Or Nomad – Bringing Your Travels Home is the title of Sibella Court’s latest book. It’s a photographic collection of travel shots and styled spaces. She has globetrotted and treasure-hunted to Japan, Italy, India, Syria and Mexico. Each place make a flavour with colour palettes and misc. stories. Room settings are inspired by ideas, photos and mementos, showing that any decorative background can be restyled with travel touches.

I realized I haven’t written a review about Sibella Court’s book Etcetera, but in comparison, Nomad is (imho) much more interesting. While Etcetera represents what I regard as typical Sibella Court-style – the glass jars, treasures from the bottom of the ocean, and ethnic-eclectic on smokey white vintage backdrops – Nomad takes a global step forward and delivers insprition from all over the world, still Sibella Court-ish and very likeable. My personal favourite among the exotic interior travels in the book is, at least after a first glance, Mexico!

Decorating a home is – like many other things in life -  a journey. But one needs not go travelling all around the globe in order to embrace the globetrotter approach to interior style. No tickets needed, just open this book and indulge! Or any other book, or movie or people’s home or nature or whatever inspires you. It is actually, in Sibella Court’s words, a matter of seeing things in a new way. And bringing it home. Sibella’s decor philosophy is about adding and subtracting, rearranging and recycling, transforming and rethinking a space to reflect your personality, lifestyle and adventures. The ideas can be as simple as painting a wall or creating a new ‘art wall’ or layering different textiles on your bed or hanging a new piece of fabric over your window. What the book Nomad wants to do, and does, is help open your eyes and fuel your imagination. After all, decor is all about stories and things reflecting you and your life. After reading Nomad, I feel the need for a touch of Mexico in my home.

And I’ve updated my top 5 of places I’d like to travel to:

1. New Orleans, Nashville & Memphis (by a big American car, listening to Townes Van Zandt and June Carter)
2. Clearwater Beach, Florida (for a loooong sunny vacation)
3. Paris (been there once, 20 years ago; must go back and stroll along the bridges nighttime)
4. Sri Lanka (the land of my brother-in-law)
5. Buenos Aires (to exercise the Argentine tango)

Where would you love to travel? And would you bring it home? :)

Now I’m back from an absolutely wonderful stay in London. Will show some smashingly trendey pics on Saturday, i.e. on Trendey’s birthday! As always when in London, I vistited dear Anthropologie at Regent Street and there I realized there’s a super-interesting book I hadn’t read: Creative Walls by Geraldine James. The book has the undertitle How to display and enjoy your treasured collections, but is not one of those How-To-books with rules and instructions – it’s just a pack of highly interesting ideas! I really like Mrs James’s be-yourself-attitude as well as the bohemian and eclectic looks of it all.

Wall displays and frame grouping is definitely one of the most interesting home decor features imho. Like nothing else and it can give life, meaning and personality to a home. And it can be done in zillions of ways. Furthermore, it don’t have to cost much, well in terms of creativity but not in terms of money. So is Mrs James’ passion to create beauty from nothing. A crucial element in this book is also her statement that “cold minimalism has its place, but not at my place”. (couldn’t agree more :)) This is my favourite photo from the book:

Beautifulness! A stairway can hardly be more attractive. Of course in this business, there is an obvious obstacle: it is hard to find those bits you want to decorate the wall with. I guess it can take a lifetime to collect them. Nevertheless, it should be worth the effort. Other nice inspiration in this book includes brilliant displays in bathrooms (example to the left below), and pictured right: prints hung with clips. Yupp, I really like this book!

Hang tight for Saturday’s treat.

The last couple of weeks, my regular sources of inspiration (such as magazines, blogs, etc) haven’t injected the regular dose of excitement. I think maybe I’ve had a bit more than I can chew :) Nevertheless, during the year passed I’ve decorated more than ever. Had more creative thoughts than feasible. Our home is funnier than ever! And over and over again, I find new inspiring books. This is one of them, published in 2008: New London Style by Chloe Grimshaw; photography by Ingrid Rasmussen. Just next to Undecorate in my compartment of favourites, this book features the homes of some of London’s most exciting young talents from the music, fashion, design and art scenes.

The interiors have been put under the heading “New London Style” but it’s not a showy parade of ‘taste’ nor a rulebook or instruction on pretty – it’s a book full of creativity. I adore the kitchen above, it gives me so much inspiration! I’d take it right-a-way…Many of the interiors are pretty simple, or rather effortless, relaxed. With my love for beige-ish walls, I think this scene is lovely.

Though superbly edited, it’s the charm and sensible personal choices (i.e. the photos!) that matters in this book. Style varies throughout the book, and there is no glossy quest for perfection – which makes it spellbinding to study: there’s something interesting to consider in almost every photo! Like this one, who lives in this room below?

thrifty chic. Interior style on a shoestring is a book by Liz Bauwens and Alexandra Campbell. Unlike this spring’s fresh new book Undecorate, Thrifty Chic has been around for a while, both as a book (from 2009) and as a (partly overridden) concept. This beautiful book is packed with re-ideas. It shows you how to “reuse and restore, revive and revamp, and recycle and reclaim”, in order to create a stylish yet individual home without spending a small fortune.

As you can see already by the cover, the overall style is relaxed country – and vintage charm is all around. The concept of thrifty chic (and same meaning related concepts) is highly sustainable. Inspiration on how to paint up a tatty old chest, cut old curtains into cushions or give an old chair new life by means of some fabric – will never grow old and mossy. Reusing, restoring, reviving and revamping are things creative people have practiced for centuries and that – nicely enough – will contribute to less consumption and environmental destruction as it includes being cautious with both money and property. As if that weren’t enough, this book is pure beautifulness. It’s friendly written with lots of insider advices. This is one of my favourite photos from the book (photography by Simon Brown):

Gorgeous. All these furniture and stuff came from auctions, thrift stores and local sales.

The book has a feature on colour in hallways I found really interesting too (p.34-35), and some beyond lovely photos of thrifty bathrooms. See p. 118-127 for more pics and great advices on 2nd hand sanitaryware, etc.

It’s a must-have in the design book collection!

Lets say a few words about the fresh new interior design book Decorate by Holly Becker & Joanna Copestick; with the undertitle 1 000 inspirational design ideas for every room in your house. First of all, the title does not lie! This is nothing less than a resource book on decorating. It is completely packed with insightful decorating ideas & advices and masses of beautiful and inspirational photos…

| UK cover left and the gorgeous US cover right, together with a glimpse |

This book collects, organizes and features numerous contemporary interior styles and tricks – and pairs it with rich descriptions, advices and initiated quotes. There are guidelines and even space planning layouts included. Though the latter – probably a helpful tool for many – was information overload to my little brain. It’s related to the only drawback (or rather inconvenience) with this book: it makes decorating seem truly complicated and technical. Then again, the book is loaded and such books need to be chewed in bits. Carefully digested.

The book is divided into four sections and my favourite (so far) is Setting Your Style. This section features interesting case studies of many and different styles. Very nicely captured, spot-on and highly interesting.

One can not simply wish for more in a book called Decorate! It meets and exceeds expectations. Well apart from the overload there is one tiny thing my inner voice can’t stop me to say – and bear with me now, I was born and bred in Sweden -

Now, the comparison is inevitable: how do I choose between the two fresh new books in the stands with the contradictory titles Decorate and Undecorate? With major contradictions going down to the very core of the decorating approach?

It has hardly escaped the avid reader of interior design blogs that DwellStudio Founder & Creative Director Christiane Lemieux has published a book called Undecorate. With the appealing subtitle The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design. I got my copy the other day and first of all: the book is definitely a decorative object in itself! But that’s still not the primary benefit of the book. Undecorate is a homage to personal and heartfelt interior design. In a beautiful way it draws upon today’s [or tomorrow's if you live in Sweden ;)] trendiest and most valued interior design ideal: the lived-in, unfussy, creative imperfection. The book features twenty homes which all have the highly interesting and precious trait that they could only be the home of the person who decorated it – so much does each home reflect and enhance the individual(s) it contains. It’s a sweet but definite goodbye to the practise of buying ‘style’ from a know-it-all interior designer. Instead, this book invite you to decorate – or more specifically to undecorate; to follow your own instinct even when it’s telling you to do something a little crazy, a little different; even something against the ‘interior design rules’…

Still undecorating as a (or Lemieux’s) concept, is not haphazard style; it’s not thought-free. At all. It’s about being guided by something other than the traditional constraints. To be your own guide. Though just like its neighbour the creative, personal, quirky and eclectic style it’s not totally trend-free or without its own standards – it points to some direction, at least. Yet the ‘undecorating’ philosophy has an inherent freedom. It says a lot of yes and no no’s. It has a no-rules approach. If you love polka dots and feel you want to paint your rooms polkadotty, yes you should! If you want your living room to feel like a decadent Paris club…OR even ;) if you want your kitchen to look like an emergency room – yes! If those surroundings make you happy. And no, the book didn’t say those last things, but it inspires you in that direction. My personal favourite of the houses featured is under the heading “Life Imitates Art”. A New Englander has created a California home full of beauty and personality. It’s a mishmash of styles and periods with personal connection as a unifying link. It’s even a bit circusy, which I love (and now I know that love certainly has some connection to the fact that I used to ride a unicycle as a child).

Very inspiring, just like the entire book. It can be read many times over and in between readings it’s an attractive addition to the decor – if you love decor books!