Small Living Spaces, Big Decorating Ideas

You want to redecorate your home or apartment, but the only decorating ideas you can find are for individual rooms that are bigger than your entire home!  Take heart, the Home Neighborhood at Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library has books that will help you. The ideas and options presented in these books can be used in single family homes, apartments, lofts and duplexes.

House Beautiful: The Apartment Book has great ideas for decorating.  It does not matter if you have a small studio or a huge loft or if you rent or own your apartment or home.   No matter where you live, you want the space to be comfortable and reflect who you are.  Small changes or complete remodeling, check this book out for great ideas.

Freelance writer, Lourdes Dumke, is a self-taught budget-decorating expert.  How to decorate & furnish your apartment on a budget helps the reader think about the goals to be achieved with redecorating, and helps them achieve those goals.  Dumke’s book is full of wonderful ideas on how to get organized, how to develop a decorating budget, where to shop, and how to create a comfy, well-decorated home.

Architect and author, James Gauer and architecture photographer, Catherine Tighe’s beautiful book, The New American Dream: living well in small homes, is an ode to living in small, beautifully-appointed homes.  Gauer believes in the Miesian philosophy of “less is more”.  He critiques the current state of home architecture which can be described as “less is a bore” and proposes alternatives to the ostentatious McMansions of today.  Tighe’s photographs perfectly illustrate the beauty of simplicity in small-space design as advocated by Gauer.  The New American Dream is not a how-to book in the traditional sense, but it will guide you in creating a beautiful home.

These books and many more are in the Home Neighborhood @your library®.