10 SWOON-WORTHY NEW DESIGN & DECORATING BOOKS

If genius interior design and decoration makes your heart sing, you’ll love our curated-for-beauty collection of new books.

These lavishly illustrated volumes present design ideas and images from some of the world’s top designers, such as Delphine Krakoff & Reed Krakoff, Dries Van Noten, and Lauren Rottet, photographed by top photographers, such as Mario Testino and Bruce Weber among others.

Some of the homes featured are owned by celebrities, such as Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber. Some of the buildings featured, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, are historic monuments to design and decoration.

Whether you are an armchair decorator or a real live decorator in action, or you just like to gild the lily, these books are sure to delight and inspire.

With decorating influences from Versailles to Stella McCartney, to nature itself, these books will get your decorating juices flowing. And they are perfect for the design and decorating lovers on your gift list.

1. FASHION AND VERSAILLES

The way a building is dressed can influence the way people dress. “Fashion and Versailles,” by Laurence Benaim, examines the relationship between the Château de Versailles and what people work back in the day. Considered by some as the indisputable birthplace of fashion, this infamous royal residence continues to inspire glamour and style today.

Versailles has long inspired designers, photographers, decorators, and directors, with its opulent decorative design sensibilities

Flammarion

2. HOUSES THAT WE DREAMT OF: THE INTERIORS OF DELPHINE AND REED KRAKOFF

“Houses That We Dreamt Of: The Interiors of Delphine and Reed Krakoff,” by Delphine Krakoff  &‎ Reed Krakoff, is an interior decorating dream book. It offers an inside view of the couple’s magnificent private homes.

Fashion designer Reed and interior decorator Delphine have a design marriage made in heaven. Their luxury interiors show how both period and contemporary furniture can come together in beautiful innovative ways.

Photos by Ivan Terestchenko show off the brilliance of their collective aesthetics.

Delphine Krakoff is the principal of the interior design firm Pamplemousse Design. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Vogue, and House & Garden, among other publications. Reed Krakoff is the chief artistic officer of Tiffany & Company, the legendary American jeweler  Along with his wife, he is considered to be one of the most important collectors of twentieth-century and contemporary design.

The book includes quotes from the Krakoff’s personal friends including Martha Stewart, Hamish Bowles, Simon Doonan, & Tory Burch.

Rizzoli

3. THE WELL-DRESSED WINDOW: CURTAINS AT WINTERTHUR

Curtains were a big deal in decorating the original duPont family estate known as Winterthur. Now a top museum, “The Well-Dressed Window: Curtains at Winterthur” by Sandy Brown, takes a look at its fascinating design and textile history.

With over 175 rooms to decorate, Henry Frances duPont, the family patriarch worked with many  architects, curators, and antiques dealers to get the look that suited his fancy. He was particularly partial to window treatments, which were changed out seasonally, rotating around each year.

This book takes a detailed look at the curtains in 40 of Winterthur’s rooms.

The Monacelli Press

4. AUTHENTIC DESIGN: LAUREN ROTTET AND ROTTET STUDIO

“Authentic Design: Lauren Rottet and Rottet Studio,” by Lauren Rottet, is a luxurious presentation of the author’s architecture and interior design work.

Rottet’s elegant, contemporary designs, like pieces of art, emphasize transparency and light, with well edited decoration.

Rizzoli

5. DESIGNING THE V & A

“Designing the V&A,” by Julius Bryant, explores the history of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the most elaborately designed and decorated museum in Britain.

The museum is a of art in itself. The book includes drawings, watercolors, and historic photographs relating to the Museum's 19th-century interiors, many of which have not been previously published. The V&A's first Director, Henry Cole, conceived the Museum's building as a showcase for leading Victorian artists to design and decorate.

Lund Humphries

6. DESIGN BY NATURE: CREATING LAYERED LIVED-IN SPACE INSPIRED BY THE NATURAL WORLD

Elements of nature--including flora, water, and wood-- are transformed into elements of decor in designer Erica Tanov’s beautiful bohemian interiors. Her new book, “Design by Nature: Creating Layered, Lived-in Spaces Inspired by the Natural World,” offers ideas about decorating with nature, presented in gorgeous images by photographer,‎ Ngoc Minh Ngo. Tanov shows us how to bring the outdoors in—incorporating decorative patterns and motifs from nature, as well as how to decorate with the organic materials themselves.

Ten Speed Press

7. NEUTELINGS RIEDIJK ARCHITECTS: ORNAMENT & IDENTITY

“Neutelings Riedijk Architects: Ornament & Identity,” looks at the design works of Rotterdam-based architecture firm Neutelings Riedijk. They see decorative aspects of buildings as powerful expressions, exploring the connection between form, meaning and contemporary ornaments. See chapters entitled, Moiré, Image, Seam, Emblem, Letter, Pattern, Frame, Ridge, Grid, Diamond, Relief and Filigree.

Hatje Cantz

8. VOGUE LIVING: COUNTRY, CITY, COAST

“Vogue Living: Country, City, Coast,” edited by Hamish Bowles &‎ Chloe Malle, offers images and ideas from a stunning collection of beautiful houses and gardens that have appeared in the pages of Vogue over the last decade.

Lavishly illustrated, with more than 400 full-color photographs, this book will make design lovers feel like a kid in a candy shop.  

Dries Van Noten’s romantic house and garden in Belgium, Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber’s lakeside Canadian cabin, Stella McCartney’s grand English country garden, and the old-world Wilshire estate of Gela Nash-Taylor and Duran Duran’s John Nash Taylor and many more.  

Photographed by such celebrated photographers as François Halard, Oberto Gili,  Mario Testino, and Bruce Weber, among others; with passionate design writers as Hamish Bowles, Plum Sykes, Jonathan Van Meter, and Chloe Malle, readers get intimate view of the owners and how they live.

Knopf

9. IT’S BEAUTIFUL HERE: HOMES THAT MAKE YOUR HEART SKIP A BEAT

“It's Beautiful Here: Homes that Make Your Heart Skip a Beat,” by designer/stylist Megan Morton, looks at the whimsical side of domestic paradise. Morton, known as “the unrivaled queen of interiors,” favors a look with a “je ne sais quoi.” Her clients include Vogue Living, InStyle, and Inside Out. She is founder of The School, hosting workshops and masterclasses with the most sought-after creatives from around the world.

Thames & Hudson

10. MAKING MAGNIFICENCE: ARCHITECTS, STUCCATORI, AND THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INTERIOR

“Making Magnificence: Architects, Stuccatori, and the Eighteenth-Century Interior,” by Christine Case, tells the remarkable story of the Swiss stuccatori craftsmen who started the 18th century decorative plaster trend that swept Northern Europe.  

Deep in research, long on beautiful images, this book explores the relationship between stucco decoration and architecture, including a look at Palazzo Reale in Turin, Upper Belvedere in Vienna, & St. Martin in the Fields in London, to name a few.

Yale University Press

Read more about Beautiful Decorations in  Over-The-Top Destination Christmas Trees,  Time to Decorate Somebody! and  Mesmerizing Neon Mandalas by James Stanford.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: “Fashion and Versailles.” Book by Laurence Benaim. Courtesy of Flammarion.
2. Image: “Fashion and Versailles.” Book by Laurence Benaim. Courtesy of Flammarion.
3. Image: “Houses That We Dreamt Of: The Interiors of Delphine and Reed Krakoff.” Book by Delphine Krakoff &‎ Reed Krakoff. Courtesy of Rizzoli.
4. Image: “Houses That We Dreamt Of: The Interiors of Delphine and Reed Krakoff.” Book by Delphine Krakoff &‎ Reed Krakoff. Courtesy of Rizzoli.
5. Image: “The Well-Dressed Window: Curtains at Winterthur.” Book by Sandy Brown. Courtesy of The Monacelli Press.
6. Image: “Authentic Design: Lauren Rottet and Rottet Studio.” Book by Lauren Rottet. Courtesy of Rizzoli.
7. Image: “Designing the V&A.” Book by Julius Bryant. Courtesy of Lund Humphries.
8. Image: “Design by Nature: Creating Layered, Lived-in Spaces Inspired by the Natural World.” Book by Erica Tanov. Courtesy of Ten Speed Press.
9. Image: “Neutelings Riedijk Architects: Ornament & Identity.” Book by Neutelings Riedijk. Courtesy of Hatje Cantz.
10. Image: “Vogue Living: Country, City, Coast.” Book edited by Hamish Bowles &‎ Chloe Malle. Courtesy of Knopf.
11. Image: “Vogue Living: Country, City, Coast.” Book edited by Hamish Bowles &‎ Chloe Malle. Courtesy of Knopf.
12. Image: “It's Beautiful Here: Homes that Make Your Heart Skip a Beat.” Book by Megan Morton. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
13. Image: “Making Magnificence: Architects, Stuccatori, and the Eighteenth-Century Interior.” Book by Christine Case. Courtesy of Yale University Press.
14. Image: by Kent G Becker. “St Martin in the Fields Nave and Chancel, London.” London, UK.
15. Image: by Florian Bugiel. “Residenzschloss Rastatt.” Rastatt, Germany.
16. Image: “Vogue Living: Country, City, Coast.” Book edited by Hamish Bowles &‎ Chloe Malle. Courtesy of Knopf.
17. Image: by Jim Schneck, of Winterthur Museum. Image from “The Well-Dressed Window: Curtains at Winterthur.” Book by Sandy Brown. Courtesy of The Monacelli Press.