Beautiful Living by Valerie Darden is a refreshing guide that explores how to create a more fulfilling and aesthetically pleasing lifestyle. The book offers practical advice on daily habits, wellness, and simple strategies to find beauty in everyday moments. I really enjoyed the positive vibe and practical tips throughout the book. The colour scheme and photography is so beautiful.

Arc Review:
Overall Rating: 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A good book that is full of ideas for creating a beautiful space in your home, with easy and organized information, great tips and tricks, this is a perfect style guide.

Thank you NetGalley

I found this book to be really useful because it is organized in such a manner that the information is easy to understand and follow, but most importantly to remember.

I has many photos and diagrams that help you see what the author explains and I think that it can be used as a guidebook no matter the style you want in your own home, but the book seems to show more colorful and a bit more decorated rooms, which some people may find too crowded.

I think it's a great resource if you want to get your decorating skills to the next level and elevate the look of your house, but keep in mind that some ideas presented here may not fit all types of spaces and budgets.

Wow! I adored this book by Valerie Darden! The style guide so good and the work that went into this book shows. It truly is a top of the list of decorating books for me. I loved how the format was tying so much together. Of course the photographs were top notch. I truly could not get over how much I was learning from this book.

Thought-out designs that felt a personal touch which truly fit "elevate every room with your signature style" and Valerie achieved that. I love the modern meets traditional philosophy that Valerie has but what I really enjoyed was her writing, personal stories and how she has evolved to be this amazing designer with her ease of creating beauty when behind the scenes it is blood, sweat, and tears at times but for this book I just kept thinking how this book was so much work but the end result was a stunning beauty like her designs. When I read design books I often think yes I could do this with this kind of budget and make a gorgeous room, rooms of beautiful designs because I have IDEAS. Still, with Valerie's book it didn't feel like I'm going to show you what I'm capable of I'm writing a book to help you achieve beauty in your life. And THAT is a grand gesture that sets this book apart for me.

A beautiful book put together beautifully with a beautiful purpose, let's create more beauty. Boy do we need it in these difficult times.


Sourcing, guides, how to and remembering elevating to your signature. I just kept saying as I was reading Beautiful Living, "this is so good"!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Rock Point for the opportunity to read and review Beautiful Living by Valerie Darden.

I enjoy scrolling through design books and this one was fun. I really appreciated that it didn’t all revolve around beige. There was color and she pulled it together in a beautiful way. I’d recommend this to any design/ decor book junkie.

Beautiful Living is a gorgeous style guide. Broken down by room, it details tips and tricks for making your home elegant and spacious.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group/Rock Point for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I wish I could have read this on my Kindle rather than my computer screen. Because it's a design book, it was hard to read in the Adoble format that NetGalley provided.

I adore home design and decorating books, especially those with large, lush photos that inspire and excite. This is one of those books. While much of the style is more modern than I like, it's tastefully done and still individualistic. It's not a generic modern, like so many current home decor books that are on the market. She also has examples of antiques mixed with modern for a comfortable yet elegant feel.

I love the author's pro tips that she inserts in each chapter.

Thankfully, this author uses color and even wallpaper.

This is a keeper, filled with great references. I love this book. This is by far one of the best design books I've read this year. This is the book I needed when I was starting in my 20s with my first apartment.

From the perfect room layouts to picking the best paint colors as well as the proper way to mix patterns, this book is full of information and resources along with beautiful photography. An excellent decorative coffee table book! I thank Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group/Rock Point for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Gorgeously photographed book that would be welcome on any coffee table.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

I love this book! The pictures were so beautiful and the explanations/tips for the decor were so helpful. (I learned a lot more about nightstands and Roman shades than I was expecting! I liked that this designer is not afraid of pattern and color. And there was a variety of images that can relate to anyone’s style. Perfect yet useful coffee table book!

This is a gorgeous book! Perfect to have laying on the living room table and browse when the mood strikes. I loved all the beautiful pictures. Very nice book!

I'm not a designer by any means and I'm always looking for practical design advice to make my home more stylish. This book has tons of inspiration but it was the practical tips that really made me love this book.

The book is in three parts. Part one is inspiration for each room in your home. Part two is the style guide and my personal favorite. The style guide has everything you need to know to design a room - fabrics, colors, measurements. All the details a designer would know but most homeowners don't. It has tips on flooring, paint, patterns, rugs, furniture, layouts for every room, etc. A few simple rules presented and the seven design basics made me confident I could make design decisions for each room in my house. Part three is answers to common questions for each room in your home.

Overall, this book is beautiful, inspirational, and perfectly organized for anyone looking to make beautiful spaces in their home.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful book. The pictures are beautiful and it's full of great tips on how to have a beautiful home!

A beautiful book full of ideas for creating a wonderful living space. The style guide and layout plans at the back are vey useful when planning your new design. I found the photos very inspiring, lots of attention to detail and very decadent. Thank you to Net Galley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful photography and amazing colour scheme throughout the interior designs. I love the layout of the book and how different materials are explained to suit each room. There was a lot of attention to detail. I enjoyed reading it :)

I love seeing how other people design their interiors but quickly realised the authors taste is very different to my minimalist approach. I still found some useful advice in the Common Questions section and enjoyed learning the differences between an interior designer and decorator.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Pretty pictures and some fun decorating advice. It wasn't all for me, but the pictures were beautiful and fun to look at! It would be a good addition to any library.

I'm sure this is a lovely book but it did not display well on my phone so hard to read and view pictures. What i could see was such pretty rooms! Seems to be a ton of useful decorating tips.

The highlight for me was the layout and paint suggestions in the end, and how organised this book was.
I am not a fan of all the styles in the sample photos or that are discussed as part of the beautiful living, however I did not expect to love them all. As expected, this book covers a wide range of styles and options for making homes beautiful.

Some photos show really nice interiors, to my taste, others do not. Looming over all of them, though, is that feeling of terror vacui (they're too full, too colorful, too much everything) that makes me think that, if I had the money and the space, that's not how I'd fill it, but I'm not a decorator.

Alcune foto mostrano degli interni veramente belli, a gusto mio, altri no. Su tutti peró incombe quella sensazione di terror vacui (sono troppo pieni, troppo colorati, troppo tutto) che mi fa pensare che, se avessi i soldi e lo spazio, non sarebbe cosí che lo riempirei, ma io non faccio l'arredatore.


I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.