Do you still remember the joy of a discarded refrigerator box? Cutting the windows and doors, stapling scrap fabric to make curtains, drawing a flower box on the side? "Affordable Splendor" describes creating dramatic, low-cost interiors that are actually play houses for adults.

Phipps' stone barn in Oxfordshire is a filled with trompe l'oeil such as faux stone tiles, tapestries, and even kitchen items painted on non-existant shelves. She's endlessly clever and can put together a canopy bed out of a swaths of fabric or make an alcove into a cozy nest. She offers line drawings, photographs and instructions on low-cost decorating that can't possibly be confused with mass produced furniture. Guaranteed: your neighbors won't have anything like it!

I've enjoyed this book for over two decades, and it's one I come back to again and again. Highly recommended.

I really enjoy this book every time I pick it up. I may not want to completely cover the walls of a room in fabric, (although now I know how) but I do want to make the most of a very small decorating budget in my pretty average home. Diana Phipps helps the reader to see how much can be done with a staple gun, some paint and imagination. I am now making over a powder room with an ugly floor and battered vanity. Instead of spending my money on replacements, I'll spend my time making them unique! Although Ms. Phipps' style is very traditional in most of the photos, I think the methods she uses could be applied to more contemporary settngs also. You do have READ the book as there are not as many photos as most decorating books published now. Well worth the small sum I paid--my house already looks and feels more beautiful.

You probably won't make your own lampshades, but Diana Phipps can show you how. She knows how to do everything - or at least, some version of it. She's modest about her considerable accomplishments, and her good humor makes this book enjoyable as well as useful. When last heard from (in Architectural Digest) she was back in the Czech Republic, refurbishing the family castle. But if Random House wanted to make a buck or two, they could reprint this book: it's timeless. If you like the look she gets (and I do, I passionately do) you couldn't ask for a more encouraging guide.