# Please Reccmmend a Book on Decorating

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-reccmmend-a-book-on-decorating/450430>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 24, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-reccmmend-a-book-on-decorating/450430 "2008-05-24T00:24:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-reccmmend-a-book-on-decorating/450430/1 "2008-05-24T00:24:18Z")

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Sometime in the next six months or so, it looks like I’m going to be faced with decorating a home of my own. The problem is, I know nothing about how to do so. Can someone please recommend a book or two which talks about how to go about it? I don’t mean something which will tell me how to achieve a perfect French Colonial look. I want something which will tell me if what I like is French Colonial or something completely different. I’d rather like to have rooms which actually have things which go together nicely, rather than a hopelessly eclectic hodgepodge.

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**Author:** ![PerditaX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@PerditaX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PerditaX)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-reccmmend-a-book-on-decorating/450430/2 "2008-05-24T13:00:05Z")

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I’m in the same boat - we’re closing in about 3 weeks! I’m about 75% excited and 25% scared sh\*tless! 😃

I picked up _Home Decorating for Dummies_ and found that it had a lot of good advice, for all price-ranges. It explains the different styles (with illustrations! 🙂 ), explains how colors and patterns work and how they go together, and shows how to play up a room’s strengths and minimize its weaknesses. I’d recommend it.

Congrats on the new home, and good luck!

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**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-reccmmend-a-book-on-decorating/450430/3 "2008-05-24T15:05:15Z")

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Weirdly, years ago, before I had a place to decorate, I picked up a 1940s book on how to decorate. It turned out to be really good on describing how to think about decorating a house. I’m pretty sure that [this](http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Home-Decorating-Hazel-Rockow/dp/0548388423/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211641077&sr=8-15) is a paperback reprint.

It is missing information on what to do with home electronics and wires. But other than that, it has helped me think about what I should be doing even if I haven’t quite finished doing it yet.