Design Books I Recommend

Don't you hate wasting money on a book that doesn't deliver? It is always a gamble, buying a book. Some books are great, others not so much. I like reading design books and have a collection that I read over and over. The books reviewed today were all publications I read last year. I purchased all with the exception of receiving one as a gift, one I won from a blog, and two I got for free for writing a book review on my blog. So here is my take on the following:

Summers in France by Kathryn Ireland. This book is more of a diary and documentation of how she came to buy a home in France and the stories that went along with decorating it and living in France. I really enjoyed this book, although I thought it was going to be more about decorating than a diary. It turned out to be be an enjoyable read~Kathryn is kind of a bohemian free spirit, and I love how she makes big decisions on things~never looking back and carrying on when she stubs her toes (like getting divorced).

The book has hand written notes and sketches which I found charming. This book is so nice~I plan to give it to a girlfriend who has been to France and loves decorating and gardening. She reads my blog, so I might have just spilled the beans.

This is an old book that I bought used on Amazon by Bunny Williams, titled On Garden Style. It came without a book jacket and that was just fine with me. Did you know you can buy used books at a fraction of the cost if they are missing such things or have a little wear?

Bunny Williams home in Connecticut is just a marvel and I love her sense of style, especially in designing outdoor spaces and gardens. Lots of practical advice for the gardener in this volume, its a classic.

This is Bunny's greenhouse. I love all the choices she made using old cobblestones and peastone and antique bricks...this structure looks like it has always been here.

I got on a Betty Lou Phillips kick and ordered three of her books from Amazon. That is generally where I buy all my books. This one above is one of her early books. Some of the pictures are more dated, but at the discounted prices for older books, I wanted to add it to my collection on French decor.

These other two are bigger and loaded with glossy pics of gorgeous rooms all done in the french style.
If you can only buy one, get French Impressions! This book is not country french, it is grand french style~so feast your eyes on how the other half lives when you turn the pages.

Um, have you ever seen a marble tub like this one? I could have shared more pictures of gorgeous rooms, because it was so wonderful, but I have a lot of books to show you!

This book is by Carolyn Westbrook, The French Inspired Home. I was given this book by Cico publishers to do a review. I loved, loved, loved this book! It is more my style of french with chippy and shabby and a mix of high and low.

It has lots of pictures of Lauren Ross' home, who I think has the most wonderful house! Her white slipcovers are legendary in blogland. Lauren and I met through my blog, which is another reason why I love blogging! I was bragging about Lauren's style so much on my blog that one day she emailed me and after I fainted I wrote her back! She is a darling lady with great style and substance. I hope she writes her own book one day.

The French Inspired Home also showcases my favorite kitchen~this image has made the rounds in blogland as well.

The most recent book I read was Patina Style by Brooke and Steve Giannetti. My son asked my what I would like for Christmas, and I suggested this book. I wasn't planning on buying it because I thought I could find it all on Brooke's blog, Velvet and Linen. But I was very wrong! This book gives advice on how to do the things it takes to get their look. Loads of beautiful images fill the pages, and I can say it was one of my favorites of all the books I read in 2011.

This image is Brooke's home office. I love the mix of old and new, the french influences with a mix of some more masculine things. The perfect balance is what she and her husband have been able to achieve in decorating for both the man and the woman and their children. Hard to do!

HERS, by Jacqueline deMontravel is a new design book written for those looking to inject femininity into their spaces. Practical advice can be found here as well on how to do that~and she doesn't mean painting rooms pink and adding floral fabrics. I love to decorate with a romantic bent, and this book was wonderful because I could see all the ways feminine style can be achieved.

This grey washed book case is one example~paired with a french chair.

The cottage french look that I find so appealing. This book addresses interiors as well as outdoor spaces.

Pale and Interesting, by Atlanta Bartlett and Dave Coote came out a while ago. I got this early in the year. It is more farmhouse style oriented with a less is more type of decorating attitude.

Still there are pages of the more frenchy look I love, and the furntiure combinations in the rooms are certainly fresh.

However this industrial farmhouse whitewashed look is more of what is in this particular book.

Brunschwig and Fils Up Close is an older book and one I found at a bargain price on Amazon. This is a classic company in decorating and I was thrilled to add it to my collection, even if some of the images are dated. It has a history of the company as well as loads of decorated to the nines spaces.

Even though this room is over a decade old, it looks pretty up to date by today's standards.

This old chinoiserie fabric is one that Brunschwig and Fils resurrected. If you love the history of fabrics and want to learn more about a giant in the industry you might like this book as well as I did.

This was another old book about a legendary company~Scalamandre, Luxurious Home Interiors. Oh my, yes they were luxurious! This is a book on traditional style for the wealthy and discerning. I believe this company can claim most of the White House drapery fabrics and trims are by their company.

You will enjoy beautiful interiors, in a traditional style. Some of the rooms will show their age, as today's rooms seem to have less pattern and color, however tons of inspiration can be found here.

For example, a bathroom like this in toile is timeless!

Segreto Secrets to Finishing Beautiful Interiors by Leslie Sinclair was a book I won on the Skirted Round Table after they interviewed the author/artist. Wow! If you love painting or creating finishes, you will be so inspired by the things Leslie's company has done. Just gorgeous cabinetry finishes, wall finishes and just about every surface you can think of. And I am not talking about sponge painting!! These are sophisticated and elegant and drool worthy.

Here is a living room with beautiful finishes of a subtle nature.

Not only finishes, but you get to see the beautiful homes Leslie has worked on.

This book purchase, Mary McDonald Interiors, was a result of me falling in love with her on Million Dollar Decorators, a TV show on Bravo. You can read my post on the show here. I loved this book so much!! Mary is quite a kick #ss decorator I have to say. She can do it all~as I learned by reading this book. I thought of her as a glam queen from the TV show, but she can do so much more.

Her book is simply gorgeous, and I was totally inspired by her talents and vision. She nails elegance, and can turn a room around by just changing out paint colors. She loves to cover desk tops with fabrics and nailhead trim after painting them a glossy shade of fill in the color blank here.

She seems to have born with a silver spoon in her mouth~check out this lovely garden vignette with huge blue and white temple jars tucked in the boxwood hedges.

This ladies dressing room is brimming with pizazz and style. I am in love with the Louis XVI chair in blue velvet, the antiqued mirror dressing table, and surprisingly I loved the busy wallpaper too! Look at the feathers sticking out above the mirror. This is one of her glamour rooms for sure.

I had read a review that complained there were too many cutesy shots of Mary in the book. I disagree~I love seeing Mary doing her thing~look at how cool Mary is in her pink PJs on her bed.

Mary is also known for her love of Pagodas....she loves adding a little chinoiserie to a lot of her rooms. I noticed while watching her on Million Dollar Decorators that Mary tends to use a decorating formula of black and white (or cream) and one bold color. It is a sure fire recipe for drama. This book was a great read and is filled with lots of beautiful images on heavy glossy pages.

Now, the best I have saved for last. I got this book last Christmas, 2010. It is the BEST of the bunch!! My Passion For Design by Barbara Streisand is a knockout of a book if you love design. She is a brilliant woman who built a compound of houses with part of her fortune and she takes you on the journey of how she accomplished it all.

Inside the book cover you will see her hand written notes and sketches. She waited years to land this property and then left no stone uncovered to have it done the way she imagined it to be. I was really amazed by the details and her perfectionism and the lengths she went to create her perfect home.

This painted antique bathtub is in her private bath~a blogger friend of mine was asked out to Barbara's house to give her a quote on doing some work for her, including this tub. But alas she was too busy and had to turn Barbara down!! Wowsers~well it was a fun story to hear, and maybe one day she will blog about it.

Barbara had a whole room devoted to the planning of the home. She kept files and samples and models and sketches and everything she needed as this was quite an undertaking and she is very detail oriented. I think she admitted to being a pain in the neck at times.

She had inspiration boards for every part of the compound. This was before Pinterest, of course.

But the biggest thing that told me she was a genius was that she designed the house to look like two homes. The driveway side of the house looked like a Vermont barn type of residence.

And the ocean side facade with white clapboard looked like a Nantucket home! It is the same house!! With two facades! Brilliant~I would love that~ I would have a French countryside home and a New Hampshire Farmhouse....The book has this great centerfold pullout so you can see just how fabulous it is.

I loved this side of the house the most. She grew climbing roses up the pillars, she had glass instead of railings so she could see the ocean~

It is just breathtaking! It looks like a movie set. She tells how she does use movie set designers to help with some of the home designs and uses some Hollywood tricks too, like adding dust to paint to make it look like it is an older paint job with heavier chunks...

Barbara devotes sections of the books to things like her flower garden, her vegetable garden, her movie theatre room, her dressing room, her husbands office, her office, the kitchens, the step-daughters bedroom, her antique shops in the cellar, her water mill house (yup, she built a water mill), and on and on.