Nina Campbell's Decorating Secrets: Easy Ways to Achieve the Professional Look - Hardcover

"A room may be crammed with hideous furniture, be painted in shrieking shapes or have the sort of patterned carpet that makes you feel giddy, but you have to rise above this and see only the structure that lies underneath," says decorator Nina Campbell. In Nina Campbell's Decorating Secrets, the acclaimed British interior designer takes you through the most integral steps of home decorating, room by room.

Nina Campbell's signature design is "layering," which means every element--the furniture, wall coverings, carpet, lighting, accessories--should complement each other and the overall scheme of the room. She starts with the hall, the first impression of your home, then moves into the drawing and sitting rooms, the dining room, the kitchen, the study and library, the bedrooms, and then the bathrooms. Campbell uses her own home and other posh London residences as her examples, but you may not have this many rooms, the wallet, or the will to acquire them; however, you can still come away with ideas for your own home. The style she prefers is lush, rich, and elegant but some may find a Campbell-decorated home overstuffed and ornate. Whether or not you're a fan of chintz, you can still find inspiration from her thoughtful process, her emphasis on harmony between function and aesthetics, and her insistence on a comfortable home in which you can have both private retreats and areas for entertaining. "Your home is an extension of your personality," she says, "and it is this that you want to capture when putting your decorative scheme together." --Dana Van Nest

Interior decoration has never been more popular, yet at the end of the day few people achieve the look they envision when they start a room. Now renowned English decorator Nina Campbell shares the secrets that have brought her world acclaim, offering a step-by-step design strategy that will help turn your original ideas into a beautiful reality.

Nina Campbell's Decorating Secrets is a practical decorating guide based on Nina's unique "layering" approach of combining the different elements in any given room -- from furniture and lighting to pictures and flowers -- to create a unified scheme. The first section covers such basics as determining what you want out of a room, how to assess a particular space with an eye toward natural light and existing architectural details, and why rooms need focal points and how to create one. Next, she walks you through the main rooms of a home and addresses the key decorating decisions for each one, such as choosing the right colors and fabrics to create a certain mood, deciding what to put on the walls and floors, and how to properly position the furniture. This is the heart of the book and where her "layering" philosophy really takes effect. Finally, the last section examines the all-important finishing touches, such as display items and soft furnishings, that add a personal feel to any room.

Lavishly illustrated with two hundred stunning full-color photographs and written in a lively anecdotal style, Nina Campbell's Decorating Secrets is an enjoyable and practical resource.