Review – Resourceful Living by Lisa Dawson

It’s often thought that restyling your space comes with a hefty price tag and unavoidable waste. But in Resourceful Living, award-winning interiors blogger Lisa Dawson shows how, with a little creativity, you can revamp your home with existing pieces, vintage finds and key purchases.

The clever ideas in this beautiful book cover:

– The most important ways we use our homes, from eating to sleeping, living and working.

– The Basics of steering clear of interiors ‘fast fashion’, multi-purposing furniture and making the most of what you have.

– Styling Your Home with simple solutions for re-imagining each room, from gallery walls to home bars, repainted storage to retro accessories.

Including her top ten key vintage buys and tips for in-store and online thrifting, Lisa’s inspiring advice shares the fun of creative sourcing as a more sustainable way to keep your home feeling fresh.

Review

I am one of those people that loves the concept of revamping my home, especially using some vintage items! Sadly I am also one of those people who doesn’t plan, buys items without thinking about size and use. It is the reason my home is badly organised and lacks my personality, because I am also very indecisive. So a book like Resourceful Living by Lisa Dawson is a godsend!

Beautifully laid out in sections that helped me see how I can bring my ideas to life, without having to necessarily break the bank. I love how she advises you don’t become caught up in trends for a style that may not age well and doesn’t actually fit in with a person’s lifestyle. Your house she advises should reflect you as a person, your tastes and how you live and this well organised book helps with this. I’ve had a few ideas for my own home, that I felt too insecure to go ahead with, yet having seen them laid out in Resourceful Living, I now feel confident that not only will they work, that they will bring me a great deal of happiness.

Being inspired is one thing, the pictures in this book made me smile and helped me visualise the concepts and ideas Lisa Dawson was writing about. But I need guidance on how to bring my ideas to life and the sections in this book about Mood Boards and the use of checklists, will help to organise my naturally disorganised mind. They are clear and concise and structured in how they help bring a concept for the rooms in your home to life. From assessing the storage you need, how to update the cupboards in your kitchen without having to have a costly refit, focusing attention on key parts of a job that cost the most and advising you to take time to decide, because once a floor is laid for example, you could be stuck with a costly mistake.

All the advise provided is practical, but best of all is how she allowed me to think outside the box, to move items in my home around, repurpose them, rather than having to make costly purchases every time I want to change a room. On top of all this, what really impressed me was her commitment to the use of vintage items, saving them from landfill and helping the environment. This chimes with me and I will as I move forward, be using this book, the ideas it contains to inspire me to make my home, reflect the things I love.

You can purchase this book from Amazon and Waterstones. Why not though consider ordering it from your favourite independent bookshop?

About the author

Lisa Dawson is a multi-award-winning interiors blogger, writer, workshop presenter and social media influencer. She writes a popular weekly blog, is a regular contributor to Frank magazine and creates professional social media content for brands such as John Lewis and Loaf Home. She is co-founder of the popular Instagram hashtag #myhomevibe which has almost two million posts and was the first UK-based interiors community hashtag when it was launched in 2016. She lives in York with her husband, three children and a badly behaved Lhasa Apso called Buddy. Lisa shares her home inspiration on her Instagram @_lisa_dawson_.