If you only plan to get one shelter mag...

House Beautiful is it.

When I began being interested in home decor I decided to subscribe to one magazine. I bought several at the newsstand to try out and settled on House Beautiful for my subscription. Why? I seemed to be the most balanced on many levels, modern vs. traditional, real life vs. fantasy, and not too crafty or too edgy. To prove my point just look at the ads, they include Roche Bobois and Dodge.

House Beautiful regularly features high-profile designers but doesn't worship them. There are in-depth articles as well as snippets of info on design trends. It eases you into the design world--and you can take in as much as you want. There are still a disproportionate number of articles on high-end living situations, but on balance I find them inspiring rather than defeating.

Some of my favorite features are
Ask the Experts-where you lean about various pieces of furniture, china, miscellaneous house stuff. Sort of like the Antiques Road Show.
The non-design articles--such as Phyllis Theroux's monthly article and the Thoughts of Home article provide a nice balance to the design content.

Today I subscribe to other magazines for variety, but I still get House Beautiful.