In Style on a Shoestring, BBC Home Front"s Anne McKevitt and her co-author Shelley Warrington aim to "dispel the myth that to have a stylish home you need to be rich" and they certainly manage to create extraordinary interiors on a minimal budget. The book covers every space from entrances and staircases to bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and kids" rooms, as well as furniture and decorative techniques. The emphasis is on very much on surface changes that will make an immediate impact and like McKevitt"s television makeovers, the book is wildly inventive and extremely colour-focused. Style tips include painting the floor to distinguish between living and eating areas, stencilling ceilings and cutting out and sticking down bright daisy designs. Wackier ideas include rejuvinating a basic chipboard bookcase with fake fur, plywood horns and lasso handles, creating a cheap light fitting from recycled bottles and a bike wheel and sticking purple chairs to the wall. On a practical level all the ideas are explained in an easy-to-follow step-by-step way; for example, a mosaic bathroom is created in seven stages. Top tips such as using a damp sponge instead of a spatula to apply grout are extremely useful and at least make a good result more likely, if not certain, as some of the projects are somewhat ambitious. This is not a book for the faint-hearted minimalist. In the introduction to Style on a Shoestring you are encouraged to "leave all your previous thoughts about decorating outside in the cold". Magnolia lovers beware: this is no understatement. --Karen Homer