As we know with all things style, it's a very personal journey for any individual. What may resonate for some can fail to inspire another. Interior design like all facets of personal style is an emotional experience, it taps into memory, safety, joy. When we look to develop our space we look to these informed memories of our history and environment. It's elemental, and there are building blocks to the process that takes a little assistance.
For many individuals the new age experience of social media just doesn't cut the tactile experience or breadth of knowledge that you can gain from a hardback book. In recent years we've seen the return of interior design books in popularity, thanks to the display of many talented design artisans forwarding on their knowledgeable two cents. So if you're looking to embark on a new design journey and wondering which book is best, look no further!
Whether it's a coffee table book or educational resource, below are our selection of the best interior books for you.
Architectural Digest at 100
Originally published in accordance with the magazines 100th anniversary, this book covers a vibrant visual history of design from Architectural Digest. Here you'll find the best curated selects from the editors arsenal. The book includes over 100 years of design covering a range of subjects. This is for the budding designer who enjoys their history when putting together their personal home inspiration.
Tamsin Johnson: Spaces for Living
Internationally renowned for her high-end residential projects, Tamsin Johnson's work never fails to inspire. Her intuitive approach to design looks at both history and functionality, combing pieces from across decades and worldly landscapes. Her aesthetic honours the element of surprise, which she unleashes with a playful use of colour and scale. This is the perfect design dictionary for those who truly want to learn the art of conceptual coastal design.
Kelly Wearstler: Evocative Style
Honoured for luxe interiors that capture a snapshot of old-world Hollywood, Kelly Wearstler was originally made famous for her opulent designs of residences and boutique hotels. Her ornate interiors are distinctive for their layers of vibrant textures, patterns, and rich colours offset with lustrous objects. Here you'll get insight into her creative genius, profiling closely her latest residential and commercial designs. Packed full of ideas and beautiful images of many never-before- seen interiors, this is the inspirational handbook for any curious home decorator.
The Interior Design Handbook
When it comes to bibles of simple style you can't go past the Interior Design handbook. Pledged from design guru Frida Ramstedt, who single handedly shaped an entire generation of Scandinavian's in the art of creating a minimal home. Frida's philosophy lies in how we decorate, rather than what we decorate with. Frida introduces readers to the elemental principles behind interior styling -- what fits where and, the reason why it works the way it does. The book teaches the key features of styling -- including, the proper sizing of smaller objects to key pieces like a sofa, the idea height to hang fixtures, and the best ways to use a mood board--complete with helpful illustrations.
Woman Made
Women designers have always had a focal voice in the product design space, and thankfully there is now a celebration of this fact. Woman Made is a spectacular visual commemoration of the most awarded and impacted product design produced by women. Changing the dialogue for what is historically recognised as a man's industry. Featuring more than 200 designers from more than 50 countries, including icons and trailblazers past and present such as Ray Eames, Eileen Gray, Florence Knoll, Ilse Crawford, Faye Toogood, Nathalie du Pasquier.
Bunny Mellon Style
If you haven't discovered Bunny Mellon, you're in for a vibrant educational treat. Herein lies a book chronicling the American style icon and her life as an avid art collector. It shows in detail how her style developed and how she became a self-confident, hands-on designer of homes and gardens. The perfect coffee table book for art and design lovers!
Distinctly Modern Interiors
This wouldn't be a list of the best interior design books without an inclusion of mid century furniture. This is essential reading for followers of modernism and minimalism. Looking to decorate in a Modernist tradition. Emily Summers shares her foundations of the ideal modernist house: how the interior should reflect the setting; how to utilise fine art in a space; and why the interior and architecture must be linked. A must have for any fan of architecture.
New York School of Interior Design: Home
The essential interior design dictionary for all students of design, or those who are wanting to know all the nitty gritty details. Known for being the top college for interior design, The New York School of Interior Design: Home is a design school syllabus in a book, and an ideal reference guide for decorating the home.
The Kinfolk Home
For the ethical budding interior stylist, Kinfolk founder Nathan Williams showcases how the art of slow living can better simplify your life—allowing you to create a more considered, aesthetic, and intimate living space. Featuring a range of inspiring photographs and fascinating profiles, interviews, and essays, each home tour is guaranteed to inspire.
This is Home: The Art of Simple Living
Another essential pick for simple living, This Is Home is about finding ways to live minimally – an inspiring read on how to hone our values, to create authentic homes full of sentiment and happiness. Here Natalie Walton takes the reader through fifteen homes across the world, to meet the people who made them. Discovering along the way the universal laws of what makes us happy in our individual spaces.
Japanese Interiors
Get a inside look at the wide-ranging interior design styles of private residences in Japan. Author Mihoko Iida takes you through the philosophical and aesthetic influences on the country's signature interiors, and the continuing evolution of Japanese interior design.
1000 Chairs
An important pillar of interior design is of course, the humble chair. And for anyone interior design-inclined, this is the ultimate book on chair design history. It's a run down of the what, where, who and why of all the iconic silhouettes of the last two centuries – from Art Nouveau to International Style.
Scott Mitchell Houses
This gorgeously laid-out coffee table book surveys the impressible portfolio of architectural design by American architect Scott Mitchell. Mitchell's eye for minimalist, material-driven aesthetics, and emphasis on elegant spatial order make for some truly bucolic homes, each a terrific study of space, materiality, and light.
