and interior designer) Florke proves it with his tripart philosophy: a triple focus on comfort, economy, and color. Through this well-photographed series of essays (based on his real-estate properties across the Midwest and the East Coast), he continuously emphasizes how to countrify each room in the house: a rustic Iowa kitchen with an indoor birdhouse, a living room featuring side tables that accept a drink, and calm and comfortable bedrooms filled with fresh flowers and decluttering wall sconces. In each room’s chapter, sidebars frame the solutions: quick fixes (e.g., how to hide an ugly built-in bathtub) and hidden treasures, such as a retrofitted vintage radiator. Attention, too, is paid to how to shop well and frugally as well as safety in renovation. Not so much country as comfort with a capital C. --Barbara Jacobs