The following review was contributed by: CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON

In case you haven’t noticed, everyone is remodeling. Or building. In many locales homeowners save lots of money by moving up or out rather than changing residence. Homeowners’ sensibilities have changed from the days of cottage cheesy ceilings and heavy drapes. The same is true of details like hardware and Maggie Stevenson has created this book to help those whose tastes are changing move with the times.

My hair stylist is rebuilding her home--1500 square feet of a 50s ranch-style home will become a soaring two story with tons of open space and open windows. She is of Korean descent and likes clean, bright and shaped--in her home as well as her hair designs. My daughter just jettisoned a life style for a new existence in a loft--all hardware and essentials. Life is changing and we all need respite from crowds and work.

Architecture Fixtures and Hardware is certainly a book for those who are transforming their lives but it is also for those of us who have decided to stay put. At a fraction of the cost of a big change, modifying the details in our homes can work wonders. Fixtures and Hardware gives us ideas for doors and windows, flooring, kitchens, bathrooms, storage and more.

A big book, not quite as big as what we’ve come to think of as a coffee table book, it is packed with pictures, inside and out, of lovely conversions to fit every taste including that industrial look my daughter has taken to. Wait until you see the spotless photography by Chris Everard! It’s going to make you want to tear up your floors and install plywood (p. 42). Yes, plywood! It “displays a more exuberant grain than ordinary planks and can be cut into much wider boards” to show off the pattern. Now, I can’t imagine a more beautiful, moneysaving device than that. It’s only the beginning for those who buy and browse this lovely book as only Ryland Peters & Small can design them.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the award-winning author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered. Her poems and short stories appear frequently in literary journals and anthologies. The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t will be released by www.StarPublish.com this August. She lives in a ranch-style home built in the hills near Los Angeles in the 60s. LEARN MORE ABOUT HER