I love to recommend new interior design books to friends who enjoy them. Three of my friends have very different styles and consequently get recommendations for different books. Every now and again, a new book comes in that has a lot to offer anyone interested in design, no matter what their style preference is. A Living Space by Kit Kemp is a new title that does just that.

Kemp has an unusual resume. She is an interior designer who, together with her husband, owns a chain of hotels in London and New York. Her design work for these hotels has received international acclaim. The book features rooms from these hotels as well as their homes.

Kemp has an outstanding flair for colour and pattern mix. She creates rooms that are lively and inviting for the large-scale hotel settings as well as domestic interiors. Her spaces feature customized furnishings, many commissioned art works and fabric from collections she has designed for two companies.

She shares her sources of inspiration which are often textiles and objects collected while traveling.

“My aim as a designer,” she says, “Is to make surroundings a joyful thing – to bring in elements of intrigue and curiosity that create a sense of adventure and fun.”

It is one of the freshest new interior design books I’ve seen.

- Jane

Since painting the entire interior of my house white over a weekend this summer (don't ask!), I have been searching for ideas to add visual interest to the empty wall space. As I have been thinking about using pattern somehow, maybe in the form of wallpaper or a stencil, I was thrilled to come across this new addition to the library’s collection: 2000 Pattern Combinations: A Step-By-Step Guide for Graphic, Textile and Craft Designers by Jane Callender.

It is a wonderful book of patterning fundamentals and samples, perfect for those who enjoy adding their own touch to design elements in any form. The pattern basics and combinations she has included can be used in practically any application from embroidery and ceramics to engraving and stenciling.

We have many other pattern sourcebooks throughout the library collection which can be found by searching for keywords like Repetitive Patterns or Pattern Books. If you want even more try the phrase Decoration and Ornament Themes, Motives. You will come across literally thousands of images from different cultures and historical periods. In particular, the series Dover pictorial archive and Dover electronic clip art (includes CD-ROM with images) cover an incredible array of copyright-free images, designs, and patterns ready for manipulation.

But that doesn’t begin to cover all the possibilities. We have many books on specific topics, such as wallpaper or Mehndi, which could also be great for pattern inspiration (see Wallpapers: An International History and Illustrated Survey or Henna Sourcebook for example).

Happy patterning!

–Chelsea

Today's blog comes from David Ramsay, Central Library staff:

OK, spring is coming, but it's not quite here yet. What better time for crafts? And, if what you make is useful, gives new life to old stuff and keeps it out of the landfill, that’s a bonus.

In Recycled Home, Rebecca Proctor helps us escape our weather whines and make us productive. She demonstrates how to make something useful out of material we probably already have or can pick up for a song.

There are so many things we hold onto, just in case. Do you have any fabric stored away, just waiting for a project, or maybe a seldom used piece of clothing or bedding? Are scraps of wood taking up valuable work space? The author shows a variety of ways to exploit these materials. This is a repurposing/upcycling book that shows how to change one old thing into something new and better without too much trouble or expense.

You can learn how to recover old oven mitts, build a wall cabinet, a bird house or a wheeled crate. There are instructions for sewing Roman blinds, making an egg cosy and adding colour to old china. Your home will start looking country fresh in no time at all.

It helps if you can sew. The wood projects are simpler. All told, there are both outdoor and indoor projects (for every room in the house) geared for every member of the family. The length of time needed to do the projects varies from 15 minutes to a weekend, with many of them clocking in at about 2 hours time.

By the time you’ve finished a few of these, spring will be here.

- Dave

Those of you who are smitten with the fabulous house, lifestyle and intrigues of Downton Abbey will enjoy a new addition to our collection. The Edwardian Country House provides “an intimate portrait of an opulent age”.

In the opening chapter you learn that the courting of American heiresses by English peers was common practice. “Courting” is a word too gentle for what amounted to an arranged marriage that exchanged wealth for title.

Although servants were well paid (and certainly well fed) by the standards of the day, changes in appreciation of social status – among other reasons – made for fewer workers who were willing to go into service. The author looks at the technological advances that allowed owners to make do without an army of servants. Developments like electric lights, refrigeration, washing machines and telephones had a huge impact on the running of these large homes.

Photos illustrate lovely interiors and gardens and reveal extremes of style and comfort. You see the cozy, inviting garden room at Nymans layered in oriental carpets, tapestries and cushions. At the other end of the spectrum is the fabulous carved-marble Indian Hall at Elveden, called the coldest room in the country.

Next up for me is a book recommended by a staff friend: Cobwebs and Cream Teas, a memoir about life in the National Trust House of Febrigg Hall. I think I might be dwelling in the past.

- Jane