3 Interior Design / Interior Styling Books I can safely recommend [ useful and beautiful ].
It’s sooo hard to find a good interior design or interior styling book… many offer just beautiful “inspirational“ pictures and hardly any structure or real benefit in terms of knowledge. I love coffee table books and I’ll write about them later, but today I’m talking about another kind of books - those which you read with a notepad and pencil). These three books are very different but all were super-useful for me and one of them was not only useful but also truly delightful for my eyes and heartwarming.
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Patina Modern: A Guide to Designing Warm, Timeless Interiors. / by Chris Mitchell, Pilar Guzmán.
A rare combination of beauty and real practical benefit in one book. Favorite quote (ok, one of my favorites) from Patina Modern:
[ “Navajos deliberately sew a mistake into everything they make, as a kind of acknowledgment of the imperfection of life. Given the homogenization of design, I believe that seeing human fingerprints and human foibles is more powerful than ever - in terms of the actual objects, and the point of view of the design. Imperfection is key.“ ]
Filled with discreet advice that does not even sound like advice, more as if someone was just telling the story of their life, and you were listening and taking notes… And then you realize that you have the full notebook of freshly acquired knowledge. Add eye-pleasing pictures of elegant timeless interiors and objects and here it is - Patina Modern.
The Interior Design Handbook: Furnish, Decorate, and Style Your Space. / by Frida Ramstedt.
Unsurpassed so far in my library concentration of practical benefits in one book. Favorite quote from The Interior Design Handbook:
[ “Signs of life are the last details necessary to bring a room alive - things that remind you it is lived in: a pair of spectacles or favourite old slippers, a morning cup of coffee beside an armchair. These are the kinds of things that get cleared away before a photo is taken for Instagram or for an article in a magazine, but they are otherwise there every day, creating a lived-in feel and the wonderful sense that someone has made themselves at home.“ ]
The most useful and well-structured handbook in terms of practical advice, tips, and tricks for those who are deeply interested in interior design / interior styling for their private purposes. I believe one can really manage the whole home decoration project and make your home not only “instagrammable“, but also “livable“ being armed with knowledge acquired from this book.
Where to buy: paper copy here or in different formats here.
“The Fundamentals of Interior Design” by Simon Dodsworth and Stephen Anderson / 2nd edition.
I believe this book is a must-read for aspiring interior designers - in addition to practical benefits, it definitely has a calming effect and "gives designers a belief in their own abilities“. Favorite quote from The Fundamentals of Interior Design:
[ “Designers should realize that they are not alone when undertaking a project. Other professionals can be brought in as required to add their expertise to the project…“ ]
(touched me, even though I’m not going to become an interior designer and I can only imagine how important this simple thought can be for aspiring interior designers).
This book is more about the profession of an interior designer, rather than for the private purpose of your own home design/decoration. Uncovers step-by-step processes and best practices when working with clients, “from researching initial ideas to realizing them in three-dimensional form“ - but still written in a very easy-to-read style and flavored with lots of amazing examples and case studies.
I do not have a paper copy of this book at home, I read it via the Perlego app - though I love reading paper books, sometimes I understand that it is more rational to read some books as an e-book, particularly when I know that I’ll have to make a lot of notes, search the text back and forth, etc - all the things that are much easier with an app that offers the necessary functionality.
Where to buy: buy a paper copy or buy as eBook or read online with Perlego (free trial period available!).
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Enjoy reading! :)
