Holly Becker’s blog Decor8 is one of the most successful home and design blogs in the blogosphere today, and one of my regular sources of inspiration. After five years of creative, pretty and inspiring posts, Holly (with co-author Joanna Copestick) launched her own book, simply titled Decorate, last year.

I love Holly’s blog, so I was chuffed when she came to Amsterdam to launch her book last spring. And I was even happier when both my husband and I got have a bit of a chat with her before she signed my copy of her book.

My home decorating was already complete then, so I put the book away and forgot about it. Recently, while fighting off a case of cabin fever/winter blues, I decided to reshuffle things at home—so out came my still-pristine copy of Decorate.

“Rather than concentrating on one trademark look or particular design aesthetic, we have concentrated on ideas—more than one thousand of them—to provide fresh insight into how you can transform your home,” co-authors Holly and Joanna write in their introduction. Decorate is a book that delivers on that promise by providing copious amounts of inspiration (from large, colorful photos that mix detail shots and big-picture views, to pull quotes from big-name decorators and design bloggers) rather than a reading like a how-to manual. It’s an approach I like, because it allows an individual’s personality to really shine through in his or her own home.

Decorate is divided into five sections. The first, Shaping Your Space is the foundation for the rest of the book and guides you through seeing your space as, well, space—without the decorations, just as it is. As someone who’s not decorating from scratch and with all of my home furnishings pretty much locked down, I found this section the most useful relative to where I am in my home decorating process. It made me really think about how space is used in my home, triggering a major living room reshuffle (check out my blog to see how it turned out!).

The second section, Setting Your Style, takes you through five different style “personalities”: Simple, Modern, Natural, Flea Market, Colourful, Floral, Eclectic and Modern Glamour. It’s fun to leaf through each and discover which style you respond to, whether just one or a mix of several. When you do, it can feel like seeing a version of your own home—just more organized and perfectly styled for a photo shoot.

The range of styles made me consider not only what my own style is now, but also what I might want to possibly grow and evolve into. For example, I resonated most with Colourful Style, but Modern Glamour looks like a fun place to head towards when I leave my 30s behind.

Section three, Room by Room, organizes all this fabulous inspiration by room. As a freelance writer, I appreciated the addition of Creative spaces and Working from Home to the usual rundown of rooms. Finally, Decorate ends with a section called “Attention to Detail,” which supplies tons of ideas for the little touches that really make a house feel like a home, from hanging mirrors to cozy lighting to arranging flowers.

This final section is a perfect, sensible and natural place for all the detail shots that make design blogs like Holly’s look so pretty. I hate interior design books that are filled with nothing but nearsighted detail shots all throughout (how is a closeup shot of a handle of a pitcher or condensation on a glass supposed to help me create a stylish home?), so largely confining them to this section was an inspired idea.

If there’s anything about this book I did dislike, it’s the disconcerting lack of commas. Yes, commas—the kind that make all the difference between “Let’s eat Grandma” and “Let’s eat, Grandma”. Better editing could have eliminated a number of clunky run-on sentences that made me blink and reread them. However, that’s a minor quibble from an ex-copy editor; overall, I truly loved this book. Wherever you are in your decorating process—whether you’re just dreaming of your own place someday, starting out on your own, or seeking a new perspective in a home that you’ve loved for years—you’ll love the wisdom and inspiration in the colorful pages of Decorate.

Freelance writer Deepa Paul-Plazo lives in Amsterdam with her husband and cat. She travels, dabbles in creative pursuits, and swings wildly between having way too much and not enough free time. Follow her Amsterdam adventures on her blog (currystrumpet.blogspot.com) or on Twitter (@currystrumpet).