Three new favourites

Bookstores are my downfall – I can be so good at sticking to the budget, except when it comes to books (oh, alright then – and frocks, if I’m honest).

Here’s three new beauties I’ve bought in the past month, read cover to cover, and can thoroughly recommend for their inspirational genius:

I used to snip out favourite columns by stylist Megan Morton when they featured in Good Weekend, but now they’ve been turned into book form (hallelujah, that’s one folder I can chuck from the filing cabinet). I read the interview in Sydney Morning Herald’s Essential liftout, and to paraphrase her here: Home Love has all the style advice I normally charge $300 for, for the price of $55 (and don’t forget, you get to keep the book, people). Enough said – it’s a treasure.

Rachel Ashwell, the Queen of Shabby Chic hasn’t had a book out for over five years, but her earlier tomes have become bibles for those who love her charming brand of style. If I lived on my own, my house might be entirely taken over by the look but as I share it with a very messy, hands-on little girl and no-fuss man whose favourite colours are stone and prison grey, my inclination to go down this path is somewhat reigned in.

The best thing about Shabby Chic Interiors is that Ashwell’s style seems to have evolved into something more modern, adaptable and, yes, masculine over the past few years. I love the traditional pairing of flea market finds with gorgeous, plush linens and soft furnishings, but here you really see how it can be applied to family spaces, modern homes and blokey interiors to successfully soften and cosy up a room. I absolutely love this book, and the pictures are to die for.

Thames & Hudson do these sorts of books so well – New London Style by Chloe Grimshaw & Ingrid Rasmussen is brilliant for the glorious, quirky details of these inner-city London addresses of fashion designers, architects and mere mortals. So many fabulous ideas for the placement of objects in one small book, in a riot of colours that have me wishing I were more brave. No matter, I can live vicariously through some of the outlandish choices made by these hip London homeowners.

Love, love, love.