Decorating Is Fun!: How to be Your Own Decorator

After being out of print for many years, Decorating is Fun is being republished with its original illustrations and a new introduction by Draper's protégé, designer Carleton Varney. Amazingly, the book is still practical, amusing and inspirational.

Draper's earnest enthusiasm feels fresh and contemporary. She believed that though there were troubles in the world, one's home should be a refuge, a cheerful place for entertaining one's friends and a colorful and comfortable shelter from the storm.

In her heyday, Dorothy Draper (1889-1969) was the most famous decorator in America. She had a monthly column in Good Housekeeping magazine and decorated luxury hotels such as the Greenbrier in West Virginia, along with restaurants, nightclubs, houses, apartment buildings, stores, and airplanes. She designed fabrics in the spirit of Brazil, Hawaii, and Spain. She understood the perils and pleasures of furnishing a home, and it was her uncanny understanding of human nature as much as her knowledge of scale, proportion and color that made America trust her.