Interior Alchemy: Secrets to Creating Expressive Ambience

Here are tricks for creating cutting-edge interior design from tile original style setter at New York's trendsetting ABC Carpet & Home.

The recent issue of Metropolitan Home magazine featured a New York apartment furnished with beautiful finds scavenged from flea markets. America has developed a yen for the vintage. Whether covering an entire wall with a salon-style arrangement of pictures creating the "attic" look; throwing together a grand canopied bed faked with gilded molding and draperies to evoke thc "exotic"; or choosing to go "spare" by displaying carefully selected objects, including old tools, glass boxes, or botanical prints, style setter Rebecca Purcell shows how anyone can create expressive rooms that make a statement.

Full-color photographs in each chapter show how these fabulous styles were produced in different homes. Chapters include do-it-yourself projects for finishing touches, including tassels, aging fabrics and metals, valances and draperies, wall washing and stenciling, picture matting, and more.

Rebecca Purcell is at the forefront of a revolution in interior design. She was display director for ABC Carpet & Home. She lives in New York City.