Showing titles in Home Design & Renovation

Even if you live in the city and have never gardened or raised livestock you CAN become self-sufficient. Homesteading for Beginners will help you develop a realistic plan and budget and provide the resources you need to begin down the path to self-reliance.

With tips from leading experts in every field, The Little Book of Life Skills is the practical guide on how to solve the trickiest tasks in your day and make life a little easier. We all have areas of our lives that make us feel disorganised, unprepared or stressed out. From creating a calmer morning routine to setting yourself up for a good night's sleep, and everything in between, there are easy and proven ways to do things better. 

Nearly every US city would like to be more walkable - for reasons of health, wealth, and the environment - yet few are taking the proper steps to get there. The goals are often clear, but the path is seldom easy. Jeff Speck’s follow-up to his best-selling Walkable City is the resource that cities and citizens need to usher in an era of renewed street life. Walkable City Rules is a doer’s guide to making change in cities, and making it now.    

From one of Fine Homebuilding's best-loved authors, Larry Haun, comes a unique story that looks at American home building from the perspective of twelve houses he has known intimately. Part memoir, part cultural history, A Carpenter's Life as Told by Houses takes the reader house by house over an arc of 100 years.

Internationally known for their sailing adventures, in 1980 - fresh from an 11-year journey where they forged the early years of their marriage on high seas and in exotic locales - Lin and Larry Pardey came to California looking for a good spot to build a boat, test Lin's skills as a writer, and taste the apparent security life ashore could offer.

One of the great, but often unmentioned, causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kind of walls, chairs, buildings, and streets we’re surrounded by. And yet a concern for architecture and design is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. The Architecture of Happiness starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be - and argues that it is architecture’s task to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential.

Welcome to The Barbizon, New York's premier women-only hotel. Built in 1927, New York's Barbizon Hotel was first intended as a home for the 'Modern Woman' seeking a career in the arts. It became the place to stay for ambitious, independent women, who were lured by the promise of fame and good fortune. The Barbizon is a colourful, glamorous portrait of the lives of these young women, who came to New York looking for something more. It's a story of pushing the boundaries, of women's emancipation and of the generations of brilliant women who passed through its halls. 

Simple, practical advice on how to design your home for health and happiness. Create a healthy, happy home with 100 design ideas to support your physical and mental wellbeing. Using the latest evidence and research in wellbeing and Biophilic Design, learn how to transform every space in your home to create a restorative and nurturing environment. Discover the many benefits of connecting to nature, maximising natural light, improving air quality and the right way to add colour, texture and pattern to create spaces that improve relaxation, recuperation, social connections and sleep. 

Melissa Maker is beloved by fans all over the world for her completely reengineered approach to cleaning. As the dynamic new authority on home and living, Melissa knows that to invest any of our precious time in cleaning, we need to see big, long-lasting results. So, she developed her method to help us get the most out of our effort and keep our homes fresh and welcoming every day.

Building a new house requires a lot of foresight—things will go wrong and the plan will most likely find itself derailed at one point or another. Although this is in many ways a natural occurrence, it doesn't have to be in any way catastrophic. With the right plan in place and a detailed map of how to progress through the entire process, no matter the curveballs you encounter, you’ll be able to seamlessly get back into the flow of things. It’s one thing to have the skills, but it’s another thing entirely to be able to apply them in a way that produces results.

Today, we’re constantly being bombarded with pictures of perfection, so it’s easy to think that there’s something wrong with you. But what if instead of comparing yourself to all the people who have bigger houses, more money, more friends, more sex—in other words, things you can’t control—you could re-focus on the things you can do something about?

Every 24 minutes, someone somewhere in Britain starts an extension on their house. Regrettably, a shocking number of these building projects ends in total disaster.

When you know where and how to add those attractive designer touches, you'll attract more buyers, and sell your home quicker for a higher price. Think about it; then you'll be able to start all over with another fun design adventure. So, are you ready to join us and embark on one of the most creative and rewarding endeavors you could imagine? Good! We're ready to help you find that perfect balance between comfort, beauty, and excitement.

What will it take to restore balance to our world, repair past injustices, and support future generations' survival? Looking deeply into the web of life that created and supports us, and drawing inspiration from diverse cultural traditions and perspectives, spirited thinkers Michael Pawlyn and Sarah Ichioka propose a bold set of regenerative principles with potential to transform how we design, make, and manage our buildings; infrastructure; and communities.

Many of us dream of a renovation project, but few would be brave enough to take on a 8,200-square-foot, 30-room, 5-storey Georgian mansion on only a shoestring budget. But that's exactly what Greg Penn did, buying the near-derelict Admiral's House and embarking on an ambitious restoration plan. In this inspirational, informative book, Greg tells the story of his remarkable home, its journey to restoration and the deep history the house and surrounding area offer, alongside snippets of advice, budget-friendly tools and hacks and an exploration of each room as he's unlocked history.

In this mesmerizing memoir-in-essays, New York Times best-selling author Erica Bauermeister renovates a trash-filled house in eccentric Port Townsend, Washington, and in the process takes listeners on a journey to discover the ways our spaces subliminally affect us. A personal, accessible, and literary exploration of the psychology of architecture, this book is designed for homeowners, remodelers, and those who are simply curious about how our built environments shape who we become.

Interior design is not just about picking the right furniture or the best colors out there for your walls. It’s about turning something ordinary into something spectacular. In fact, the right spaces with rejuvenating colors and an organized interior can help reduce stress, improve relationships, and truly bring you a better quality of life.

How to Clean Everything is full of genuinely useful tips and tricks, and advice about not just what but also what not to do. Covering everything from laundry to accidents, and cleaning room by room, this audiobook also contains sections on more general household maintenance, particularly useful for renters or anyone living away from home for the first time. Ann's approach is realistic, reassuring and easy to follow, whatever your circumstances.

The green-building movement has produced hundreds of "how-to" books and websites that are filled with tips about green building and what homeowners should do to go green. While helpful and informative, when it comes to making actual purchasing and installation decisions, these books do not make it any easier for a homeowner to prioritize against a budget. Here, Melisssa Rappaport Schifman shares her knowledge and experience for others to use in their journey toward a greener way of living.

You don't have to live in your dream house to make your living spaces feel more like home. Home is meant to be a place to belong. A place to gather and connect. A place of beauty. A place to restore your soul. In Restoration House, author and designer Kennesha Buycks will encourage you to embrace your home and your story so you can create mindful spaces that give life to you, your loved ones, and all who enter.