Clear off your bookshelves. A whopping 25 design books are set to debut throughout the month of October from Mario Buatta’s highly anticipated first monograph to Howard Slatkin’s philosophy on home and Lisa Newsom’s second book on outdoor living. Below is a list of titles to consider for your design library this season.
Mario Buatta: Fifty Years of American Interior Decoration (Rizzoli) explores the design titan’s legacy throughout his long reign over the industry. Influenced by Colefax and Fowler and Sister Parish, Buatta reinvented the English Country House style stateside for clients such as Henry Ford II, Barbara Walters, Malcolm Forbes and Mariah Carey, and for Blair House, the President’s guest quarters. This lavishly illustrated survey—filled with images taken for shelter magazines as well as many unpublished photographs from the designer’s own archive—closely follows Buatta’s highly documented career from his professional start in the 1950s working for department store B. Altman & Co. and Elisabeth Draper, Inc. to his most recent projects.
The work of award-winning interior designer Thomas Pheasant is best described as “simply serene.” Hence, the title of his new book Simply Serene (Rizzoli) explores Pheasants interiors that are balanced with classical elements like recessed paneling, pilasters, crown-moldings and carved plaster garlands, along with modern details, such as a scroll coffee table and a room screen of ribbed, translucent glass. This new book gives the reader a sensible approach to interior design, presenting models of Pheasant’s work.
In this follow-up to the bestselling Brooklyn Makers, Southern Makers: Food, Design, Craft, and Other Scenes from the Tactile Life (Princeton Architectural Press), photographer Jennifer Causey returns to her Southern roots to introduce readers to a group of artisans with a long tradition of craftsmanship and a vibrant cultural history. In communities across the South, a thriving creative revival is underway. In the book, Causey captures this movement by documenting twenty-five of the area's most celebrated craftspeople. This mix of established and up-and-coming makers includes bakers, textile artists, denim designers, jewelers, woodworkers, brewers and farmers.
The Detailed Interior: Decoration Up Close with Cullman & Kravis (The Monacaelli Press) by Ellie Cullman and Tracey Purzan, reveals through lavish full-color images how Cullman & Kravis achieve their interiors—from classic New York City pied-à-terres and townhouses to vast Connecticut estates, airy Floridian mansions to luxurious ski retreats.
Style icon Aerin Lauder shares her ideas on what it means to live beautifully in her new book Beauty at Home (Potter Style). For the first time, she shares memories of the family celebrations and world travel that formed her sense of style. Lauder opens the doors to her New York apartment, where on any given night she might host a relaxed dinner with friends under a vintage French chandelier or, just as often, an impromptu get-together for her sons. She also reveals how she preserved her grandmother Estée's heritage in her former Hamptons home while adding her own twists. The traditions Aerin has created in her own family—from pool parties with her sons to walks along the beach collecting sea glass to breezy summer lunches—are illustrated in photographs by Simon Upton.
Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley (The Monacelli Press) surveys the majestic landscape that borders the Hudson River, an area rich in history and unique garden designs. Written by Jane Garmey and photographed by John M. Hall, the book features twenty-six private gardens, chosen to establish a sense of place and to convey the romance of the landscape.
Suzanne Tucker, a perennial on the AD100 Top Designers list, shows opulent Napa Valley estates, glamorous penthouses on the San Francisco Bay, and art-filled apartments in her new book Suzanne Tucker Interiors: The Romance of Design (The Monacelli Press).
In the follow-up to the bestselling American Modern, Aero celebrates 20 years of the famed Aero Design Studio with an intimate look at founder Thomas O’Brien’s design philosophy. From his vivid reminiscences about his early days in art school in Manhattan to the opening and development of his paired studio and store, Aero: Beginning to Now (Abrams) covers the history and aesthetic of this Soho, New York, landmark.
Award-winning interior designer Timothy Corrigan provides inspiration and instruction in the art of French decoration and living with the story of his own restored French chateau. An Invitation to Chateau du Grand-Luce: Decorating a Great French Country House (Rizzoli) welcomes readers to Chateau du Grand-Lucé, Corrigan’s home in the Loire Valley. Corrigan purchased the chateau in 2004 and set about restoring the house to its full French glory with his signature mix of continental elegance and California comfort. The book travels from the entry hall to the bedrooms, as Corrigan offers decorating advice based on his experiences.
The essential purpose of a staircase is utilitarian: to facilitate ascent and descent. Yet the design of even the simplest stair is complex, requiring great knowledge, skill, and ingenuity. Staircases: The Architecture of Ascent (Vedome Press) by Oscar Tusquets Blanca and Martine Diot showcases the diversity of staircases over the centuries, from the stepped pyramids of the Maya to the exquisitely proportioned stairs of the Renaissance, to the elaborate balustraded confections of the Baroque period, to the virtuosic, computer-aided designs of today.
Sandra Nunnerley has worked on prestigious residential interior design commissions around the world—from urban apartments and town houses to tropical getaways to country homes and estates—for over 20 years. Sandra Nunnerley Interiors (powerHouse Books) chronicles Nunnerley's design vision, as expressed through these exquisite projects. Illustrated with photography thematically organized in chapters on Serenity, Individuality, Refinement, Glamour, and more, the book documents how a wide variety of inspirations, including her globe spanning travels.
Following up the best-selling Farrow and Ball Living with Colour, new book Farrow and Ball Decorating with Colour (Ryland Peters & Small) by Ros Byam Shaw features a fabulous range of homes, all of which have been specially photographed for the book. Whether an Italian palazzo, a converted factory in Paris, the attic of an Amsterdam canal house, or a family home in Denmark, these are interiors are full of fresh ideas and clever ways to use paint and wallpaper.
Howard Slatkin’s philosophy is that a home should be a deeply personal refuge that gives pleasure and comfort. Focusing on his own masterfully imagined Fifth Avenue apartment, Fifth Avenue Style: A Designer’s New York Apartment (Vendome Press), demonstrates how any space can achieve a level of sophisticated calm through careful lighting and floor planning, clever arrangement of furniture, and decorative displays. Throughout the book, Slatkin shares his methods for creating unique, personal rooms that are comfortable and functional as well as beautiful, and reveals his secrets to entertaining with ease and flair.
Scalamandré is revered for its comprehensive offerings of fabrics, wallcoverings and trims available to-the-trade through design centers across the United States, Europe, and Asia. The book Scalamandré: Haute Décor (Gibbs Smith), written by company President Steven Stolman, celebrates the world of Scalamandré as seen through the eyes of the international design elite while paying homage to the people, places and events that contributed to the nearly cinematic Scalamandré story.
The first book to focus on the solo residential work of the visionary interior decorator Stephen Sills, Stephen Sills: Decoration (Rizzoli) is a follow-up to his best-selling book Dwellings. In the book, Sills presents sixteen homes, gorgeously photographed by the legendary François Halard, in locations as varied as a penthouse on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, a modern Aspen retreat, an estate on the North Shore of Long Island, and his own country house in Bedford, New York.
From the Land: Backen, Gillam & Kroegger Architects (Rizzoli) is an artful exploration of the architecture firm’s aesthetic, featuring farmhouses in the Napa Valley, hilltop homes, seaside retreats, and lakeside hideaways. Throughout the work, a sense of intimacy, warmth, and informality pervades. Natural materials, such as wood, stone, and brick, form the foundations, walls, and ceilings of these subtly luxurious spaces, while nature itself plays a considered role that is at once complementary and also intricately conjoined with the work.
Allan Greenberg: Classical Architect (Rizzoli) is the architect’s long-awaited monograph that showcases the skills that distinguish him from the rest—from a broad range of works and decorative expression to the thoughtful doses of detailed ornament and traditionally styled façades he’s known for.
Lavishly illustrated, Suzanne Kasler: Timeless Style (Rizzoli) showcases a range of Kasler’s projects, from a luxurious Georgian mansion in Atlanta’s Buckhead to a sophisticated farmhouse in Tennessee and a beach house in Watersound, Florida.
Following the best seller Axel Vervoordt: Timeless Interiors, Axel Vervoordt: Living with Light (Flammarion) explores twenty bespoke interiors designed by the Axel Vervoordt company. Each room incorporates natural elements—light, water, metal, wood—blended with a modern aesthetic and punctuated with fine art.
Take a private tour of magnificent homes, with their lush gardens, elegant courtyards, and inviting pools set amid breathtaking landscapes with VERANDA The Art of Outdoor Living (Hearst) by Lisa Newsom. The book offers a wealth of ideas for exceptional outdoor rooms and spaces, all created by the world's best designers. Broken down into classic, modern, romantic, and exotic styles, these are among the most spectacular environments ever featured in Veranda.
The follow up to the best-selling Glamorous Rooms, Glamorous Retreats (Abrams; 1 edition) takes readers inside Jan Showers’s luxurious interiors in vacation locales across North America and the Caribbean, from the mountains of Colorado, to the beaches of Florida and the Bahamas, to the ranches of Arizona and Texas. With more than 200 never-before-seen photographs, this book showcases the renowned designer’s elegant eclecticism.
Design Brooklyn: Rennovation, Innovation, Industry (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) by Anne Hellman is a visual exploration of the unique and diverse architecture, interiors, and design of public and private spaces in today’s Brooklyn. From mechanics’ shops renovated into restaurants, to newly built museums, to restored brownstones and modern townhouses, chapters focusing on renovation, restoration, innovation, and industry come to life with more than 150 original photographs representing various neighborhoods and trends.
Alexander Gorlin bridges the Kabbalistic tradition with contemporary art and architecture in his new authoritative tour de force, Kabbalah in Art and Architecture (Pointed Leaf Press).
Gwathmey Siegel’s buildings represent the pinnacle of late-twentieth and early-twenty-first-century modernist design, and the new book 400 Fifth Avenue: A New Gwathmey Siegel Landmark (Rizzoli) focuses on just that. Designed by the award-winning architectural firm Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and soaring sixty stories above Fifth Avenue, 400 Fifth Avenue integrates an unparalleled collection of condominium tower residences with the world-class, five-star Setai Fifth Avenue hotel, providing a one-of-a-kind architectural icon in the heart of midtown Manhattan.
Furniture by Architects: Where Form Meets Function (The Images Publishing Group), edited by Driss Fatih, features a range of extraordinary and eye-catching furniture designs by leading contemporary architects. Following the tradition of great masters such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, these top architects and designers have extended their talents to create beautiful and unusual furniture pieces and collections for the rapidly growing and increasingly global market for designer furniture. The furniture pieces showcased in this book include tables, chairs, sofas, benches, cabinets, shelving and lighting fixtures as well as some unique one-off pieces.
