June 2023 MBR The Interior Design Shelf

The Interior Design Shelf

The Handbook of Home Design
Laura Jane Clark
Kyle Books
c/o Octopus Books
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781914239267, $26.99

https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Home-Design-step-step/dp/1914239261

The Handbook of Home Design: An Architect's Blueprint for Shaping Your Home offers budget-minded home designers solutions to common remodeling and building issues. It represents architect Laura Jane Clark's years of working within budgets of all kinds. Clark takes a step-by-step approach to the process, teaching new homeowners and budding designers the basics of reading a plan, sketching a workable design, understanding technical requirements, and using the appropriate language and instructions to get the most from the home renovation effort. Full-page color photo examples accompany considerations of flow, zoning spaces, and tackling ancillary spaces in homes, and are powerful keys to understanding the basics of home remodeling options and the revitalization processes that work. Libraries and homeowners alike will find The Handbook of Home Design an empowering guide.

Create at Home With Old & New
Ali Heath
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Books
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781784728557, $39.99

https://www.amazon.com/Create-At-Home-Old-New/dp/1784728551

Create at Home With Old & New will reach interior design artists and collections catering to them with a focus on juxtaposing antiques with modern pieces to create displays that seamlessly integrate and old new design pieces and concepts. Specially commissioned photography provides a visual key to understanding and absorbing these concepts, which appear in three sections: Establishing Your Style, Developing Your Eye, and Inspiring Your Journey. These neatly separate the basic concepts of employing Ali Heath's unique style, allowing readers to easily identify and tap into their creative impulses to get started on their own projects, define unique approaches to mixing antique and modern pieces, and learn from others who have successfully integrated these ideas. The colorful approach and displays make Create at Home With Old & New a delightful display and a lesson that should be in any arts library.

Interior Motives
Debbe Daley
Advantage Media
https://advantagemedia.com
9781642256499, $16.99, PB, 146pp

https://www.amazon.com/Interior-Motives-Designing-Career-Passion/dp/1642256498

Synopsis: "Interior Motives: Designing a Career With Passion" takes the reader on a journey through Debbe Daley's attempt to establish a career as an interior designer in the New England area. Along the way, Daley offers readers insight into the role that negativity plays in keeping people from doing what they love.

"Focusing on the monetary costs of the change we want to make is one of the most convincing ways that we set up obstacles for ourselves", Daley writes, before offering readers a hearty dose of encouragement. " If you want to do something that's going to make you happy, there will always be alternative paths than the first ones (or the easiest or fastest or most expensive ones) you imagine. There are always other avenues to take. The important thing is committing to taking the journey, believing that it's worthwhile, getting on that path in some way or other, and seeing where it goes. "

Daley's career narrative is intricately interwoven with stories of family, friends, and love, and even offers readers a unique take on design industry challenges. She tracks a field undergoing its own major transitions from the 1980s, "...when a room full of traditionally trained designers gasped at the suggestion that there would be a major shift within the profession away from a more formal aesthetic," to the 2020s, where she joins, "a room full of relaxed and talented young people dancing and celebrating everything that was new and different about the design world."

Having made her way in life and career by laying claim to the value of hard work and independence, Daley leaves readers with an equally convincing message about the need for entrepreneurs to be surrounded by people who can push them forward, keep them learning and engaged, and cheer on their successes. "In the end, there's no going it alone," she writes, reminding her readers that answering the question, "What is going to make me happy?" always involves and reflects our relationships to the people closest to us.

Critique: Nicely illustrated and inherently interesting, "Interior Motives: Designing a Career With Passion" is exceptionally well written and fascinating read as it showcases a wealth of positive insights into what it was like for Debbe Daley to launch a career in the field of interior design and how she discovered what was required for not only success but self- fulfillment and personal happiness. While a highly recommended pick for community library Contemporary American Biography/Memoir collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists (especially for those with an interest in becoming an interior designer themselves) that "Interior Motives: Designing a Career With Passion" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

Editorial Note: Debbe Daley (https://www.debbedaleydesigns.com) is an award-winning interior designer with more than thirty-five years' experience. She started her career as a self-taught designer making custom window treatments. Today, she is known for the extraordinary service she provides to homeowners in New England and around the country. She is an associate member of the American Society of Interior Designers, and a member of the National Speakers Association and the International Furnishings and Design Association.

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