La Vie est Belle is the perfect gift for Francophiles or those with a passion for the best things in life — elegant interiors, ageless beauty and tradition, and fine food and wine. The book is arranged by region and offers a privileged glimpse inside dozens of French homes, from chateaux to farmhouses, as well as the regions in which they are set. The book also features essays on the traditions and characteristics of French life: flea markets and brocantes, pavement cafes, the flavours of France and more. Interspersed throughout are recipes for classic French dishes and quotations from writers and philosophers, designed to immerse you in the culture and ambience of the French way of life.

At its heart, the modern rustic look celebrates the fabric of a home, from the roof beams to the brickwork. This style revels in earthy colours and rich textures; in natural materials such as wood and stone; and the ruggedly handsome bones of a building. In this book, stylist Emily Henson and writer Joanna Simmons first lead you through the Elements of the Modern Rustic look. Sophisticated Rustic elegantly blends clean lines with muted shades of grey. Bohemian Rustic mixes texture and pattern with lush colour, while Quirky Rustic teams raw wood with pops of neon and tongue-in-cheek artworks. Vintage Rustic, meanwhile, brings a relaxed feel, showcasing beaten-up leather armchairs and brick floors. In Details, textiles, furniture, fabric and display are explored, while Living Spaces shows how Modern Rustic style translates beautifully to every room in the house.

Featuring beautiful photography, this new range has something for every gardener, whether you want to send a note to other green-fingered friends, record your own gardening plans and purchases, or jot down any sudden planting inspirations on the handy sticky notes.

Modern Scandinavian homes are enviably relaxed and welcoming, filled with furniture and objects that are practical, functional, and beautiful. For many people, Scandinavian style conjures up images of pale blonde wood and pared-down, clutterfree interiors. In reality, it's far from minimal. Scandinavian Modern introduces the most important designers and their work and explores some of the most interesting homes in Scandinavia. The first section, Elements, takes a lively look at Scandinavian design in the context of materials: wood, glass, textiles, ceramics, and so on. The second section, Living, offers a visual survey of 12 outstanding homes in Denmark, Sweden and Finland, from modern country houses to sophisticated city-centre apartments.The accompanying text provides a fascinating insight into each home, describing its design and evolution. Many of the homes featured are those of celebrated twentieth-century Scandinavian designers, such as the Dane Poul Kjaerholm or Finnish architect and designer Eero Aarnio.

Be inspired by Rachel Ashwell's iconic Shabby Chic interiors, which celebrate the charm of objects from the past, an extravagant sense of comfort and the beauty of the perfectly imperfect. The stationery range features stunning photography from Rachel's latest book, Shabby Chic Inspirations and Beautiful Spaces.

Welcome to the Velorution! Women's cycling is having a moment. From Olympic heroines like Victoria Pendleton, through fashion designers, models and celebrities, to the super-cool girls on the street, everybody who is anybody is travelling on two wheels. This book will inspire you to join them. Cycling is a fun, healthy and inherently stylish hobby and form of transport with a long and rich history of empowering women. It has never been more fashionable and more accessible to just about everybody. Full of fun and inspiration, with gorgeous photography and quirky illustrations throughout, The Girl's Guide to Life on Two Wheels is a practical and stylish guide to help you find the confidence and motivation to embrace cycling as part of your daily life. From choosing a bike and staying safe on the roads to looking great on two wheels and embracing the unique style cycling offers, Cathy will arm you with everything you need to get on your bike. Whether you used to cycle as a kid or have never been on a bike in your life, no matter what age you are, where you live or how fit and active you are — if you've ever thought you'd love to cycle but 'can't', this book will show you that you can, and you can do it in style.

For every woman who simply wants a beautiful piece of artwork to decorate her body, there is one who wants to tell a story with her tattoo. As the number of women getting tattooed has sharply increased over the past few decades, both classic and contemporary styles of tattooing have taken on a more feminine feel. The Painted Lady explores the styles popular among women today and how these have developed from very humble origins, featuring fabulous photographs and beautiful hand-painted illustrations. Be inspired by modern interpretations of Vintage classics such as lockets, hearts and roses, pretty Butterflies and Flowers and Nautical figures such as swallows and anchors. Discover the Eastern influences behind the ornate Japanese style and the intricately detailed Mehndi patterns. Unlock the secret to contemporary Fusion tattoos by combining a number of styles to create the perfect aesthetic partnership.

In Visual Contrast, Timothy Rundle reveals key techniques for styling your home by reworking what you already have. He looks at Shape, Colour, Placement and Personality and reveals how these seemingly abstract concepts are the stylist's essential tools, and the key to a beautiful, practical and individual home. Using dozens of examples of real-life homes and plenty of practical advice, Tim analyses successful interiors, explains the basics of a well-designed space, shows how to bring out the best in what you already own, and discusses the elusive art of arrangement and display. His secret weapon is visual contrast, which creates a dynamic visual dialogue between objects and spaces, resulting in an interior that's full of personality, style and unexpected combinations.

Launched in 2007, the Nordic Bakery is a peaceful haven in the heart of London. Their products reflect the wholesome but comforting style of baking in Scandinavia. The emphasis is on fresh, seasonal produce and healthier baking ingredients, such as rye flour, oats and barley, and the rustic but modern menu includes open rye-bread sandwiches, cakes and cinnamon buns. The Nordic Bakery Cookbook allows you to bake your own Bread, such as the popular rye bread, Savoury Pastries, Cakes, Sweet Buns, Desserts and Biscuits in your own home.

If you've ever dreamed of being able to conjure up the mouthwatering pastries you've enjoyed in a Parisian cake shop but thought it would be too hard, think again! Will Torrent is a rising star in the pastry world and in this, his first book, he aims to take the fear factor out of French patisserie. With step-by-step photography, a nononsense approach to the key pastry techniques and more than 60 beautifully illustrated recipes, this bible will become an invaluable source of inspiration and a constant reference for all your favourite French-inspired sweet treats. There are chapters on Basic Techniques, Patisserie, Tarts, Petits Fours, Gateaux & Desserts, and Viennoiserie, and you'll find recipes for mocha eclairs, lemon tart, honey madeleines, brioche and macarons.

In this book, top interior designer Nina Campbell breaks down the elements of style. Nina's interiors are fashionable, yet they stand the test of time. They are invariably luxurious yet comfortable, practical but elegant, and her client list includes many of today's most influential people and establishments. By identifying how you can work on each element, room by room (from kitchens and bathrooms to dining rooms and drawing rooms) and topic by topic (from lighting to window treatments), she shows you how to create similarly beautiful, stylish interiors in your own home. With today's return to colour and pattern in the home, this book also offers essential advice on choosing and using wallpapers, fabrics, and paint colours. And whether you are re-decorating your whole house, re-vamping a single room, or merely updating one element, such as soft furnishings, Nina offers expertise and inspiration that you won't find anywhere else. Nina is also acknowledged as a leading London hostess and here she shares her secrets on decorating for successful entertaining, from laying the table to organizing the room. Nina Campbell Elements of Design is a masterclass on how to create the right mix of contemporary and traditional in your own home, for your family, and your lifestyle.

Nina Campbell is one of the world's most respected and influential interior designers. Her current projects include a large residence on mainland China, a private house for a member of the Jordanian royal family in Amman, a town house in New York and a country house hotel overlooking Cheltenham race course, and it is this broad range of commissions that makes Nina uniquely qualified to guide the home decorator. Nina Campbell on Detail focuses on introducing all-important detail into the home, whether in the form of texture, colour, lighting, art, flowers or other finishing touches. This book features the private homes of Nina's clients, ranging from a city pied-a-terre to a large family home, from a chic apartment to a country bolt-hole, all designed and decorated to suit a range of lifestyles, but all reflecting Nina's infallible eye for detail.

Think Marie Antoinette in jeans and a cowboy hat — that is Rachel Ashwell's prairie style. Rachel Ashwell Couture Prairie takes her signature pastels, ruffles and whimsical prettiness right to the heart of cowboy country. This is a journey in pictures and words, following Rachel through the fields of a little town called Round Top, home to one of the largest, most eclectic and vibrant antiques and flea markets in the world, and then back to Rachel's newly acquired bed-and-breakfast in Texas. Here Rachel's inspired finds, her creative imagination, eye for detail and her commitment to beauty, comfort and function have finally come together in one location: The Prairie by Rachel Ashwell — an irresistible destination. This book takes Rachel in a new direction, bringing her eye for cherished patinas and pastel prettiness into the endless landscapes and diverse architectural styles of Texas. Here you will see how her style adapts to corrugated metal sheeting and weathered timbers and how it brings new life to elegant period mansions. Chapter by chapter, the book leads you through Rachel's little houses on the prairie, from the Ranger's Lounge where hearty breakfasts are served, to the Pearl Barn, scene of wedding parties and celebrations, stopping off at the evocatively named guest accommodation: Blue Bonnet Barn, Cornflower Cottage, Meadow Manor, Faith Cottage and Liliput Lodge.

Food is an important theme in Jane Austen's novels — it is used as a commodity for showing off, as a way of showing kindliness among neighbours, as part of the dynamics of family life, and — of course — for comic effect. Dinner with Mr Darcy takes authentic' recipes from the period, inspired by the food that features in Austen's novels and letters, and adapts them for contemporary cooks. The text is interwoven throughout with quotes from the novels, and feature spreads cover some of the key themes of food and eating in Austen's time, including table arrangements, kitchens and gardens, changing mealtimes, and servants and service. Whether you are hoping to beguile a single gentleman in possession of a substantial fortune, or you just want to have your own version of the picnic on Box Hill in Emma, you will find fully updated recipes using easily available ingredients to help you recreate the dishes and dining experiences of Jane Austen's characters and their contemporaries.

My Vietnamese Kitchen is a collection of recipes passed down through Uyen Luu's family. Uyen was born in Saigon and spent her childhood there before leaving Vietnam in the aftermath of the war. She regularly travels back there to visit family and pick up more classic and modern recipes for dishes found in the homes and on the streets of Vietnam. The recipes in the book tell a story — about Uyen's family, about the culture of her heritage, about the rising popularity of this cuisine around the world. In essence, the food of her country aims to strike the perfect balance between sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot and umami, and to cater for any occasion and time of day, every mood and ailment. Uyen describes some of the most commonly used produce and offers easy-to-find alternatives so that every recipe is accessible. She guides you through chapters such as Soups, Snacking, Noodles, Dinner and Desserts, weaving in tales of etiquette, personal history and tradition and providing evocative photos of her travels throughout. Popular recipes include pho soup, banh mi baguettes and summer rolls.

Perfect English Farmhouse celebrates the characteristic style and fascinating history of the classic farmhouse and shows how to turn your own home into a welcoming retreat. Farmhouse is a word that conjures an array of appealing associations: fresh eggs and baby lambs, chunky beams and flagged floors, cream teas and harvest suppers, a place of welcome and plenty. With their generous kitchens and meandering layout, the architectural informality of the farmhouse suits modern lifestyles. Through a series of case studies, Perfect English Farmhouse explores contemporary farmhouse style. The book is divided into chapters according to style: Organic, Traditional, Farm Fresh, No Frills and Funky, and at the end of each chapter a spread highlights the key elements of that particular decorative look. There is also a comprehensive listing of suppliers to help readers create their very own perfect farmhouse style.

In English Decoration, London-based architectural and interior designer Ben Pentreath presents a major new survey of the best of the English style. Eighteen homes, many of which have never been previously photographed, provide the source material for his wide-ranging investigation of this classic look. The houses include Ben's own homes in London and West Dorset, alongside those of Earls and artists, writers and architects, book designers and gardeners. The book is arranged room by room and Entrance Halls, Living Rooms, Kitchens and Dining Rooms, Bedrooms and Bathrooms are considered in turn, together with simple Rooms of Utility and spectacular Rooms of Display. The book begins with an essay on the English style in decoration and ends with a style directory, helping you to achieve the look wherever you live.

The French interior evokes a way of life to aspire to, with its good food, unhurried pace and, above all, its past for which many people feel nostalgia. Developed over hundreds of years, the French look reflects all tastes, from the cultivated grandeur of the chateau to the simplicity of rural living, and can be adapted to every home, including the Mediterranean style villa and elegant town house. In this book, the look is divided into 'Chateau', 'Country', 'Provenal'and 'Parisian style', and applied to living room, kitchen and dining room, bedroom and bathroom, and to living space in the garden. As well as describing each overall look, focusing on colours and fabrics, Annie Sloan emphasizes the details and accents required by each one, and, aided by 25 clearly explained step-by-step projects, shows how to achieve it. Among other things, she explains how to paint and distress furniture, and describes how to cover an armoire door with embroidered voile. Whatever interior you desire, this book will guide your choices from the grand statement of the painted armoire to the finishing touch of a little posy of lavender.

Welcome to Rachel Ashwell's world: as beautiful as it is comfortable, as inspiring and spontaneous as it is practical and personal. In this book, Rachel shares her inspirations and her humour, celebrates the charm of the old and battered, and demonstrates time and again how interiors touched with Rachel's magic transcend fashionable trends, extending a calming, personal welcome to all. In this new book, Rachel takes us to homes in the US — from a shabby shack on Malibu's oceanfront to a ranch on the wide, open spaces of Texas and to the wooded hills of the Catskills — and in the UK — from a houseboat and a city townhouse to a centuries-old manor house deep in the country, and Rachel's own London apartment. All the houses, regardless of their size or location, embody Rachel's ethos and share the same qualities: a respect for beautiful objects from the past, an extravagant sense of comfort, an eye for the unexpected and that signature touch of bling. All are inviting, artistic, soulful, inspired and inspiring, beautiful, gentle, considered and, in their own way, perfectly imperfect.

Rachel Ashwell created Shabby Chic: a peaceful, practical way of living that embraces a respect for the things in our lives we hold dear and keeps them at the heart of our homes. Romantic florals reclining against pure white linen, ruffles of muslin skirting a bed base against bleached floorboards, the deep comfort of a simple nest of fluffy towels — This is Rachel Ashwell's signature style that for the past 20 years has been a major influence in our modern lives. Shabby Chic Interiors — My Rooms, Treasures and Trinkets, an eclectic book of quirky inspiration, falls into chapters according to location, and begins with Rachel's breathtaking Los Angeles residence. Next, we wander into a photographer's minimalist mountain-top home in the Hollywood hills before heading to the coast and a beautiful Malibu beach cottage. A truly bohemian hideout in southern California is next on the journey, followed by a peek at celebrity homes, including the house that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe. With rooms combining flea-market finds and objects of pure functionality — an elegant French mirror reflecting a painting, a bejewelled metallic candle holder sitting by a cluster of willow-patterned china, a single faded velvet pillow lounging under the twinkle of a vintage chandelier — this book celebrates all that is wonderfully Shabby Chic.