Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

home-&-garden-book-reviews

Full Text:

HOME & GARDENS: Book Reviews

(with book covers)

By Joanne Greco Rochman

New Englanders are quick to notice the signs of spring. They seek out the shy

crocus and red-breasted robin, and they look for light that spills long into

evening.

Add to this list the long-awaited, achingly anticipated new harbinger of New

England Springs -- the perennial tag sale. No sooner does the calendar read

the third week of March, when tell-tale, home-made signs proclaim "garage,"

"cellar," "attic," "moving" and "neighborhood" varieties of the classic

"let's-make-a-deal" tag sale. It's only natural that New Englanders would be

push-overs for flea markets and tag sales because they enjoy the excitement of

the hunt and acquisition as much as recycling tossed away objects.

The question is what do you do with the "stuff" once you acquire it? Since

being in "mint" condition is not always the reason an object attracts your

fancy, then what do you do when you get it home? Before you even begin to fix

it up, strip it, or gloss it over, you have to decide if you're going to use

it to furnish your indoor living quarters or outdoor living space?

Liz Wagstaff, a London-based artist and interior decorator who has designed

sets, props and costumes for theater and opera, has come up with a must-have

book for flea-market and tag sale shoppers as well as craft-inclined hobbyists

and anyone living on a shoestring budget.

Furniture Facelifts: A Paint Recipes Book is a step by step guide to revamping

furniture for indoor or outdoor use. Published by Chronicle Books, this

publication flaunts a recipe-style format, inspiring photographs, and a

wipe-clean cover. You won't want to start a project without it.

One exciting project is an exercise in decoupage that uses "aged" music scores

to turn an old chest of drawers into a classical accent piece. Using the

"Basic Recipe -- Aged Paper on Antique White," the author introduces you to

tea and coffee as dyes. Decoupage also works beautifully on old tables.

Wagstaff advises that though two coats of polyurethane varnish is sufficient

for indoor use, marine varnish is the smart choice for outdoor use.

Whether punching design on tin, working with mosaic tiles or turning old

trunks into comfortable and colorful window seats, you'll find this book

indispensable when it comes to giving new life to old objects.

Packed with quick and easy techniques for fabric, wood, metal and glass,

Furniture Facelifts by Liz Wagstaff and illustrator/designer Mark Thurgood has

192 pages, includes 200 color photos and sells for $19.95.

Painted Furniture

Another book that deals with turning ordinary furniture into extraordinary

creations with paint, pattern and color is Painted Furniture by Katrin Cargill

with photographs by David Montgomery. This gorgeous hardcover publication

brings the outdoors to the indoors through patterns found in nature. Folk

flowers, sunbursts, and sprigs of forest fern are easy to transfer shapes and

designs that give indoor tables and chairs, mirrors and accent pieces a close

to nature, outdoor look.

The appeal of motifs drawn from nature is universal, whether it is flowers,

leaves, or grasses. Their attractive shapes are easy to transfer into pattern

and look comfortable in a contemporary setting. Country woodlands and city

parks are filled with the heady scent of fern and bracken, and their uniquely

shaped delicate fronds make an ideal template for a modern paint effect, which

is so easy to achieve.

How to create stencils and make cut out flower stamps from sponge roller

refills as well as how to add warmth with red paint accessories are only a few

of the many ideas that come through in this book. Cargill's purpose is to

change an ordinary piece of furniture into an exciting decorative statement by

melding the old with the new. You'll find evidence of Scandinavian, Shaker,

English Country, and folk art influence as well as a plethora of techniques in

this beautiful work. What Cargill set out to do, she accomplishes colorfully.

Painted Furniture by Katrin Cargill is a hardcover book with 128 pages and 275

color photographs. A Bulfinch Press/Little Brown and Company publication, the

book sells for $27.50

Tea Gardens

When you find yourself with interesting furnishings for the outdoors, you'll

want to check out the book, Tea Gardens: Places to Make and Take Tea by Ann

Lovejoy with photographs by Allan Mandell.

The concept of taking tea out of doors, drawing spiritual and physical

refreshment from contact with the natural, was intrinsic to the development of

Asian tea gardens. The idea was slower to spread in the West, where man's urge

to dominate nature made that basic relationship more antagonistic than

healing. Not until the late 1700s did it become fashionable to picnic and take

tea in the garden or countryside. Once begun, however, teahouses, gazebos, and

picturesque follies quickly became all the rage, and since then the practice

has never fallen completely out of favor.

Lovejoy explains how to create settings for making and taking tea. It doesn't

matter how much space you have available or how limited your finances are, a

good garden design will enhance an intimate space with a minimum investment.

Whether she describes an elevated tea hut or the flat roof of an old garage,

she excites the imagination.

She stresses that the time-honored tradition of making and taking tea outdoors

should be adapted to today's busy lifestyle and garden spaces of all sizes.

Tea Gardens not only includes ideas for combining simple garden design

strategies with smart tips for growing herbs, but it also suggests specific

plant choices for a successful tea garden. With chapters on five different

styles of tea gardens including English and Cottage, the author goes well

beyond the classic Japanese tea gardens and even includes a container tea

garden. In addition to the valuable garden and plant information she provides

for creating just the right tea garden, she concludes her work with her own

delicious, restorative tea recipes.

Lovejoy's skill and Mandell's picture-perfect photos make for a gorgeous

publication. A hardcover book, small enough to tuck on a tea tray, this 120

page Chronicle Book sells for $17.95.

Old Fashioned Gardens

While attending tag sales, estate auctions and flea markets is a favorite New

England pastime, one can not dispute the fact that gardening is America's very

favorite pastime. Perhaps, that's why so many people are looking for outdoor

furnishings on their tag sale adventures.

The gardening craze has inspired interest in both antique and reproduction

garden ornaments and furniture, something that May Brawley Hill, a historian

specializing in art and gardening, knows quite a bit about. Her book,

Furnishing the Old-Fashioned Garden, is nothing short of exquisite.

Hill draws on paintings, photographs, historical narratives, and personal

recollections to create this unprecedented portrait of American garden

architecture. From the practical 18th center "necessary house" to 19th Century

Neoclassical dovecotes and Chinese Chippendale benches, she describes the

evolution of characteristic American motifs and crafts.

Expect to find three centuries of American summerhouses, dovecotes, pergolas,

privies, fences and birdhouses in this painterly book. Featuring chapters

dedicated to "ornaments and necessities in Colonial gardens," "picturesque

gardens and rustic seats," and "Bauhaus and the home garden," the book is a

veritable treasure trove.

This exceptional hardcover book, published by Harry Abrams has 160 pages and

127 illustrations, 51 of which are in full color. The book sells for $39.95.

After flipping through the pages of these four fabulously informative books,

you'll be hard-pressed to pass by a tag sale sign. You'll be on the look out

for furniture to convert from hum-drum to exciting and furnishings to

incorporate indoors and outdoors.