By Debbie Wiener
Raising two boys taught Maryland designer Debbie Wiener a thing or two about creating a family-friendly home. In her book, Slob Proof! Real Life Design Solutions, Wiener shares advice on durable, cleanable, comfortable, and practical interior decor.
Wiener advises her readers to think about the intended use of each room when considering decorative elements. In other words, save the silk draperies—if you must have them—for the master bedroom. Slob Proof! is packed with tried-and-true tips that hardly anyone thinks of, like using outdoor fabric to upholster kitchen chairs for stain-resistant seating. Wiener offers practical advice for the pocketbook, too: “Low-voltage lighting provides the most dramatic room lighting. This option is more expensive to purchase but costs pennies to run.”
A book chock-full of resources and ideas, Slob Proof! also lists various retailers who carry the fabrics and paints that Wiener recommends. “I didn’t write a book about pretty rooms,” she writes in the introduction. “I wrote about comfortable, durable rooms that can hold up to the way many people really live.” —reviewd by Annliese Scott
Alpha Books/148 pages
Designing Solutions is based in Silver Spring, Maryland. mydesigningsolutions.com or 888-444-5593
