Annie Sloan's Room Recipes for Style and Color + A Giveaway

Each Monday during the weeks leading up to Christmas, I'll be holding a giveaway of a new or favorite book I have discovered. Pop back in each week to enter. 

This week's featured book is a new one published by Ryland Peters and Small. A few weeks ago, I wrote about some of my favorite decorating books here. One of my favorite oldies is called Color in Decoration and was written by Annie Sloan. Lo and behold, Annie has just released a new book she co-wrote with her son Felix called Annie Sloan's Room Recipes for Style and Color. Ryland Peters and Small graciously sent me a review copy to share with all of you. 

This is a lovely book, loaded with gorgeous photos of lovely houses, objects, antiques, modern accessories and more. The book is divided into 9 chapters - each reviewing a different style of decorating. They are....
Neoclassical                Modern Retro                 Bohemian
Traditional Swedish     Vintage Floral                 French Elegance
Rustic Country            Coastal                           Warehouse

This huge 228 page book begins with a general introduction to Annie and Felix's views on decorating and design. Throughout the book, there are small hand drawn illustrations scattered amongst the layouts that add a charming handmade feeling to the book. 

Each chapter introduces the style with 8 pages of photographs, history, design elements, colors, and furniture all profusely illustrated with lovely photos by Christopher Drake. Following the introduction, Annie and Felix introduce a home that uses the given style in beautiful photos. They explain why the home works in both words and photos. At the conclusion of each chapter, there is a "how-to" of a paint treatment which is shown in the home. 

Annie Sloan is known for her paint treatments, her Chalk Paint Line and her many How-To books that she has published over the years. This is not a How-To book but a style book and a nice addition to her growing collection of titles. Here is one of the paint treatments that I would love to try - it is called Marble Effect and is shown in the Traditional Swedish Chapter. 

This paint effect is quite dramatic - a kind of streaky, variegated look to the walls. 

I learned a lot reading this book. It is beautifully produced with color photos printed on matte finished paper. Of course, I was attracted to certain chapters more than others but that is the point of it. You will probably read it and like other chapters. Here is a pretty spread for the Bohemian Chapter.

And a little more colorful bohemia.....

Although my home is not decorated in the Vintage Floral fashion, I was drawn to many of the photos in this chapter. It featured many handmade items and gave me some ideas for future projects.

Here is the DIY project from the Vintage Floral Chapter - a lovely handpainted floral chest of drawers.

I do see the allure to the Rustic Country Chapter. I wish I could be so understated and simple but clutter and collecting seem to be more me.

I wish I could share more pages from this book as it is really beautiful and inspirational. At least I have introduced you all to it. This book would make a lovely Christmas gift for someone interested in interior decoration, paint and color. 

In the following short video you can see Annie and her son Felix chatting about this new book project. 



Would you like to win your very own copy of Annie Sloan's Room Recipes for Style and Color courtesy of publisher Ryland, Peters and Small? Here's how you enter.....

Answer the following question in the comments section. 
What would you say is your favorite decorating style? Country, Rustic, Bohemian, Urban, Mid-Century Modern, Flea Market Style.......? 

Contest ends Saturday December 6th at 11:59 p.m. 
US Residents only please. As always, leave an easy way to get a hold of you - email, Ravelry or blogger id.

Unfortunately, the book giveaways are only open to US Residents. The reason for this is I ask publishers to donate books and ship the giveaway copies to the winner. Shipping for books to Canada and overseas is extremely expensive because of the weight of the book and the postage charges. In fact, it usually costs more to ship a book than the retail cost of the book. These folks are being nice to me (and my readers) and I think it is unfair for them to incur ridiculous shipping costs. I'm sorry for this if you are an overseas reader but I'm sure you understand my reasoning.