Selecting favorite rooms from more than fifty renowned designers such as Kelly Wearstler, Bunny Williams, Albert Hadley, Nate Berkus, and Mary McDonald--and shot by the world's top shelter photographers--Susanna Salk offers insightful advice on how to apply basic design principles to interiors. Organized into chapters on balance, color, mixing, accessorizing, arrangements, rule breaking, and whimsy, Salk walks through the process of great design, illustrating how the featured designers made the decisions they did to make these rooms look so great. The book's encouraging, conversational tone, practical tips and ideas, and quotes by the designers themselves explaining their philosophies empower the reader to create stylish, functional, and unique rooms of their very own. Covering a range of styles from traditional to modern, formal to whimsical, and showcasing some of the best work by the best designers of our age, ''Be Your Own Decorator'' is a rich resource for the aspiring decorator.