CATEGORY

For the decorating dud, a book with lots of pictures is a godsend. Someone else has gone through the bother of choosing tone, furniture, fabric, and accessories and put them together for a cohesive look, not once but hundreds of times. You pick and choose components that seem like they could be you, if the you that you already are were a little more organized, focused, and stylish. Martha Stewart might disdain the technique, but men and women with a full life and a disjointed salon will applaud.