Romantic Prairie Style by Fifi O’Neil

This is a Book Week guest review by Liz of Violet Posy for Thursday’s theme of Holiday Projects. Are you thinking of undergoing a room (or house) transformation this summer? This book might well provide the inspiration you need!

Romantic Prairie Style by Fifi O’Neil £11.93 on Amazon

I bought this book primarily because I’ve been following Fifi’s work on her blog and in various publications – Coastal Living, House – Home and Living, Romantic Living and Creative Home – over the last few years. I’m a huge fan of her style and I was interested as to her take on American Country. I must admit to having been fairly ignorant as to what ‘Prairie Style’ would be like, I don’t know much about the midwest other than what I’ve read and seen on ‘Little House in the Praire’ – so probably a bit out of date!

To my delight Fifi and her photographer Mark Lohman obviously researched their subject well and there is every take on these homes from the ‘Pretty and Vintage’ to the "Urban’ look. America by it’s nature as a young country doesn’t have massively old buildings, but a some of these homes have passed down in families since the ‘landgrabs’ of the 1880’s and others have been bought by people who want to preserve and love these old homes. Most of the house were constructed out of what was available locally and you can see the love and hard work that has gone into maintaining them.

The ethos of these homes is sustainability, obviously the houses have modern kitchens and bathrooms but a lot of the decorating inside and out of the homes in the gardens have been done with vintage items from house sales. I loved how these finds have been either left as they are or given a lick of paint and are reused in an interesting ways such as an old fireplace is now a bed headboard for example. All of these looks can be re-interpreted here in the UK, just without the beautiful wildflower meadows surrounding your garden.

For those into exterior living there are some beautiful kitchen gardens, outside sleeping, outdoor dining and those beautiful porches that they have in the US. I’d kill for a porch around my house to sit and read on at night or to sit and chat with my family on.

So all in all, if you are a fan of shabby chic, pretty houses and Americana I think you’d enjoy this book. If you’d like a look at it before you buy, you can pop over to Amazon and have a ‘look inside’ the book if you click on the image of the front cover.

Liz blogs at Violet Posy and you can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.