Book Review: Vintage Home

With the promise of Spring comes thoughts of a revamp, not just for our wardrobes, but for our homes too.  Whether you are living with family, renting a room, or have your own place, there are always homely touches you can add to make the space more inviting - from 'upcyling' existing items like lampshades, to wallpapering a whole room.

Creating a really individual look to reflect your tastes doesn't have to break the bank these days, as there are so many ways to recreate trends that are in fashion - shabby chic being a case in point - and there are many books to give you an inspirational starting point. One of the best of these is Sarah Moore's 'Vintage Home', which has 50 home projects, ranging from simple seasonal decorations, to the more labour-intensive application of pretty wallpapers to the 'risers' on a wooden staircase or sewing of silk scarves to create curtains.

The author is a vintage designer and writer, with her own website here that showcases her vintage inspired home accessories (available for purchase!) and links to her blog, which is full of great ideas.  Browsing around her website could turn into a Pinterest frenzy!

The book itself is a great 'coffee-table' tome, with lovely photographs printed on matt paper.  At the start of the book there's a handy introduction on what to look out for when visiting second hand shops to source materials, and there's a list of equipment that can be useful.  The book is then divided into sections, from 'pretty and practical', to 'eating and dining', 'child's play' and more.  I have to say that the section that appealed to me the most related to the eating and dining - there's even a page on how to dry herbs and make teabags.  Good, practical stuff that you can do easily without buying loads of extra things.  I particularly liked the 'four ways' approach to styling a dressing table or dining table, which really gets you thinking about how you could pull together your own interpretation perhaps using ideas from all four suggestions.

The instructions throughout are easy to follow and while with any creative projects, a degree of dexterity and artistic ability are required, I think anyone with a set of 'basic' skills in painting, sewing and the like will find the projects enjoyable and achievable.  I did notice a couple of little editorial errors in the book, such as a mistaken footer of 'eating and drinking' instead of 'eating and dining' at the bottom of the relevant section!  But that doesn't matter.  There's even a list of suppliers at the back of the book to make starting a project even easier for you.

Being a new homeowner, I've not had a lot of time to do large scale projects, but I've already made my own version of an Easter Tree, and over Christmas I used lots of natural foliage for decorations on my mantlepiece.  I'm keen to have a go at the drying of herbs next as we have a mammoth rosemary bush, and perhaps that will lead to the making of teabags and even a bit of sewing.  If nothing else, the book will give you a crafty 'itch' that you'll have to scratch one way or another!

Available from Amazon, or on Sarah's website, the book is published by Kyle Books and retails for £17.99.  I think it would make the perfect gift for the crafty vintage lover.

I was kindly sent a copy of the book to review, but as always, views are my own!

And don't forget, I'm having a giveaway of John Frieda products - please enter to be one of three lucky winners!