Finishing Touch

Interior designer Sherry Lynn is the host for this program on making the home look great without eviscerating the purse. Using her own new house, which she renovated, as an example, Lynn takes viewers through each of the rooms in the house, offering a "before" and "after" look. Following some general tips for working with subcontractors, Lynn shares her ideas on layout, lighting, color, and fabric for the family room, bathroom, guest room, kitchen, etc. Some of the suggestions are very good--an inexpensive way to use floor lighting, for example--but, by and large, this is not a step-by-step how-to. Designer items made to specification are often pointed out as such, but the crucial measurements are not necessarily given. The pacing and arrangement of the program is also sometimes confusing--one is not always sure which room is being talked about, and there's a lot of shifting back and forth between areas. Too, there's a really long (over five minutes) time-lapse filmed "record" of the building of a breakfast room addition. This is fun for about a minute--the extra four is just a waste of time. Nice looking, attractively packaged, and poorly arranged, Finishing Touch nevertheless has enough professional tips to offer that some libraries may want to consider buying. An optional purchase. (Available from: Finishing Touche Interior Design, 1211 E. 11 Mile Rd., Royal Oak, MI 48067.)