Shabby Chic is the well-known brand of Rachel Ashwell who opened her first shop in Santa Monica in 1989. Now, two decades on, there are stores in Los Angeles, New York, Texas, and London.

This well-known label describes a “look” that incorporates vintage and battered furnishings with lots of white paint and pastel colours. There are floral fabrics, frills and a touch of glitz in crystal and silver. Romantic rooms are styled like stage sets where it looks like the wistfully lovely heroine has left a trail of petals or a book of poetry.

Ashwell’s latest book in the franchise, called Shabby Chic Inspirations and Beautiful Spaces, shows her homes in Texas, Malibu and Knotting Hill, as well as the homes of friends and business associates.

The most bizarre (but fascinating) arrangement is the “shabby shack” created from a hunter’s cabin in the Catskill Mountains. Entirely white, it is draped with volumes of lace and accessorized with white china, books and elaborate chandeliers.

This girlish confection is the retreat of a young woman who lives with a burly husband in a trailer on the other side of the stream. The trailer is not bohemian edgy. We’re talking 70’s-style avocado and gold, plaid sofa, dark wood paneling with an American flag draped between the propane tanks.

Don’t believe me? Check it out.

Romantic cottage style is a perennial favourite that is most often featured in the shelter magazines in the spring and summer. If you like it, have a look at several other new titles in the collection.

Romantic prairie style: homes inspired by traditional Country Life by Fifi O’Neill prospects the same vein. No sod huts on this prairie; but it’s all quite charming.

New Cottage Style: a Sunset design guide is another one that features rehabbed vintage furnishings set in pale and pretty rooms.

The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate & Live Well is a new decorating book by Deborah Needleman who was a founding editor of Domino magazine. Domino, a Condé Nast publication, folded in 2009 with the recession.

Needleman sets the tone of the book with a quote from the late, great decorator, Billy Baldwin: “Any house or room remembered with pleasure has the look of being loved by those who live in it.”

“I have come to realize,” writes Needleman, “that the soul of a house needs attention.” The point of decorating, she says, is to create the background for the best life you can have.

Her topics include Places for chatting, A Bit of Quirk, Cozifications and Spots for Books, Drinks & Feet - in other words, those things that bring comfort and personality to a home.

For those who appreciate decorating formulas, some are provided with wit, for example:

Insta-Cozy Couch = (1 blanket centered over back + 2 matching square pillows in corners + 1 rectangular pillow in center)

In place of the usual lavish photos of beautiful rooms, the book is illustrated with watercolour pictures. They add considerable charm while at the same time focusing the reader’s attention on the ideas in the text which are often an afterthought in decorating books.

Sometimes imperfection is carefully crafted, for example, introducing a drab or “ugly” colour as a foil to a roomful of pretty, girly hues. This was a practice endorsed by prominent English decorator John Fowler of Colefax & Fowler.

Does all this sound familiar? Embracing imperfection is a theme running through many books I have blogged about in the last few months. I have added a new tag to identify them.

This theme pops up in the shelter magazines too. In the December/January issue of House Beautiful (p.96): the New Modern: Embracing the Japanese Aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi: Imperfect, weathered, organic.

Happily, most of us don’t have to work to attain imperfection. It's just a gift.

For those who enjoy design books about vintage style, a slick new title has just arrived: Patina Style by Brooke and Steve Giannetti. She is an interior designer and the creator of a popular blog called Velvet and Linen. He is an architect, artist and furniture designer.

The authors love patinaed finishes that result from weathering and years of use; they celebrate the beauty of the old and imperfect. The design aesthetic features vintage and antique furnishings and natural materials that age with grace.

A calm palette of warm neutrals - creams, gray-greens, and blues - provide a soothing background. Velvet fabrics and worn rugs with mellowed hues add texture and softness to the mix.

Think wabi-sabi design with a luxurious edge.

Most of the photos come from their homes or projects. The text is peppered with phrases like, “At our house in Santa Monica...” “At our beach house...” “Our house in Oxnard...”

My favourite photos feature a room that displays Steve’s water paintings. In this comfortable space, the art work is accentuated by the aqua velvet of cushions and sea-green glass of insulator caps.

The Gianettis exhibit considerable flair with collections and offer advice about displaying them. For example:

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  Amethyst bottles and old-fashioned top hats stand atop vintage metal cabinet drawers.
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  Pocket watches and clock faces combine with bound leather books.
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  Vintage globes are surrounded by architectural remnants and carved wood blocks.

Patina style goes into the garden as well with weathered furniture and plants that have soft pastel flowers and grey-green foliage. Very pretty.

It's eye-candy design at its best.

Dudley and Arthur

Meet Dudley and Arthur, my two granddogs. They live with my daughter Kate and her husband Andrew in a small house in Toronto. I have just returned from a very lovely visit with them.

Dudley is the newest addition to the family and, at one year old, he still exhibits puppy behaviour. If you take a good look at the pic below, you will see chewed edges on the carpet where they are romping. Their house has literally gone to the dogs; but it’s a happy departure.

The house is organized around their needs. Towels for mopping dirty paws and drooly jowls hang near the front door; leashes, dog food and dishes are in theDudley gets a belly rub. mud room at the back. A child's protective gate prevented damp noses in my face in the wee hours of the morning when I slept on their living room sofa. Because their house has been under renovation since they moved in, Kate is philosophical about mud and fur balls that come with "the boys".

Her relaxed approach to living with them reminds me again of Mary Randolph Carter’s book, A Perfectly Kept House is a Sign of a Misspent Life, which I reviewed a few blogs back. There are many pictures of fine rooms with animals splayed comfortably across favourite furniture and she talks about accommodating them.

Designer, Kimberley Seldon helps you to choose suitable upholstery and floor coverings. Kate (an architect) has posted some ideas about designing a new house with dogs in mind.

Animal House Style: Designing a Home to Share with Your Pets offers serious advice about living stylishly with four-legged family. Design for pet comfort and safety is considered, as well as the touchy topic of animal house smell.

Showdog Magazine provides light-hearted tips for decorating with dogs. For example, did you know that paw prints and nose smudges break up the glare and soften the light in the room? Or, stacked dog crates will pull the eye up and provide an illusion of height, while pet hair adds velvety texture to fabrics.

When all else fails, adjusting your attitude helps.

Jane, Central Library

Alexander Calder was an American artist best known for his brightly coloured sculptures called mobiles by fellow artist Marcel Duchamp.

Calder used an ingenious system of weights and counterbalances to create graceful, airy sculptures that move easily with air currents. If you have a mobile with a modern aesthetic for your child’s room, chances are it owes a debt to Calder’s inventions.

Follow the link to see Calder’s 76-foot long sculpture in the National Gallery’s East Building in Washington. This graceful, airy piece actually weighs 920 pounds and was restored and repaired in 2005.

The May 2011 issue of The World of Interiors profiles the Calder Foundation which is dedicated to promoting his legacy and art. The foundation occupies a minimalist loft in the Chelsea district of New York surrounded by Calder sculpture.

For more information about Calder, take a look at Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: form, balance and joy which was published in conjunction with a travelling exhibit that began in 2010 and is still on the road.

I encountered Calder again in a delightful book by Mary Randolf Carter called A Perfectly Kept House is a Sign of a Misspent Life (2010).

It turns out this artist of all that is light, airy and balanced worked amidst an astounding chaos of clutter in his Connecticut studio which is revealed in a two-page spread. And, his work style followed him home. She shows the Calder kitchen, full of the colour and life of its inhabitants – a far cry from the pristine space where the Calder foundation works today.

Carter makes the case that clutter is the stuff of life and should be embraced. Tame it, organize it, maybe; but don't waste your time trying to eliminate it.

I think this is a message that a lot of people will enjoy.

The last two blogs have looked at the growing interest in vintage style which integrates older furnishings into modern life. In an earlier blog I wrote about David Shah’s prediction of the growth of DIY design and a new frugality with consumers.

Certainly we are seeing this reflected in the new books arriving in the Arts department. The pendulum has swung in the direction toward the hand-crafted and authentic, away from the shiny new and slick.

Japan has a design aesthetic called wabi sabi that reveres the natural beauty of imperfection that comes with age and weathering. “It is an expression of the beauty that lies in the brief transition between the coming and going of life, both the joy and melancholy that make up our lot as humans”. (Wabi sabi: the Japanese art of impermanence, p.1)

Robyn Griggs Lawrence updates an earlier work with Simply Imperfect: revisiting the wabi-sabi house. For her the philosophy is about embracing a simpler and more authentic lifestyle and the eliminating the baggage and clutter that is part and parcel of consumerism.

The book is a quick read on the philosophy applied to home design. It is illustrated with sepia-toned photos of home vignettes; both text and pictures are surrounded by plenty of white space and peppered with pithy quotes.

Occasionally, she gets wabi-sabi silly with her lists (the wabi-sabi cleaning cupboard – give me a break). Still, her summary “uncluttering made easy” offers simple and thorough advice on the topic.

“In modern terms, achieving the sabi style of living entails eliminating everything that is not essential,” says author Boyé Lafayette De Mente in Elements of Japanese Style. (p. 32) This book offers greater depth on the philosophy underlying Japanese design. De Mente provides insight into the way that certain ideas, like the poverty principle, were handy devices for social control.

Check out the Wabi House in Dwell’s September issue. Japan Style and “Japan’s highly considered aesthetic” (p17 editor’s note) are the themes of the issue. Dwell is available in 5 branches where back issues can be borrowed.