Free Style: Unlock Creative Home Designs

Designer and muralist Kamarul debuts with an inspiring guide to creating uniquely decorated homes. Encouraged as a child to express her artistic instincts (her parents let her paint flowers and trees on her bedroom walls), Kamarul counsels readers to “take the first step: Accept that you are creative.” She shares her decorating methods, including asking oneself, “What don’t I like?” about a room, experimenting with materials and objects one already owns, and embracing improvisation or “whatever brilliant but unconventional ideas come into your head.” Such practices led her to add fringe trim to her dining room table, use leftover marble backsplash to line her kitchen’s toe kicks (the recessed area beneath lower cabinets), paint a checkerboard design on a bathtub, and hang a rug on the ceiling. She encourages pursuing the unexpected, like using outside furniture inside or repurposing sheets as curtains, and finding inspiration in hotel lobbies and vintage design books. Her bold and playful ideas—demonstrated throughout in gorgeous photographs—reveal the benefits of being fearless in design. Readers seeking to personalize their spaces will be eager to put Kamarul’s ideas into practice. (Apr.)