The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate and Live Well - Tapa dura

Under such cutely entitled concepts as Jollifers and Glamifications, this hands-on style guru gives on-trend advice about lighting, bedmaking and flower arranging. Move over Martha Stewart. 

A guide to the essential principals of home decorating...relevant to any size of home or budget.

Deborah Needleman is a terrific editor - of words, and now, of rooms and living spaces. In her very readable book, "The Perfectly Imperfect Home," the author offers her advice and expertise on a very important subject - how to make your house your home. She includes succinct advice from the great decorators, sage commentary on what to keep and what to throw away, and valuable rules for what to add to a room to make it exactly right - for you and your family.

I used to think that my taste was so irredeemable and so rooted in some kind of male, post-college, National Football League time warp - I own a green velour couch! - that no one, not even Deborah Needleman, could help me. I was wrong.

'like a well worn, favourite pair of comfy slippers. I've been savouring it'

The Perfectly Imperfect Home is a must-have guide to choosing the 80 essential items you need for furnishing and decorating your home, expertly written by Deborah Needham, founder of Domino magazine.

Featuring original watercolour illustrations of decorators’ own homes, the book sets out how to select everything from the big stuff (a doted-on bed, a couch that will last generations) to quirky accents (an interesting-looking chair, a mix of textiles on a table). It is often the individual pieces, from chairs to china, mirrors to vases, that help you to express your personality, add style and beauty to a home and make everyone in it feel comfortable, glamorous and well-cared for.

The inspiring design and approachable tone of The Perfectly Imperfect Home puts it a cut above the competition. Witty and wonderful essays and quick-reference sidebars highlight each of the 80 essentials, offering histories, offbeat uses and really useful styling tips.

Decorating a home can be intimidating, but here are 80 essentials that make it manageable and fun.