Thinking about renovating? Then this “bible” of home improvement ideas belongs on your bookshelf.

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | A lot of what I know about how a house should work on the inside and mesh with the outside I learned from the bible. Not the authorized King James version but a book called A Pattern Language, a renovator’s bible that I return to repeatedly for inspiration and guidance.

First published decades ago, this tome consists of 1,170 tissue-thin pages of poetically written advice on how to make considered meaning-filled homes and communities. At its core are 253 simple patterns, each one an answer to a design problem, that can be used in any number of combinations to make a family home or a small commercial building—even layout an entire neighbourhood. Read more