Embrace Your Space: Organizing Ideas and Stylish Upgrades for Every Room on Any Budget

by Katie Holdefehr, Genevieve Garruppo (Photographs)

Organize and style your home using home-decorating and organization expert Katie Holdefehr’s modern, chic, and simple-to-achieve design tips and tricks.

Whether giving a studio apartment a makeover to maximize every inch of space for storage, creating a functional and streamlined kitchen, or revamping a bedroom into a relaxing sanctuary, home design expert Katie Holdefehr will be your personal designer throughout each step in Embrace Your Space . As an editor for top magazines and websites such as Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living , Good Housekeeping , and Apartment Therapy, Katie Holdefehr honed her expertise in home design and organization writing hundreds of articles and styling dozens of tasteful, livable rooms that anyone on any budget can achieve.

Featuring real homes from across the country and accompanied by gorgeous photographs, Embrace Your Space shares Katie’s tools of the trade, as well as designer-insider tips and tricks, to give every living space a Wow! effect. Also included are simple and affordable design projects for creating unique and custom-looking décor details.

GORGEOUS PHOTOGRAPHY : More than 150 beautiful full-color photographs show designer tips and tricks in action

DESIGN PROJECTS : Simple, affordable, and easy-to-accomplish design projects are included in each chapter

HOME ORGANIZATIONAL HACKS : Dozens of home organization tips help keep areas clutter-free

DECLUTTERING Learn easy-and-quick ways to declutter and streamline those common problem areas such as closets, kitchen cabinets, entryways, and more.

INSIDER TIPS AND Having worked as a magazine editor in the home decor space, Katie Holdefehr provides information for home design and organization

BEAUTIFUL Whether you appreciate home design or are just looking to downsize your clutter, this books makes a gorgeous and helpful gift

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Interior Design, Reference

176 pages, Hardcover

Published March 14, 2023

Reviews

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so lovely.

First, the feel of it. The sturdy construction, soft touch hard cover, and lay flat pages all say quality.

Second, the bold images capturing the real people we get to meet though this book and not just the rooms they've designed but the curated, tiny details, expressing the emotions of the spaces conveyed.

Third, the stories of the individuals and couples who have so generously welcomed the author into their homes, revealing their personal spaces and the way their design journeys are conveyed makes me feel like we could be friends, like I am sitting in their homes with them throughout the book.

Fourth, the design projects the author weaves into the chapters are both inspiring and practical. They encompass everything from cutting aspirational clutter, to personalizing big-box store furniture to match your style, to using plants to divide up a space, and more.

Fifth, I love that I can jump around this book, randomly open a page and always find something lovely.

In summary, this is the perfect coffee table book. The perfect present for your design loving friend. A thoughtful gift for a new homeowner, or someone moving into a new space for the first time.

As a real estate agent, I personally plan to gift this to my new homeowners and past clients.

[Kamryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was solid. I appreciated that there were many different styles on display - sometimes a book like this has a narrower focus on one specific type of decor - and the tips were generally good.

[Cyndy · Rating 5 out of 5]

90% of decorating books are boring. I've been remodeling another house (I move too often) and have been actively looking for decorating books that are real and readable. This is both.

These are real people's homes, not just staged rooms where the homeowner moves things around and lets there own things creep back in after the decorator has left. Most of these people don't care what color the book cover is, but two do. The items on open shelving are what real people put there, not 4 stacks of beige pottery plates with a pitcher between two stacks on one shelf and an arrange ment of 4 glasses in the middle of the other two.

Is it just another decorating book, sure. But this one of the few that isn't aimed at people living in 4,000 square foot houses in the suburbs (I've done that). It's aimed for people living in houses/condos/apartments less than 2,000 square feet, which happens to be common in the city I'm currently living in.

Some people have downgraded this for the reasons that I am upgrading it. I do think that you need to rate a book on what it IS, not what you wish you'd bought. This is a book aimed at people with limited square footage, shows a number of styles, and has helpful text. It completely succeeds at what it aims to do.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

The advice is pretty basic, and the book is mainly about admiring the trendy, upscale designs that young single people or couples have implemented in their city apartments. There's definitely valid advice here for doing renovations and interior design in a small space, and people can apply the basic principles to their current environment and budget, but the majority of the book involves storytelling from the people who are showing off their well-crafted, personalized home interiors, where they talk about their experiences, their work, their relationships, their accommodating landlords, and how they are flourishing in their altered environment. The tips are mainly a side-note.

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new under the sun. Basic organization information that has been repeated ad nauseam in recent years.

The images are modern, if that’s your style, and want to live a modest/minimalist lifestyle. For a book subtitled as fitting “every budget”, there were more full bar carts than I had ever seen in one volume. Nary was there a single Smeg refrigerator opened to show a half rack of cheap beer. Clearly, these are not my [broke a$$] people.

That’s okay. I really don’t want to live in a travel trailer in the desert, in a well-feathered nest, or in an over-the-top, colorful mess anyway.

Cheers 🍻

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

From my perspective, even though the majority of the apartments are in the NYC area, this book does several helpful things--the focus on apartments (but not exclusively) means lots of ideas for temporary fixes, living large in small spaces (250 to 1,150 sq ft), with "projects" on letting go, organizing, storage, harmonizing, plants, and color. Cross references to the 12 spaces beautifully photographed appear throughout.

[Laura Haske · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that each of the featured projects had a small square footage. They felt accessible and beautiful. I also liked the stories each person shared about their space. Some people lived in their house for years before giving it their design time and attention. Others had it designed and decorated the week they moved in.

I also appreciated the insights they provided related to design from each feature, actionable things to consider when designing your own space.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

some really good ideas for working with small spaces. budget friendly, which surprised me. took pictures of a couple of things I'd like to do with our kitchen and bathroom. Its like a heifter version of a decorating magazine and I don't really know if it's worth owning but definitely a great library find

[Mircah Foxwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aimed mostly at people living in small spaces (small apartments or studio apartments), this book profiles the homes of several different people, showing how each decorated their space, sometimes on a small budget because the space was a rental.

It does contain some generalized advice, but mostly feels like a handful of people showing off their trendy spaces. No takeaways for me.

[Marla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this one! Beautifully written with stunning photography. Incredible as a coffee table / inspo book.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of pretty pictures 🙂

[Jonii · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Seems more like an excuse to show of influencers digs than any useful advice.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was just a beautiful book of house tours and ideas, with an emphasis on manageable changes even for renters. I enjoyed it.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved that this book featured both owned and rented apartments/houses and that they were all under 1200 square feet. I love the intentionality behind designing a home in a small space.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of examples of how to live in a small space.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made me covet other people's apartments and regret not having more of a color scheme before we started decorating!

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives you different ideas for organizing and decorating small spaces

[Div Manickam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my kind of book

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool people's living spaces AND all small spaces, (who can afford a house now?) which I appreciate.

I garnered some ideas with reasonable price points.

[Kate]

trying to get some ideas for renovating a bedroom into not a bedroom

[Mary Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average collection of pretty attainable homes. For beginners decorating their homes, not design lovers.