House Beautiful Quick Changes: Fresh Looks for Every Room

by House Beautiful Magazine (Editor)

Become a “quick change” artist, with the first in a brand-new series from House Beautiful !
This stunningly photographed book brims with simple, smart suggestions for transforming any room in your house—and outdoor spaces too. Each chapter covers a different technique or style, and all the ideas require little time or money. Pick a room and add drama with a single wall painted black; quiet it down with a cleverly placed lamp; create romance with swathes of curtains and drapes in your bedroom, and much more. It's amazing—and amazingly easy!

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Interior Design, Reference

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 2013

Reviews

[Shawnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the title suggests, I was hoping for ideas to quickly jazz up a room. Didn't happen, but I came away with two lovely statements... You should have books in every room and animal print never goes out of style!

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been on an interior design kick this week, and this book was a tad more inspiring that the lot of books that I pulled from my local library.

I will argue that there is nothing quick about painting a room, reupholstering furniture, and/or adding window treatments.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas in this book. Although most of the rooms are heavily styled and often look like someone spends days dusting around the knick knacks, you will find adaptable style ideas. The photos are good and the tips from designers fun to read. This is a little book in size, not for someone who prefers their design books the size of coffee table books.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas, but the rooms are too cluttered for my taste.

[Vida · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers a number of good tips and ideas, but only about 1/4 of the book appealed to my decorating style. The rest was a bit too modern for my taste.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up some useful and simple ideas for changing things up a bit in the house

[Mary Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on the title, I thought this would have before and after photos. I always like comparing. Alas, just "afters" here. There were a few tips I thought might be helpful that I'd not heard before, but a lot of it was standard stuff. Short captions on colorful photos made Quick Changes easy to read in one evening. As many other reviewers have remarked, the styles were a bit busy for my taste and willingness to dust. A lot of propped artwork, which decorators apparently like, but which always looks to me like a person's still unpacking from a move.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got about 30 tips relevant to me from this little book. Very cute size but my decor style is not so upscale as House Beautiful - along the lines of Country Living. And I live in a very modest home so sometimes seeing big fancy home layouts really ends up depressing me. But it is a nicely done book and worthy of perusal.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few practical ideas thrown into a book with very grand examples. Still, it's always interesting to see what actual designers come up with - I did like the idea of an "armoire" bar and paint section.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos and simple ideas! There is one strange editing error where the same quote was used twice within a few pages of each other.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ideas.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rooms are too junked up. Great pictures for a book but practically speaking why would a regular person decorate this way. Nothing personal, nothing practical.

[Ilana Waters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more for the upper-class set than us "mundanes." But all in all, many of the ideas here could be extrapolated, toned down, and put to good use. :-)

[Moonbean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not everything is practical, but it makes for fun browsing.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad; quite a few good ideas. Now I just need to figure out how to incorporate some of them. I'm very visually derivative, and pretty lacking in originality.

[Pam Fullem]

This book gave me a few new ideas to update my home without major outlay of time or money. This is an "idea" type of book where you study the photos more than text. Gorgeous photographs.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a ton of ideas.

[Kevin Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many great ideas, easy to search through and find what you want. Great photos too.

[Donna Zigmont · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found some inspiration in this book.I don't have a huge budget for my bedroom project.So i'm looking for ways to reuse what I have in some different ways.This book helped immensely.

[Gwenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of ideas!