33 Inspiring Design Books to Add to Your Cart Now

Jun 13, 2023

By Lila Allen, Mel Studach, Allie Weiss, Hannah Martin, Livia Caligor, Andrea Lewis, Shax Riegler, Rachel Davies, Katherine McLaughlin, Sam Cochran, and Alia Akkam

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What better way to spend the dog days of summer than with a stack of transportive, impeccably photographed design books? From Colin King’s gorgeously styled Arranging Things to Jacques Garcia’s expansive portrait of Villa Elena to DLN executive director Michael Diaz-Griffith’s tribute to a new generation of antique lovers, here are the best of the best decor and design books that have crossed the desks of AD editors lately. For interiors enthusiasts of all stripes, we recommend adding a few of these volumes to your collection—and settling in for an air-conditioned afternoon of visual delight.

Stylist Colin King kicks off Arranging Things with the declaration that “any object can be a thing of beauty.” He uses the rest of the book, written with Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest’s global features director (the foreword is from Robin Standefer of Roman and Williams), to prove that theory true. Throughout the pages of gorgeous photography, King, who has invigorated spaces from Malibu to New York with arrangements of unruly branches and dappled light alike, encourages readers to break out of their comfort zone by challenging them to amplify space constraints, embrace empty space, and unconventionally juxtapose objects to bring new meaning to their everyday environments. —Alia Akkam

Loretta Pettway Bennett belongs to a legendary group of makers in Boykin (a.k.a. Gee’s Bend), Alabama, where locals have assembled fabric scraps into improvisational quilts for generations. But on a not too distant evening, her work laid the foundation for community some 800 miles north. At Detroit’s Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum, a space dedicated to African culture, seven of her quilts were draped across outdoor tables, their geometric patterns perfect complements to the mosaic façades of the campus’s N’kisi House. Cinder blocks hand-painted by museum founder Olayami Dabls doubled as vases, mixing with 18th-century silver platters from Bolivia and Peru as well as everyday lawn chairs and drinks coolers. That banquet is one of 18 superlative scenes created for At the Artisan’s Table, a visually transporting tome by Jane Schulak, the founder of Culture Lab Detroit, and party maestro David Stark that explores the intersection of art, craft, and entertaining. Featured artisans range from Roberto Lugo—he made plate portraits specifically for the book—to Max Lamb, whose basalt crockery can also be found at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. “What we make defines who we are,” says Schulak. “Material culture is a celebration of civilization at that time. Each chapter tells those stories.” —Sam Cochran

The accomplished AD100 designers Jamie Drake and Caleb Anderson are New York’s dream team. Bold explores the duo’s design pedagogy as they take on spectacular projects around the world. With deep roots in New York City, the book explores how Anderson and Drake merge their unique approaches into authentic and cohesive environments. This book allows the reader to visually explore how the pair adjust to their client's unique tastes and spaces. From city lofts highlighting impressive views to projects that fold into nature, the team masterfully plays with tactile elements, color, and design. Each chapter captures their eccentric nature and expert ability to create moody interiors. —Andrea Lewis

Innovation may fuel the design industry, but Charm School is a comforting reminder that timeless interiors will endure. Emma Bazilian and Stephanie Diaz, the content director and art director, respectively, at Frederic magazine and FSCO Media, delve into such old-school design traditions as toile, chintz, bed hangings, slipcovers, and rattan, illustrating how these elements continue to hold contemporary appeal. The chapters are gloriously heavy on visuals, magnifying the likes of Matilda Goad’s denim-swathed breakfast nook and Rita Konig’s former fuchsia-drenched New York bedroom. Archival images also put the spotlight on nostalgic maximalism, including Parish-Hadley’s deft pairing of lucite with a wild strawberry motif. —A.A.

Designers Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen, partners in life and business, flit between their London apartment in Belgravia and their pastoral Sussex farmhouse. An Entertaining Life, with a foreword courtesy of Bunny Williams, encapsulates that domestic duality through breezy anecdotes. Almost reading like a diary, the book revolves around Moschino and Vergeylen’s weekly rituals—the relaxing Bloody Mary–propelled Sunday lunches in the countryside and late nights in London before retiring to a tranquil primary bedroom done up in white and tan among them—and touches upon some of their projects, spanning Sicily and the Dominican Republic. A smattering of recipes, one of which is for the late fashion designer Bill Blass’s meatloaf, add a quaint touch. —A.A.

Vicente Wolf, the Cuban-born, veteran New York designer, melds sophistication and simplicity with ease, and Creative Interior Solutions offers a peek into that harmonious world. Written with AD’s own former editor in chief Margaret Russell and featuring a foreword from friend and client Marianne Williamson, the book breaks down 15 of Wolf’s projects organized by five sections—Design Evolutions, Design Challenges, Design Integrations, Design Reinventions, and Design Freedom—including the refresh of a New York apartment on Fifth Avenue that called for repurposing furniture, and dancer Shelley Washington and yoga master David Swenson’s Austin cottage that required a new layout. Wolf closes the chapters with Design Lessons, empowering readers to consider additions like folding screens that play with light and built-in banquettes that free up floor space. —A.A.

In this book written by AD100 decorator Alex Papachristidis with AD contributing editor Mitchell Owens, readers will find clues on how to live excellently. Leafing through the pages feels like being swaddled in sumptuousness, but for Papachristidis, elegance is less about overt lavishness and more about thoughtful refinement. In a chapter about a house in the Hamptons, he shares his belief that clients should not necessarily part with their existing furnishings. “Objects that you have lived with and loved forever add a layer of familiarity,” he explains. Elsewhere, Papachristidis deftly juxtaposes classic silhouettes and traditional floor plans with energetic art and youthful splashes of color. The key to living an elegant life, it seems, is ensuring your surroundings are not only beautiful, but also deeply personal. This ethos carries through to the near-final chapter, in which the designer shares his tips for hosting—a practice of using your home as a means to forge deeper connections and intimacy. —Allie Weiss

Around the office of San Francisco–based firm Tucker & Marks, design principal Suzanne Tucker has earned the nickname of “the client whisperer” for her ability to play archaeologist, anthropologist, and psychologist in her consultations. (On occasion, “mediator” makes the list too.) In her new tome Extraordinary Interiors, readers are treated to the richly layered results of her latest findings: 11 authentically designed and geographically diverse residences, each embedded with personal touches and requests that surfaced during client meetings—or the “excavation process,” as Tucker dubs it. Rife with photography and essays that teach lessons on how to translate client desires into cohesive, compelling settings, the book offers plenty to treasure. —Mel Studach

Argentine photographer and writer Miguel Flores-Vianna, whose work has made frequent appearances in AD (he collaborated with global editorial director Amy Astley on 2017’s Haute Bohemians), may live in London, but he relishes every visit he makes to Greece. The country first seduced him as a child, and Haute Bohemians: Greece makes it clear why it left such an impression. Readers are transported to stunning locations like Paros, Patmos, and Corfu, where they are beckoned into 19 mesmerizing settings. “I decided that each of these places, whether old or new, lived-in or a historical destination, should be a true representation of those who had created it, an extension of their inhabitants’ lives and one that clearly spoke of the geography of their experiences,” Flores-Vianna writes. Look out for Jasper Conran and Oisin Byrne’s rustic home in Rhodes, stitched together a century ago from a duo of 500-year-old dwellings, or the François Louis Florimond Boulanger-designed Queen’s Tower, outside of Athens, that Amalia of Oldenburg, Greece’s first queen, established in 1835 as her own neo-Gothic-style playground. —A.A.

Italian writer and horticulturist Umberto Pasti and photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo rekindle their professional relationship in The House of a Lifetime, a follow-up to 2019’s Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco. This time around, the focus is on Tebarek Allah, the rambling Tangier villa that Pasti and his partner, fashion designer Stephan Janson, bought some three decades ago. There are plenty of museum-quality pieces to ogle in the book, such as 16th-century Mamluk Egyptian carpet fragments and a Tétouan wedding trunk from the 19th century. These treasures are accompanied by Pasti’s insights on local design traditions, from Jbala Berbers’ painted furniture and Fez tiles. In the foreword, landscape architect (and Pasti and Janson’s longtime friend) Madison Cox attests to Tebarek Allah’s magic, which Pasti says boils down to simplicity: “I just put the objects I like in the rooms and when it comes to arranging them I pander to their wishes.” —A.A.

There may be industries in which, as they say, the shoemaker’s children go barefoot—but interior design does not appear to be one of them. Bearing out the point is this compilation of homes from 60 of the most-loved designers working today, from Jacques Garcia to Joy Moyler. These abodes are true talent showcases, laboratories for experimentation, and repositories for to-die-for collections of furniture and objets amassed over a lifetime. Regular readers of AD will love diving into the lairs of familiar designer power couples like Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch (the founders of Roman and Williams) and Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent. Paola Navone’s Milan pad gets a juicy six pages—all the better for showing off her mosaic feature wall and a tremendous fish sculpture the designer sourced in Liguria. “I’m not a collector, I’m a compulsive shopper,” she says. Can’t we all relate? —Lila Allen

To unravel Sicily’s deep-rooted beauty and intricate history, author Alain Stella looks to the residence of revered interior designer Jacques Garcia. This first look at Garcia’s own home—lovingly referred to as Villa Elena—provides a dreamlike tour through Italy’s wondrous landscapes and diverse cultural aesthetic, not to mention treasures galore from Villa Elena’s hallowed halls. Within the pages of A Sicilian Dream, photographer Bruno Ehrs has shared riveting scenes that open our eyes to Garcia’s profound appreciation for historical design and architecture. Running through all of them is a commitment to historical preservation. Baroque, Renaissance, Norman, and Arabian artifacts melt into Italy’s visual landscape, as well as within Garcia’s opulent saloons, furniture, and art collection. —A.L.

Executive features editor of Vogue Japan, Mihoko Iida, explores the style and furnishing of her home country in Japanese Interiors. Featuring contributions from Danielle Demetriou, the book covers 28 homes spanning urban apartments to oceanside getaways and is divided into three distinct sections. Aspirational homes make up the first third, offering a look at magazine-worthy residences that often feature monochromatic and minimalistic designs. The next section looks towards homes that incorporate offices, shops, and even a restaurant, emphasizing multipurpose residences as a continuously evolving part of Japanese design. Historic and iconic homes round out the collection, showcasing historically significant or publicly accessible homes around the country. —Katherine McLaughlin

With his new monograph Destinations, French interior designer Jean-Louis Deniot showcases his skillful eye in projects across the world, from Bangkok to New Delhi, Moscow to Miami. In the introductory interview, conducted by curator Pamela Golbin, Deniot explains his guiding principle: “First you have to start by doing justice to the piece of real estate. I think that’s what I love the most: saving houses and apartments,” he explains. “I always have the impression that with architectural integrity comes a sense of serenity.” His taut spaces do indeed provide the perfect campus for more demanding embellishments, from custom patterned carpeting to dependably ornate light fixtures. —Rachel Davies

Design is a truly collaborative process, and architect John Ike underscores that approach in John Ike: 9 Houses, 9 Stories. Written with Mitchell Owens, American editor at The World of Interiors, the book surveys nine distinct projects that Ike, a partner at Ike Baker Velten in Oakland, California, worked on in various capacities. (Ike Kligerman Barkley, the firm he cofounded in 1989, dissolved in 2022.) Although each one bears his visionary imprint, Ike does not limit these intriguing narratives to his purview, but rather welcomes his colleagues and clients to share their perspectives. Mia Jung, former director of interiors, weighs in on the Jersey Shore’s Seaside Villa, restoration expert Robert A. Baird discusses the rehab of the late 19th-century Oddfellows Hall in Brooklin, Maine, and contractor Frank DeBono recounts the challenges of a New York Craftsman-style residence. —A.A.

British talent Lee Broom found his way to lighting and furniture design through fashion, first as a 17-year-old intern in the studio of Vivienne Westwood (they met when he won a design competition for which she was the judge) and then as a student at Central Saint Martins. It was a casual proposal to redesign a local bar, during his studies, that shifted Broom onto the design track. Now, 15 years after launching his label of lighting, furniture, and accessories, he is still mining the fashion world for inspiration, as one can see in his first book, Fashioning Design written by journalist Becky Sunshine with texts from fashion-world luminaries: Stephen Jones, Christian Louboutin, Kelly Wearstler, and a note from Westwood herself. The tome examines Broom’s prolific output, perfectionist process (including his own charming doodles and diagrams), and wide-ranging sources of inspiration, proving, as Jones explains, that “what Lee designs is not just a lamp or just a chair, but an object created with a unique character of its own.” —Hannah Martin

Initiating a design project, whether it’s a renovation or a brand-new home, is a daunting process—one that prolific lifestyle and design author Susanna Salk simplifies in Making a House a Home. All the key components, from walls and floors to windows and plants, receive attention, helping readers create beautiful, functional rooms through the advice of design experts. Each chapter is peppered with handy tips, like AD100 designer Gil Schafer’s recommendation to elevate bathrooms with furniture. Examples of smart design, including Nina Campbell’s house numbers displayed in sconces and Bunny Williams’s multifunctional bedroom nightstand always dressed with fresh florals, provide further motivation. —A.A.

An addition to a Colonial-style home in New Jersey; a new Jackson, Wyoming, abode boxed in by community design guidelines; a Nolita storefront for skin care brand Malin + Goetz: Each of these present “obvious” fixes or takes, but in them, Messana O’Rorke opted for only the most creative solutions. Their thoughtfully subdued projects speak for themselves, but the pages of their new monograph are enlivened with the addition of a foreword by Thomas Phifer and an introduction by Mayer Rus, AD’s own West Coast editor. More than two dozen projects appear in the volume, including retail spaces, a spa, many homes, and perhaps most interesting: a New York City rooftop water tank reimagined as a space for relaxation. —R.D.

What is Mexican style? is the question that drives author Newell Turner through this evocative, deliciously visual book. Having held the top-dog role at House Beautiful, along with plum positions at a host of other shelter publications, Turner is something of a legend in the design press. He also happens to be a talented photographer; impressively, he captured more than half of the shots in this volume using his own iPhone (something you’d never guess while poring over their vivid details and ravishing colors). Through these pages, Turner takes readers through different eras of Mexican architecture and art, starting with pre-Columbian artifacts and ending with the present day. After flipping from cover to cover, you’ll have inspiration aplenty—and a newfound urge to travel to Mexico and see its wonders for yourself. —L.A.

Sitting along California’s central coast, Montecito has long gained a reputation for its rich collection of Mediterranean-style architecture, miles of pristine coastline, and a dense number of high-profile residents—think Oprah Winfrey, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Rob Lowe, and Ariana Grande. In a new book from Monacelli, photographer Firooz Zahedi and writer Lorie Dewhirst Porter, two Montecito locals, take you inside the homes and gardens of this star-studded California enclave. With over 250 images and a foreword by Marc Appleton, the book is a cultivated walk through the history and style of the idyllic seaside community. Featuring everything from Beaux-Arts mansions to sophisticated midcentury-modern homes, there is no one size fits all when it comes to California cool. —K.M.

Following his volumes Interior Design Master Class and On Style, marketing whiz and former textile designer Carl Dellatore is making his return with More Is More Is More, an ode to maximal living. Filled with vibrant, exciting interiors from Ken Fulk, Bunny Williams, Corey Damen Jenkins, Redd Kaihoi, and other AD faves, this book offers a portrait of how contemporary designers have made the maximalist style their own. Each chapter contains an essay on a different theme of decorating, from color to surfaces, layering to pattern. Inspiration galore for anyone who believes in going big at home. —L.A.

What is old is wonderfully in vogue again. That’s the feeling that permeates Michael Diaz-Griffith’s The New Antiquarians. Diaz-Griffith, executive director of the Design Leadership Network, invites readers into 17 different homes, from New Orleans to London, whose youthful dwellers represent a new generation of thoughtful collectors imaginatively preserving material culture. This movement is especially active in New York, and Diaz-Griffith illuminates it by stepping into various abodes across the city. Fashion designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla and Aaron Singh Aujla of Green River Project, for example, have a soft spot for senior corduroys in their Chinatown loft, while Adam Charlap Hyman of AD100 firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero effortlessly weaves objects like a 19th-century majolica table into his midtown Manhattan apartment. —A.A.

For much of her career, Nicola L., the French artist born in Morocco, was overlooked. But her multidisciplinary oeuvre was pioneering, exploring ideas of gender and identity. In the monograph Nicola L: Life and Art, edited by Architectural Digest’s senior design editor Hannah Martin and Apartamento cofounder Omar Sosa, these works, like the White Femme and Gold Femme commodes in lacquered wood and stained birch, respectively, and Planet Heads #5, a melange of oil paint and newspaper clippings on canvas, get their due. Even more interesting is how they are placed alongside Nicola L’s own words, creating a visual memoir. Her intoxicating reminiscences of time spent in a Lebanese jail and staying at the Hotel Chelsea at the height of 1960s counterculture are balanced with observations from those closest to her, including her sons Christophe and David Lanzenberg. —A.A.

What’s the formula for achieving a cozy interior that’s a little of this, but not too much of that? Chris Mitchell and Pilar Guzmán, the New York couple whose tastemaking acumen has earned them features in AD and elsewhere, believe it’s all about “mixing modern design with timeworn materials,” as they write in the foreword of their latest book, Patina Modern. This philosophy is one they’ve learned on their own over the course of seven home renovations—and now, they’re sharing their principles and best practices with the rest of us. Covering everything from timeless material palettes to their nine-point treatise on creating a meaningful, homey space, this is a design book for anyone who believes that rooms should be practical as much as they are aspirational. —L.A.

When Giorgio Armani launched his eponymous luxury label in 1975, he forever transformed the notion of Italian style. In Per Amore, an expansion of the fashion designer’s 2015 autobiography (rolled out in tandem with the brand’s 40-year anniversary), there are riveting images, some of them capturing Armani’s early years in black and white. Even more compelling, however, are Armani’s recollections—his musings on his family, his childhood, and the origins of a fabled career that unfolded in a heady 1960s Milan. But Armani doesn’t just revel in the past. His memories are buoyed by present-day inspirations that reveal an unwavering creativity. —A.A.

This beautifully photographed volume is a step inside the mind of Thomas Kligerman, one of America’s most renowned living architects. Over more than 40 years in the field, Kligerman has taken the historic, familiar shingle style and made it his own, remixing it with elements of the Southwest’s puebloan genre. But this is not architecture purely for architecture’s sake: Kligerman’s houses seem imminently livable, if aspirational to most of us. This tour through his portfolio will immerse readers in homes from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Martha’s Vineyard and the Pacific Northwest, and offers eloquent accompaniment through the delightful writing of Kligerman and AD alum Mitchell Owens. Prepare to be transported. —L.A.

For his third book, AD100 designer Stephen Sills aimed to create what he called a “teaching book,” one that would demystify the process by which impeccably decorated rooms come into existence. More than just a compendium of beautiful pictures, this volume’s essays and captions gather Sills’s thoughts on the arts of decorating and architecture as well as on the spaces—primary, functional, and connective—that comprise a home. It also features in-depth chapters on several recent projects, each starting with a moodboard showing the initial inspiration for the final look. Readers also get to go inside Sills’s own homes: his New York City apartment and Bedford, New York, country retreat, both of which function as canvases on which he experiments with new ideas. With text by fellow AD100 designer—and erudite design writer—David Netto, as well as an introductory essay by longtime client Tina Turner and a chat on gardens with friend and neighbor Martha Stewart, this is indeed a book to learn from and be inspired by. —Shax Riegler

For designer Suzanne Kasler, the word editing isn’t synonymous with elimination. Rather, “When I use the word editing to describe my approach, I mean I am working to put together a house that looks collected, reflects the personality of the owners through the things they choose to live with, and at the same time elevates the overall design,” she shares within her new monograph, Edited Style. While Kasler’s traditional interiors—elegantly composed without an air of fussiness—have their signature elements (think antiques scoured from the Paris Flea Market; soft, serene color palettes; an oh-so-sweet scenic wallpaper from Gracie or de Gournay), the designer’s true mastery is in making each client’s personal collections shine. This and more is seen throughout this book’s 14 featured home tours. A favorite? The revived interiors of Kasler’s own Atlanta home, where she beautifully displays her glistering collection of Eiffel Tower miniatures. —M.S.

Leslie Banker’s mother was the celebrated designer Pamela Banker (they wrote The Pocket Decorator and The Pocket Renovator together), and in 1999, Leslie helped Pamela relaunch her firm, working with her until Pamela’s death in 2013. Later, Leslie started her own eponymous New York practice, and to this day it’s guided by some of her mother’s impactful philosophies. One of those lessons is that all good design is rooted in storytelling—and now that advice, along with how to anchor a room, develop a furniture plan, and avoid pitfalls, is packed in Think Like a Decorator. Q&A interviews with fellow designers like Corey Damen Jenkins, Lilly Bunn, and Alexa Hampton, who also penned the foreword, present even more enlightening takeaways. —A.A.

After training with British decorator David Mlinaric, Tino Zervudachi moved to Paris in 1990, where he soon became renowned for his lavish interiors that fuse a respect for architecture and lifestyle. Tino Zervudachi: Interiors Around the World, his second book with Natasha A. Fraser (they also collaborated on 2012’s Tino Zervudachi: A Portfolio) highlights such dreamy projects as the neglected neo-Renaissance Austrian villa he enlivened with a staircase and marbleized columns, the New Delhi palace filled with custom furniture that evokes Indian tradition, and the early 19th-century Belgravia corner building, once a London office, that he overhauled with dado paneling and antique fireplaces. But these sweeping moves were all grounded in practicality. As British photographer Derry Moore writes of Zervudachi in the foreword, “He has an outstanding gift for making interior spaces work, which in the final analysis is far more important than the decoration of a place, since if the overall design is poor the decoration can only mask the shortcomings, not remedy them.” —A.A.

From Waterworks cofounder Barbara Sallick—and author of the critically acclaimed The Perfect Bath and The Perfect Kitchen—comes The Ultimate Bath, a volume that details the sumptuous style and serenity of the bathroom. Written by design journalist and AD contributor Marc Kristal with a foreword from Waterworks CEO Peter Sallick, the book celebrates the unexpected, with 150 photos sure to inspire its design aficionado readers. Its chapters are dedicated to a distinguished cast of the top architects and interior designers working today, including names like Ray Booth and AD’s October cover star Nate Burkus. From retreats overlooking garden paradises to cozy alcoves lined with bookshelves, the curation brims with timelessness, intrigue, and charm. —Livia Caligor

Roland Beaufre immerses readers in a tropical wonderland in his debut monograph Under the Sun: Around the World in 21 Houses. The internationally renowned interiors photographer—who’s contributed to The World of Interiors, Vogue, and Marie Claire Maison, just to name a few—invites us into the sun-washed abodes of creatives around the globe. Seductive, enchanting, and evocative, the photographs bring us into these exclusive private retreats. From Deborah Turbeville’s fashion editorial backdrop in San Miguel de Allende to Farah Pahlavi’s Iranian-style palace in Taroudan, Morocco, the homes that Beaufre photographs reflect the extraordinary imaginations and histories of their residents. The nuanced and captivating photography is accompanied by forewords penned by Rupert Thomas and the founders of Studio Peregalli. —L.C.

A scholarly air suffuses Venice and the Doges, by Francesco “Toto” Bergamo Rossi, head of the Venetian Heritage Foundation. Venice is synonymous with art, but usually it’s the Renaissance paintings that first spring to mind. This handbook urges readers to investigate Venetian sculptural masterpieces, some of them dating back to the 13th century, through the lens of the city’s rich doge history. Beginning with Tribuno Menio (or Memmo) in AD 991 and ending with Ludavico Manin, the final doge, in 1789 through 1797, Rossi uncovers monumental sculptures by artists and architects like Baldassare Longhena, Antonio Rizzo, and Jacopo Sansovino that grace the city’s churches. The volume includes an introduction by Count Marino Zorzi, Matteo De Fina’s photographs, and contributions from Diane von Furstenberg and Peter Marino. —A.A.