Decorate: Insider's Tips from Top Designers

Whatever kind of home you live in - from a high-rise condo on Miami Beach to a glass-enclosed "cabin" in the Pacific Northwest to a New York City townhouse or a ranch house in Dallas - Decorate has something to offer. With its focus on current trends, this book offers advice and insight from some of the top designers working today.

The 33 projects that are collected in this book are artfully photographed and informatively explained. It will give you so many ideas about transforming the home you own into your dream house, that you'll want to start repainting your living room as soon as you spot your favorite room in the book. Decorate concentrates on design and decoration, rather than new construction or structural renovation, hoping that the lessons of each location included will be realistic goals for many homeowners.

Many of the houses, apartments, condominiums, and townhouses that appear in the book are the homes of the professionals who designed them. Others were created for clients. Some of the decorators are at the top of their profession. All of the locations demonstrate important aspects of what is happening in design today.

If the pictures are meant to inspire, however, the text is designed to show you how - or at least give you some insight into what kinds of questions to ask when the time comes to create your own before and after photos. Straight-shooting advice from the pros help you avoid costly errors, a "Key to the Style" box explains the designer's approach and concepts, and "What the Pros Know" sidebars help you gain insight into the ways in which the theoretical becomes possible no matter what kind of home you have.