If you’re wanting to do some redecorating in your home, you may want to check out Simple Sustainable Style, a Country Living Book by designer Randy Florke. It’s filled with lots of wonderful ideas and tips. The author shows you how to “decorate with style and thrift, transforming the ordinary room into into a place of extraordinary personal charm.” Florke mixes in fabulous finds from flea markets and thrift stores in his decorating. The book is wonderfully written and filled with beautiful full-color photos as well. It’s a book you’ll really want to sit down with!

Here are just some of Florke’s many helpful tips found throughout the book:

For the Kitchen:

• Liberate cabinets of doors to expose china collections.
• Display humble foodstuffs…if they have colorful or retro labels.
• Choose an accent color for a white kitchen and display it in seat cushions, throw rugs, pottery, or flowers.

For the Living Room:

• Resist buying pieces from all one period or the room will appear either “store bought” or fussy. Mixing pieces you love, of varying periods, will put a stamp of originality–YOURS– on the room.
• Use furniture where you need it, not where it’s “supposed” to be. Place a hutch, sideboard, or dresser in the living room if the look works for you.
• Splurge, if you can, on one truly great piece for the living room. It might be that dreamed-of sofa or amazing pedestal table; live with special things.
• Look for interesting lamp bases at thrift stores and flea markets, where many are for sale. Take the base along with you to purchase its shade, which should cover the hardware but not the decorative base.

For the Dining Room:

• Even if you don’t have a room relegated to dining, create a dining niche in the living room corner or in an entryway alcove.
• Home Comforts for a Dining Room: The biggest table possible. comfortable chairs aplenty, loads of fresh flowers, a sideboard (of any make) to display crystal and silver, candles and flattering light,  pale walls and important art, some aromatic, homemade dish, lovingly served.
• Resist the urge to place flowers in an ordinary vase. Think enameled coffeepots, colorfully labeled cans, old milk bottles, or even olive oil tins. Place glass jars inside tin or metal containers to keep the rust away.
• Chandeliers were made for dining rooms. Don’t be afraid to mix ornate fixtures with simple surroundings or vice versa.

For the Bedroom:

• Home Comforts for a Bedroom: A comfortable bed, fresh bedclothes of natural fibers, calm, restful art, good reading light, handy bedside table, ample storage.
• One of the little things that make a room memorable is a bed lavished in wonderful linens. Layers of color and texture, and natural fibers create a beautiful, luxurious bed.
• Mix lightly used fabrics with contemporary purchases and layer interesting textures of chenille, linen, wool, felt, and lace.
• A decorative bedstead anchors a room and imparts a sense of timelessness and stability.
• The accompanying (bedside) table should be almost as tall as the top of the mattress.

For the Porch:

• Choose wrought-iron tables with glass surfaces, three-legged side tables, and plenty of Adirondack-style chairs. A porch is not a porch without a rocking chair…
• Metal furnishings work well on a porch, be they 1940s lawn chairs, more industrial-type stools, or even medical cabinets acting as storage or side tables.
• Try not to crowd too many pieces on the porch…
• Line up cast–concrete flower boxes along the perimeter of the porch and fill them seasonally with peonies, daisies, or swaths of evergreen.

There are also decorating ideas for the bathroom, entry way, staircase, and other transitional spaces, along with tips on decorating the exterior of the home and making smart flea market purchases.

Hope you find these tips helpful! Are you decorating any rooms in your home now?