The Bee Cottage Story: How I Made a Muddle of Things and Decorated My Way Back to Happiness

            Frances Schultz, the author, can list several accomplishments to her resume. She is a blogger (FrancesSchultz.com), author and co-author of several books, a contributing editor to House Beautiful, has appeared on several television shows, and more. Here she presents a combination memoir and home decorating guide; showing us her inner soul and her home and how she was able to develop both.

            The reader learns about Frances’s abilities and accomplishments during her early years, in her career and the social/emotional realm. Yet as she approached the age of fifty, she broke off a relationship just before the wedding because she realized that she wasn’t being true to herself and her fiance. At loose ends, Frances decided to cope psychologically by throwing herself into a renovation project. Before she broke off her engagement, Frances, with her fiance’s approval, had purchased a small cottage in East Hampton. She threw herself into the project; its details are recorded here with helpful decorating guidelines and accompanied by appealing before-and-after photographs taken by Trevor Tondro.    

            Happily, Frances succeeds in both creating her new home and recovering emotionally. This book is based upon the House Beautiful magazine series on the makeover of Bee Cottage.