Lovable Livable Home

July 20, 2015
The Petersiks (Young House Love) continue their family-friendly, do-it-yourself home decorating with this ambitious sourcebook of ideas, advice, and inspiration for “getting more organized, adding beauty, staying within your budget, and squeezing more function, meaning and personality out of your home.” Organized by activity spaces (e.g., eating, sleeping), the book provides suggestions for adding color, texture, pattern, and character into each room of the house. Being creative is made accessible with step-by-step instructions for such projects as decorative wall doodles, painted furniture (a lace-stenciled thrift store table is pretty and practical), and hand-painted hanging plates. The authors recommend families ditch DIY for “DIT (Do It Together)” and provide suggestions for getting the kids involved in decorating their rooms. The book’s overall style is youthful, modern, and budget-sensitive, with comfortable, highly functional rooms that are not overdecorated. The authors hit the mark on relaxed living in theory and execution. More ambitious or experienced do-it-yourselfers will want to look else for inspiration, however.

September 15, 2015

Husband-and-wife duo the Petersiks began blogging (Young House Love) to chronicle the remodeling of their first home, eventually writing a book with the same title. Now after remodeling their third home, the authors visit U.S. families, including their own, to show how to create a comfortable, stylish abode to accommodate families (and their pets) of all sizes, ages, and physical limitations. Over 300 color photographs demonstrate how these DIYers personalize and organize their living, eating, sleeping, washing, entry, working, and play spaces. Included are a number of simple projects. The results of a 35,000-participant survey about lifestyles and living spaces are interspersed throughout the book, which concludes with a detailed source list for every photograph. VERDICT The clever ideas developed by these amateurs that adapt to the needs of busy families will motivate others to tackle their own spaces.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.