High Vibe Home

By Kirsten Yadouga, $45, Chronicle Books/Bookreps NZ

This is not a coffee table book stuffed with images of beautiful interiors. It’s about how to bring the right kind of energy to your home. The author argues that when the energy is right, you’ll want to stay for hours but when it’s not, the space will feel wrong, and negatively affect all areas of your life. It’s well accepted that interior colours can affect mood, that using texture can create a good vibe, that house plants and flowers can energise you and that incorporating feng shui principles works. This book talks about these but also goes a step further, covering how your star sign and chakras can affect how you feel in a space, and how using sound, crystals and burning herbs can help. This might make the book a bit too left-field for some, but there’s a lot of good content and advice here. Like how traffic flow, street appeal, having a set-down surface by each seat in the living room, styling a coffee table and mixing patterns can help provide the right energy. How having a matchy-matchy scheme can feel awkward, how to throw a great party and how to improve your sleep. An interesting and thought-provoking approach that’s worth a read.