Product Description

Country Living: Household Wisdom guides the reader through the home, stopping off in each area to offer advice, tips, traditional recipes and stylish tricks that will help keep good order and create pleasant surroundings. The aim of the book is to offer the reader a useful and attractive work of reference that can be dipped into as the need arises. Scattered through the book will be tip boxes with quick tricks to instantly create a sense of old-fashioned order in a room.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #752751 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
For many setting up home for the first time, housekeeping can seem a daunting prospect. Not just hoovering, dusting and a wipe with a damp cloth - how do you clean the silver? Polish that table? Ensure shiny, blemish-free crystal? "Household Wisdom" from "Country Living" magazine contains tips and advice on all these dilemmas together with much, much more. Rug and carpet care, curtains and blinds, wooden furniture and fire surrounds, all are discussed and enhanced with traditional recipes and methods for cleaning and care. Special items such as antique textiles, metalware, china and cutlery are covered along with the more mundane: ironing, linen care, clothes and shoes, all delivered in an enlivened yet informative way with historical asides. Freshen your wardrobes with hand-made pomanders, sweeten your drawers with lavender sachets, enhance your store cupboards with easy-to-make syrups, cordials and jellies. Tips on stain removal, pest control and food storage are looked at and a list of specialist cleaning suppliers is included for quick sourcing of materials mentioned. Beautifully illustrated in typical "Country Living" style, this is an ideal gift for someone setting up their first home. It demonstrates how simply a house can be turned into a warm, welcoming home, sweetly fragranced and well-kept. All accomplished with ease and in country style in a traditional way but with modern living convenience. - Lucy Watson

About the Author
Stephanie Donaldson runs craft and gardening workshops at the Chelsea Physic Garden and has held similar classes for Country Living and Homes & Gardens. Before she began her career in writing and creative projects, Stephanie was a full-time gardener in charge of a large formal garden. She has also launched a company specializing in rare plants.

Customer Reviews

Such a wondeful book!
This is a great book on decorating in country style, and out of those few I have, its my absolute favorite.
Its not a book that has any craft projects or recipes for anything, just description of the country style, trends and looks, and of course tons of beautiful pictures. It has various chapters corresponding to each room in the home, and one for outdoors. So if you, like me, just want to read about the country style, look at the inspirational pictures and then figure the rest out for yourself, then buy this book.
Decorating books with craft projects don't appeal to me. One will just end up having the same items as the other readers, and that's not "country" in my eyes. Since it is the small things that make up this style of decorating, uniqueness is best. Happy decorating.

Not what I expected, but okay...
This book is more of a "how to clean your house the country way". It has no decorating tips, but a lot of nice pictures and some recipes on jams and such. I was a little dissapointed, but will keep it. But if its decorating you're looking for, this book might not be it. The pictures are good though, but if its worth the price of just that, I dont know.