Flea Market Fabulous: Designing Gorgeous Rooms with Vintage Treasures by Lara Spencer is that rare book that uses budget friendly furnishings to create a well designed space that does not looks cheap. Lara Spencer has a flair for creating spaces that seamlessly blend the owner’s personality with practical elements that make the space livable.

The good news is that the book focuses on nine distinctly different rooms, including bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms and more. The bad news is that if you have seen Lara Spencer's TV makeover show on HGTV you have already seen 95% of what is in this book. The sensational spaces featured in the book range in style from a sophisticated dining room that gets a glamourous makeover in soft grays and white, a playful kitchen done in festive colors, a den that is warm and inviting, to her very own multipurpose studio that packs a lot of function and style into a small space.

Lara Spencer guides readers through the decorating process so they can envision the possibilities for doing their own home makeover. Throughout the book Lara Spencer shares her strategies on planning, shopping smart, and applying imagination to create beautiful homes that are as stylish as they are comfortable. She identi­fies the design dilemma for each room, creates a decorat­ing plan, makes a mood board for inspiration, compiles a shopping list, scours flea markets for the right furniture and accessories, restores and repurposes the pieces she finds and brings all the elements together in an attractive and functional space.

For all the DIY projects featured in the book, it emphasized pretty pictures and inspiring ideas over practical how to advice. The book includes before, during, and after photographs of her room makeovers. While there are a variety of helpful hints on turning flea market finds into more sophisticated looking furnishings sprinkled throughout the book, it doesn't go into detail on how to transform furnishings and accessories into the kind of polished treasures featured in the book. For DIY advice you can watch Youtube videos. For inspiration on how to turn low cost furnishings into a high end design look, read this book.