Thrifty Decorator, the

Innes reuses some of her material from The Pauper's Housekeeping Book in this useful but flawed volume, but notes that the changes between the early '70s and the early '90s are formidable. Gone are the days when Doing It Yourself meant a lick of paint and an artfully arranged throw: now, it's gilding and fitted slip covers. For anyone with time and a modicum of manual dexterity, Innes will serve as a comforting guide, even to tricky undertakings. While she gives instructions on shelving, true to title almost everything else is decorative--stencilling walls, stippling furniture, re-caning, slipcovering, reupholstering, making roman blinds, re-covering a lamp. Also true to title, the suggestions focus on inexpensive alternatives--among her suggestions for wallpaper materials are with brown paper and photocopied images. This a very British book, filled with words like ``bed-sit,'' ``tatty'' and the like, which aren't problematic--but also ``Vim'' (a brand name) and others, which may be. More troubling are the illustrations, the 70 color photos arranged by kitchen, bedroom and so forth, only tenuously tied to the text; 170 two-color drawings are often just design elements, or only sketchily informative. All in all, a worthwhile addition but best for readers with a strong visual sensibility. (June)