Product Description

In this handsome and accessible guide, popular decorating expert Mary Carol Garrity offers tips and ideas for re-creating her classic, relaxed style in the reader's own home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109193 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Garrity’s Atchinson, Kansas, home furnishings and accessories store gives this book its title, and its aesthetic—which also draws on G. Diebolt’s (Garrity’s fabrics store) and Garrity’s (furniture and antiques). The three stores sell $4 million worth of goods every year, and it’s easy to see why: Garrity has found a gentle and pleasing way of infusing 18th-century Americana into Martha Stewart-like simple-fussiness, producing more conservative and more blocky rooms that nevertheless feel grounded and harmonized, like Restoration Hardware à la Ben Franklin. (There’s some irony to this, since Kansas was not even a twinkle in the 13th-colony Franklin’s eye.) The book is divided into space-and-arrangement-based chapters ("The Garden Room"; "A Gracious Setting") where Garrity gives forthright opinions on how to actualize one’s design ideas without relying on rules ("I have a soft spot for pretty table lamps and chandeliers"). Two-page spreads focus on individual elements: centerpieces, napkins, pillows, bedside tables, "a lady’s desk" and much more. The book’s more than 100 gracious color photos are of friends’ interiors, decorated with Garrity’s goods but arranged to suit their own needs.
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From the Publisher
Mary Carol Garrity is a known and acknowledged design voice with a welcoming and achievable approach to home decor. Like the customers who flock to her stores in Atchison, Kansas, from hundreds of miles around, thousands of readers respond to her classic yet comfortable style.

In NELL HILL’S DECORATING SECRETS, Mary Carol brings her wealth of experience to the task of bringing a home to life, addressing such questions as how to find or create a beautiful centerpiece, how to best update a room without spending a fortune, how to bring character to a small bathroom, how to display a collection, and ways to dress a bed.

Her practical decorating ideas—far removed from the realms of highbrow magazines and expensive designers—complement the way most people like to decorate and live.

About the Author
Mary Carol Garrity has appeared on NBC's Weekend Today Show and has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Country Living, and numerous other major publications. She lives in Atchison, Kansas, where she runs her three wildly successful stores, which sell over $4 million in merchandise a year.

Customer Reviews

move over Martha Stewart--Ms. Garrity is *the* diva of decor!
I am fortunate enough to live within driving distance of Mary Garrity's stores in Atchison, KS. Visiting Nell Hill is an amazing experience. Atchison is a little town out in the middle of nowhere, but on the weekends, chartered buses arrive...the store opens at 9 on Saturday and by 10 it's packed. And the chic & cheerful Mary C. Garrity is always on the floor, greeting customers by name, personally carrying garden statuary out to their station wagons...

Her personal skills are amazing, but what is truly inspiring is her flair for display--a flair that is highlighted in this book. For enthusiasts of traditional, Paris Apt, shabby chic, English country, or any pretty decor, "decorating secrets" is a visual feast. I esp. love how it doesn't rely on priceless pieces of furniture and objets, but rather in a skillful mix of accessible elements to create a beautiful home. Bravo Mary!

Awesome book!
Mary Carol Garrity has writen a book that deserves a place in every 'home decorator's' library! It's easy reading and pictures a lay person can relate to~inspiring is an understatement!!

Decorating Outside the Box
If nothing else, Mary Carol gives us a few new ideas of decorating outside the box, so to speak. Her style is a mix between traditional and eclectic, so she gives us a bit of everything in this book. I bought my copy of the book for my design library for just a few dollars and worth that price.