Renovating tired old furniture can make it look as good as new – or even better! It can be a cost-effective and more sustainable solution than buying modern replacements, encouraging creative thinking and resulting in eye-catching and unique pieces.

In this colourfully illustrated guide by furniture artist and upcycling expert Chloe Kempster, you can learn all the tricks of the trade to revitalise well-loved but worn out furniture. Throughout the 15 step-by-step examples in this book – ranging from a textured bombe chest to a decoupaged wardrobe, and a hand-painted floral cupboard – there is plenty of advice regarding design and preparation, the types of paint and variety of decoration that can be used, and ideas for how to make your project really stand out.

Whether you are tailoring something to fit a new look in your home or revamping pieces to sell on to others, this book offers inspiration and advice both to keen beginners and those wanting to expand their existing skills.

Award-winning blogger Frida Ramstedt shares insights and advice on how to make sure the furniture you buy doesn’t just look good but is also well-made, long-lasting and, most importantly, comfortable to use every day. Inspired by her rich Scandinavian furniture design heritage and filled with insider tips, The Furnishing Handbook is an indispensable guide to finding the pieces that work best for your body and home.

‘Ramstedt advises us to look away from social media to create the nurturing homes we need’ The Times

When used well, pastels have a rich intensity or a subtle sophistication, keeping them on the cool side of sweet. They allow us to fill a home with subtle colour, making us feel cosseted and safe. In Pretty Pastel Style, Selina Lake shows how to use pastels to create spaces that are sophisticated, quirky and colour-rich without being garish.  To start, she looks at different ways of decorating with this versatile palette by dividing it into four styles. There’s Modern Pastels, which are are contrasted with pops of stronger colour and sharpened with statement furniture, while Vintage Pastels are more nostalgic and elegant. Handmade Pastels highlights creative touches and simple crafting ideas that showcase pastels in candy stripes, polka dots and floral prints, while Simple Pastels work with neutrals and off-whites for an elegantly minimal look.  Next, the Details section looks at everything from furniture and lighting to display and decoration, with inspiring ideas on how to put the style together. Finally, the Spaces section of the book showcases a series of beautiful rooms that use pastels with stylish effect.

First published in 2013, this is a new edition.

‘I tore through the pages. A book I’ll read over and over again’  CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS

‘A beautiful exposition of home and what it means. Stunning‘  BOLU BABALOLA
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By the age of twenty-five journalist Kieran Yates had lived in twenty different houses across the country, from council estates in London to car showrooms in rural Wales. And in that time, between a series of evictions, mouldy flats and bizarre house-share interviews, the reality of Britain’s housing crisis grew more and more difficult to ignore.

In prose that sparkles with humour and warmth, Yates charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent navigating the chaos of the housing system. She exposes the issues underpinning the crisis, from the state’s neglect of social housing to the rental rat race, and the disproportionate toll these take on the most marginalised in society. Drawing on interviews with tenants across the country and the stories behind our interiors, she explores the unexpected ways we can fight back – finding beauty in the wreckage of a broken system, friendships in cramped housing conditions, and home even in the most fragile circumstances.

All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In is at once a rallying cry for change and a love letter to home in all its forms.
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‘So incisive it’s hard to put down’  PANDORA SYKES

‘Moving and urgent’  LAURA BATES

‘Wholly transportive‘  CLARA AMFO

‘A powerful, personal and intricate tour of our housing system ? exposing who it works for and who it doesn’t’ BELL RIBEIRO-ADDY MP

Brown furniture is back. People want warmth and individuality back in their houses. As such, the kitchen dresser is having a renaissance. These beautiful pieces are overtaking clean-lined kitchens to create more original spaces, alive with personality and rich in history.

Made from Welsh oak or elm, Tasmanian Huon pine or reclaimed timber, the humble dresser – originally built for food preparation and storage – has become the treasured centrepiece of many a home. The art of the dresser is often in the collection it holds: vintage china, Staffordshire figures, majolica, pewter, blue-and-white transfer ware, breadboards, family treasures, the old and the everyday.

In The Kitchen Dresser, photographer Simon Griffiths captures the beauty and the charm of this iconic piece of furniture that is at once functional, ornamental and deeply heartwarming.

From Gerrit Rietveld and Alvar Aalto to Verner Panton and Eva Zeisel, from Art Nouveau to International Style, from Pop Art to Postmodernism, the history of the chair is so complex that it requires a comprehensive encyclopedic work to do it full justice. They are all here: Thonet’s bentwood chairs and Hoffmann’s sitting-machines, Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair and Ron Arad’s avant-garde armchairs. Early designers and pioneers of the modern chair are presented alongside the most recent innovations in seating.

This dedicated compendium displays each chair as pure form, along with biographical and historical information about the pieces and their designers. An illuminating tome for design aficionados and an essential reference for collectors!

About the series

Bibliotheca Universalis – Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!