Jean Nayar

This gets one of the highest ratings of any of the many books I've read that do crafts or decor. ?áThe crafts for mostly functional items, and are generally quite easy and affordable, some are even true 'upcycle' & recycle,?áand they include ones I've not seen ?áthe likes of elsewhere. ?áThey are laid out in a nice recipe format, with the tools listed as well as the materials. ?áVariations are either offered or obvious - few are nitpicky or fussy.

In the middle there's a chapter called Artful Collections which is a little different - no recipes, just a bunch of ideas for displaying your treasures. ?áWe see the same info. online (my favorite is Apartment Therapy) and so those of us familiar with vignettes and gallery walls aren't as likely to get much out of this.

But I did mark 5 places elsewhere in the book:

chic pouf - from a cheap wastebasket and a remnant of upholstery fabric

chic folding screen - they hinged together three fabric-wrapped hollow-core doors, but I could just cover insulating foam from Lowe's

felt ottoman cover - use yarn to blanket stitch the edges and make a cute cover for any box easily (yes, I 'gift wrap' shoe boxes ?áto make storage boxes and have for decades, but that does use a fair bit of extra cloth or fabric, and besides, felt or even, say, bandannas don't need to be hemmed or cut if they're the right size)

painted floorcloth - I have seen this idea elsewhere but not in a book, only online, and none of the recipes were as clear to follow as this, nor the pictured example so cute

plant stand - ok, it's a ladder converted to shelving, which is online all over the place, but again I like the particular recipe and picture here.

I promise you, if I owned a home and could do some of the wall treatments and garden crafts, I'd buy this. ?áI'm grateful for libraries and photocopiers for the ideas I above.


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