I’ve been away for a while, and now that I’m “back,” I’m wondering where August and the first half of September disappeared to?! I can’t believe my kids are already in their fourth week of school… And that I survived sending my baby girl off to kindergarten! It helps that they go to the sweetest little Christian school that feels more like a second family, and that they both love every minute they are there.

Onto my “secret” source for interior design books… If you are anything like me, you love to thumb through interior design books in your spare time (because we all have to much of that!) to get inspiration and learn new decorating tips. You probably also love to use them throughout your house to pretty things up, but you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars collecting every design book a blogger recommends without knowing if there’s actually any value in them for you. I have purchased a few that I heard good things about, but just didn’t speak at all to my personal aesthetic. I tend to pop into Barnes and Noble to check them out now before I order them online with a coupon or from Amazon (gotta save a buck where we can, right?). Every once in a while I’m able to pick up a book on my list from Home Goods or TJ Maxx, like Elements of Style: Designing a Home & a Life by Erin Gates (SO good!), which I found last week at Home Goods for $16.99. I’ve also been known to score a good deal on ebay.com, but it’s super hit or miss, and sometimes with shipping, Amazon ends up being cheaper.

So a few days ago, I placed some House of Robots books on hold for my son at the library, and when we stopped to pick them up, I had an epiphany… I should ask if they have a section on decorating books. This probably seems obvious to everyone else and isn’t really a secret at all, but it totally feels like a stroke of genius to me. Yes, I am patting myself on the back. I have literally never heard of anyone saying they checked out an interior design book from the library. When the librarian showed me the section on home decor, I assumed the selection would be outdated and useless, but there were at least a hundred books and quite a few that have been on my “want to buy” list. 1. Styled: Secrets for Arranging Rooms, from Tabletops to Bookshelves by Emily Henderson 2. The Coveteur: Private Spaces, Personal Style by Stephanie Mark 3. The New Bohemians: Cool & Collected Homes by Justina Blakeney 4. Beekman 1802 Style: The Attraction of Opposites by Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell

I grabbed these four, as well as Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney and The Inspired Room: Simple Ideas to Love the Home You Have by Melissa Michaels to start with. There were a few books by Jonathan Adler, and a bunch of others I’m excited to go back and check out. I’ve been thumbing through Styled and can already tell I will purchase that one, but it’s so fun to have the option to check these out before I spend money on them.

Where are your favorite places to pick up decorating books? Have you ever considered checking interior design books out of the library?