Good Housekeeping complete home book - Linda Gray

A highly illustrated home manual and reference book suitable for everyone who wants to turn their house or flat into a comfortable, stylish and efficient home.

This comprehensive home bible teaches readers every facet of interior design and household management. Following a basic introduction to room planning and decoration, the Complete Home Book takes the reader on a guided tour, from the sitting room, kitchen and dining room, then through the hall, and up the stairs and into the bedrooms and bathrooms. It also includes offices and conservatories to reflect the importance that these rooms now have in our homes.

Each room is given a comprehensive assessment of how exactly to plan and use the space, weighing up priorities according to individual lifestyles and needs: whether it is a place to relax, a place to work or a place to play that is required. Practical matters are then considered. Which upholstery fabric to choose? Would a carpet or a wooden floor be better? What types of roller blind are available? Spreads also survey the different styles on offer to the home decorator, from country to urban and from traditional to sleek and modern.

Placed throughout the book are special 'product' spreads that look in detail at all the different types of products that are available today - from fridges, vacuum cleaners and cookers to sofas, tables and lights.

The book also includes a selection of case studies. These look at specific problems that families have had to contend with, and the solutions that have transformed their homes.

The Complete Home Book offers practical advice and inspirational ideas whatever the task in hand, be it decorating your room with flowers, creating the right light effects, choosing colour schemes and dressing windows, in fact everything you need to create a stylish yet practical home.