A Beautiful Mess Happy Handmade Home

September 15, 2014
In the cover photo, the authors, two sisters who produce A Beautiful Mess blog, lounge on turquoise couches, a white shag rug on the floor; one is typing on the laptop while the other fluffs a polka-dotted pillow. Whether or not the reader likes the aesthetic of crafty meets hipster chic, there will be a desire to be friends with the author-hosts so as to be invited to their next party for a "Birthday Cake Martini." The book mostly consists of beautiful, if standard, porn-with-pillow-shams photography (lots of light filtering through filmy window coverings), but the authors do show a bit of decorating daring, including a black living room accent wall that actually looks good. Every few pages, the sisters offer a craft idea, which range from the unoriginal, such as creating a kids art gallery wall using wire and clothespins, to the bizarre, in which white electrical tape is employed to give style to a black refrigerator. In the introduction, the authors instruct readers to identify what features stand out in "favorite spaces" of all kinds, to make lists of how rooms might be used unconventionally (playing cards in a dining room), and to do some soul searching ("Make a list of 100 things about YOU.") The idea is to make home an expression of one's personality, a skill that the authors have clearly mastered.