House Beautiful: Decorating With Sheets; House Beautiful: The Secrets Of Decorating With Flowers; House Beautiful: The Secrets Of Entertaining With Flowers

Produced in conjunction with House Beautiful, Decorating With Sheets offers 10 decorating projects for the home enthusiast who would like to spruce up the house without maxing out the credit cards. After a brief introduction by Peggy Kennedy, editor of House Beautiful, the program dives into the projects--for the living room: a crepe and tie sofa cover, a table round and square, and romantic swagged draperies; for the bedroom: a stitch and tie slipcover, a screen divider, a wrap and tie table cover, and a drawstring lampshade; and for a child's room: a knotted bed canopy, a puppet show theatre, and a toy hamper. Although most of the instruction is given step-by-step, the program does assume that the viewer has a basic knowledge of sewing. In the booklet which details the steps necessary for each of the projects and on the cover of the video, the sponsor "Wamsutta/Pacific Home Products" is prominently featured, but not so on the actual video. The Secrets of Decorating With Flowers and The Secrets of Entertaining With Flowers are a pair of posh and sometimes ludicrous "how-to's for the upper crust. Hosted by Renny Reynolds, a floral designer for presidents, art museums, and private clients, the programs are similar in style and content. Decorating is the weaker of the two. It begins with Reynolds pointing out some of his favorite flowers at New York's Flower Market--which just happen to be 90% imported from Amsterdam. Seems a bit odd, to moi, but then again there is a nice quote on the back of the video box from Bob Perilla "Director, North America, The Flower Council of Holland." Reynolds next demonstrates his decorating approaches to several different types of rooms, and offers a long discussion on flower containers. With JoAnn Barwick, the Editor-in-Chief of House Beautiful, the duo peruse back issues of HB and talk about the arrangements used in the pictures (which aren't reproduced as well as one would think HB would be capable of--a bit fuzzy), as well trends for the 90s (this is the ludicrous part; you'd think these people were talking about an art movement for all the pomp and power words used in the discussion.). Libraries would be much better off with Trinity Florist's Flower Arranging: The Basics. Entertaining is actually pretty good--no plugs for Dutch flowers, and a little more attention to hands-on instruction. While there is another powwow with Barwick, the majority of the program is given over to creating attractive table arrangements and topiary centerpieces. Decorating With Sheets is highly recommended (especially for those libraries who don't already own Onto's Weekend Makeover With Sheets). The Secrets of Entertaining With Flowers is recommended, but The Secrets of Decorating With Flowers is not a necessary purchase. (Available from: Creative Programming, Inc., 447 Battery, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94111.)