Don't Try This at Home The inevitable response to the proliferation of blogs and Web sites that fetishize home design is the onslaught of those dedicated to yanking the vintage Berber rug out from underneath the entire enterprise - Web sites like Unhappy Hipsters or that snarky Tumblr blog that hurls expletives at your Noguchi coffee table, your terrarium or any of the other accouterments of your oh so carefully curated abode. And then there is the blog Catalog Living, the comedian Molly Erdman's "glimpse into the exiting world of the people living in your catalogs." The people to which the title refers are Gary and Elaine, an imaginary couple who dutifully carry on their day-to-day existence in the overstyled pages of West Elm and Pottery Barn, right down to the strategically - or more to the point, incomprehensibly - placed buckets of starfish, gargantuan balls of twine and faux vintage wire bird cages stuffed full of books. "Catalog Living at Its Most Absurd" (Plume Original), out this month, follows Gary and Elaine on all-new adventures in domestic absurdity (in catalogs Erdman continues to plunder a bottomless supply of material); here Erdman also reads between the lines, providing useful advice to those who want to achieve these looks in their own homes. Take the living room: "Families enjoy kicking back in front of a roaring fire (preferably burning in a fireplace, but a disturbing amount of candles placed around the room will also work), watching television, and staring at, but never reading, books of coordinating hues," Elaine and Gary observe, acknowledging that not everyone has the same decorating agenda. Displaying a television is a lot like wearing a wedding ring: some people show theirs off, while others pretend it doesn't exist. Not all is bliss, of course. That odd piece of rusted aluminum siding does look good over the tiny rock wall in the TV room, Gary concedes. But when it comes to the taxidermied elephant, Elaine puts her foot down. "Yes Gary, another brilliant installation in your "literal metaphors" series," she says. Now get that thing back to the zoo before my book club arrives.