Love the House You’re In: 40 Ways to Improve Your Home and Change Your Life

From the introduction:"I know what you're going to say. Your house is unlovable. Maybe unredeemable. You bought it because of the schools or the yard or the price, but you come home after a long day and think: yuck. You wish it were different. You need it to be different–to look better, to work better, and to make you feel better. I've been there, many times."If you want to get you to house love, here's the secret: house love doesn't come from interior designers or wildly popular design bloggers or rampant craftiness or an endless flow of new things, it comes from within you. It won't spring forth from a great couch or the perfect paint color–it comes from the feeling you create in the space which feels just right, to you. It comes, not when your rooms necessarily match each other, but when your rooms match you and what you are all about. Put what you love and what's important to you into your house and it will be lovable. (And it will love you back.)"Guided by the ideas here, you'll discover how to transform your home into a space that reflects all that you love and all that you are–with your own funds, time, and possibly, your hands. You will love your house by getting to know yourself, coming to know and accept your house (and it's limitations), and most importantly, learning when you can trust yourself. We're taught to think others have better taste or abilities than we do. For something as intimate as your home, which serves you and your family 99 percent of the time, you are the best person for the job, by far. What you need in the greatest supply to make your house great is not money, time, or advice, but confidence. Even if you do hire an architect, designer, or decorator to help you (and I don't advocate one way or another) the work here will help you get the most out of that relationship."