Renovate: What the Pros Know about Giving New Life to Your House, Loft, Condo or Apartment

From the magazine Metropolitan Home comes a stunning, glossy photo book that will inspire readers beset by the do-it-yourself bug. Editor-in-Chief Donna Warner kicks off the book by calling renovation the ""favorite sport"" of Metropolitan Home readers. Using articles culled from the magazine, Bernstein presents an eye-pleasing array of redone homes from the East Coast to the West, with stops in Chicago, Phoenix and suburban Pennsylvania on the way. The styles of the presented homes vary from a Brahmin Boston 19th-century carriage house, to a window-filled loft space in Seattle. Of special note are two homes from famous American architects, one each by Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright. Architecture fans will be delighted to get a peek at these archetypal buildings. The text complements the pictures and, in interviews, the owners, architects and designers even admit to a mistake or two. Interspersed throughout the text are special boxes titled ""What the Pros Know About..."" with subsequent tips on topics like radiant heat and built-in bathtubs. While the book doesn't contain any step-by-step how-tos, its many tips are clearly written and may help readers generate new ideas for their own homes. More likely, however, this book will go directly to the coffee table. Photos.