Flea Market Finds with Matthew Mead is a new title that revels in the glories of a day spent sifting through vintage cast-offs. It proves once again that trash becomes treasure in the hands of those with fertile imagination, a sack full of DIY tricks and a gift for arrangement.

Mead is a style guru who applies his talents to rehabbing a multitude of unlikely finds into attractive home furnishings. For example, a coil of baling wire found at a farm sale is snipped and twisted into whimsical picture frames.

Unbreakable vintage melamine, enamelware dishes and a daisy-covered teapot create a play set for little girls. The lively colours make a pretty mix with the sugar cookies and candy of the tea party.

Inspired by an art book of black-and-white doodles, he applies marker pen to a spool of craft paper hung high on the wall and unrolled to the floor. This quick-change art installation is surprisingly chic and who woulda thunk it? Well, apparently, Matthew Mead.

He does some clever things with mid-century modern finds to create a stylish room setting.

In a section titled, Frond Moments, he makes a case for the friendly fern found on collectibles or plucked from the garden to decorate walls and table settings. With a stencil he applies a fern design to an old chest of drawers with a drop-down desk.

The book is a fun browse just for the level of ingenuity invested into reclaiming these old objects of his affection.

- Jane