Terence Conran's Home Furnishings

Designer and home-furnishings magnate Conran and British Vogue editor Brittain offer numerous waysmany color illustratedto decorate walls, doors, ceilings, windows, chairs, cushions, beds and tables with fabric. Several suggestions are decidedly fussy (a kilted dining-room chair cover made of tartan fabric and fastened with leather skirt buckles; a carpet that serves as a tablecloth; tented rooms; bed canopies; accordion-pleated curtains with bows), but there are also plainer, practical ideas (futons, quilted bedcovers, decorative napkin edgings and a picnic cloth with pockets to hold cutlery and plates). Tyro needleworkers will find many of the how-to directions too intricate. But the skilled will find useful advice on fabric selection, care, cleaning and repair, as well as specifics on stitches, seams, hems, waddings and linings, decorative trimmings, frills and pleats, headings, tracks and poles, fastenings, fabric paints and patterned fabrics. (April 9)