Country Living 500 Quick & Easy Decorating Projects & Ideas

by Dominique DeVito

         This guide is big and beautiful, with a stunning landscape format, amazing photographs, and an astounding 500 ideas on how to make a home absolutely fabulous. It’s the follow-up to the highly popular Country Living 750 series, with the same superbly organized and easy-to-follow numbered tips—a layout readers absolutely love. Every page is an inspiration, eliminating the intimidation homeowners often feel when they gaze at an empty (or dull) room, and giving them confidence in their own decorating skills. Plus, Country Living is a recognized and trusted brand, the magazine that people go to for the best in comfortable, functional style.
          As home decorators pore through the advice on making color choices, working with textures and patterns, organizing collectibles, turning found objects into functional or fanciful accessories, they’ll begin to see that the process of creating the perfect living space is an exciting adventure. And since the book is arranged to go room by room—from bedrooms to laundry rooms—they’ll be able to concentrate on whatever space they’re working on at the moment and come up with imaginative ways to renew that area. As a bonus, there’s a special chapter on seasonal decorating to help make happy holidays.

Genres: Nonfiction

480 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book attracted me because it's very colorful and well-photographed. But I should have looked closer, because I don't really think it's for me. The primary aesthetic is distressed country, which I don't love. To pull off these styles, I would have to spend the rest of my life haunting flea markets and flea markets of a much better quality than the ones I usually go to. I like the layout of the book -- by room -- and the simplicity of the layout. But according to these designers, virtually every room in the house (bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, entryway, etc.) can somehow incorporate a repurposed mantel and also a ladder. Because I have so many spare mantels lying around. Some of the decorative objects are just hideous. There's this faded clown head in one of the pictures that gives me nightmares. A bathroom design suggests that the perfect accompaniment to your antique bathtub is a vintage chenille bedspread repurposed as a shower curtain. Can you imagine the mildew? I'm supposed to pack my vintage Christmas tree ornaments in vintage egg cartons. I think that's getting pretty over the top when one's packing material has to be vintage too.

But every time I get totally turned off by the aesthetics and disgusted by the prose, then I find a page I really like. I think people who do some serious shopping at Anthropologie will probably like this book more than I did. It's not bad. It's just a matter of taste, and mostly, this isn't mine.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ack. No projects in this book--just ideas. The ideas have been recycled from several other Country Living books.

[Catherine Woodman]

This book has alot of pictures, which is something that I really liked about the book--actually, the only thing I liked about this book. It did not have many usable design ideas for me.

[Mary Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

stunning photos and groupings. would like to have a used book to make into framed wall art for every room, and season décor.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for ideas it's a good book. Not a how to.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great pictures and just enough description. I found several doable ideas!

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay.