If you are a fan of the Design Sponge blog, the new book by Grace Bonney, Design Sponge at Home, is a must read. Bonney profiles blog favourites, including her own New York apartment shared with her husband and two cats.

The book has captured the spirit of the blog with lots of lively and lived-in rooms put together by people who love design and love their homes. A lot of the homes are space-challenged New York apartments that provide many ideas for living large in small quarters.

Most exhibit vintage style influences; homeowners embrace vintage furnishings sourced from family, flea markets and EBay. Then, they make them their own with a little paint, carpentry, fabric and staple gun.

Bonney shows the peg-board rack in her kitchen painted a bright tomato-soup red and hung with stainless-steel pots. I love the map-covered boxes on p. 188.

Indeed, half of the book is devoted to DIY projects, basics and makeovers. There are instructions for stripping and painting furniture, rewiring a lamp, staple-gun upholstery, sewing basics – and much else.

Although information on these topics tends to be sketchy, her can-do approach is enough to inspire the reader to pick up tools and strive for greater domestic glory. And hey, that’s what the Library is all about. There are hundreds of books here to help you develop those skills and become the handy person you were meant to be.

The last two blogs have looked at the growing interest in vintage style which integrates older furnishings into modern life. In an earlier blog I wrote about David Shah’s prediction of the growth of DIY design and a new frugality with consumers.

Certainly we are seeing this reflected in the new books arriving in the Arts department. The pendulum has swung in the direction toward the hand-crafted and authentic, away from the shiny new and slick.

Japan has a design aesthetic called wabi sabi that reveres the natural beauty of imperfection that comes with age and weathering. “It is an expression of the beauty that lies in the brief transition between the coming and going of life, both the joy and melancholy that make up our lot as humans”. (Wabi sabi: the Japanese art of impermanence, p.1)

Robyn Griggs Lawrence updates an earlier work with Simply Imperfect: revisiting the wabi-sabi house. For her the philosophy is about embracing a simpler and more authentic lifestyle and the eliminating the baggage and clutter that is part and parcel of consumerism.

The book is a quick read on the philosophy applied to home design. It is illustrated with sepia-toned photos of home vignettes; both text and pictures are surrounded by plenty of white space and peppered with pithy quotes.

Occasionally, she gets wabi-sabi silly with her lists (the wabi-sabi cleaning cupboard – give me a break). Still, her summary “uncluttering made easy” offers simple and thorough advice on the topic.

“In modern terms, achieving the sabi style of living entails eliminating everything that is not essential,” says author Boyé Lafayette De Mente in Elements of Japanese Style. (p. 32) This book offers greater depth on the philosophy underlying Japanese design. De Mente provides insight into the way that certain ideas, like the poverty principle, were handy devices for social control.

Check out the Wabi House in Dwell’s September issue. Japan Style and “Japan’s highly considered aesthetic” (p17 editor’s note) are the themes of the issue. Dwell is available in 5 branches where back issues can be borrowed.

Vintage style is a design idea that continues to evolve. A few years back, it was applied mostly to interiors with furniture and objects from the 1940s to 1970s used in a funky contemporary fashion. It required exuberant youthful application to pull it off; otherwise, a room simply appeared to be stuck in a time warp.

Today, vintage style embraces modern interiors where the charm and comfort of older furnishings are thoroughly integrated. I’m thinking that it’s this year’s label for eclectic decorating. Have a look at these two new books to see what I mean. To find other books on the topic in our catalogue, use a simple keyword search “vintage interior decoration”.

In The Vintage Modern Home, “vintage” embraces older furnishings from flea market finds to proper antiques. “Vintage/Modern way of life is all about thoughtfulness and patience,” says author Katherine Sorrell. She begins the book with lessons in assessing what you have and applying the basics of colour, pattern, texture and scale to make things work together.

The book includes sections on modern classics, retro furnishings and antiques. Rooms are chic, lively and liveable. A great source for getting it all together.

Modern Vintage Style by Emily Chalmers is another fun read. Her vintage style has a funkier, more Bohemian edge to it. In the section on collections and display, homeowners let their inner “hoarder run riot” with zany toys, kitsch and hip art.

If you enjoy this one, check out the other titles by Chalmers, like last year’s Cheap chic: affordable ideas for a relaxed home.

According to the free dictionary online, “vintage” means “characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic”. And that is the apt description of mid-century modern furniture. Come back Monday to read a guest blog by an enthusiast.