Get Inspired by The Best Luxury Interior Design Books

All of this enforced time at home thanks to social distancing requirements has made us itchy to redecorate. You too? The first step in a new project is interior design inspiration to help focus the mind on the dream look we’re after. Our correspondent Julie Chang Murphy has curated a list of the best luxury home interior design books to help us envision our living spaces for the post-COVID 19 world.

inspiration for your next interior design project

At first, we didn’t want to admit it. But with unfettered access into the homes of celebrities who are constantly posting on Instagram during quarantine, we have been zooming in on their various furniture and decor choices.

And thinking that it might be time for us to level up.

While the homes of the rich and famous are regularly styled and showcased in interior design publications, this is a little different. Un-staged (to a degree), we got a peek into how they live authentically like “the rest of us.”

And, of course, daydreaming about being quarantined in a palatial mansion with a pool, luxury home gym and walk-in closets that resemble designer boutiques, has become a favorite pastime (after making things from sourdough discards).

Even if you haven’t gone down this particular rabbit hole, it’s likely that you have some home renovation and redecorating plans that you intend to execute after this is all over. Being stuck inside for weeks will kind of do that to you.

We’ve rounded up the top luxury home design books to inspire whatever redecorating project you’re contemplating. And of course, we’ll totally believe you if you say that you personally never succumbed to internet voyeurism. And relied instead on these handsome tomes for inspiration for your next interior design project.

The Best Luxury Home Interior Design Books Right Now

1. Interior Design Master Class, edited by Carl Dellatore.

Best If: you don’t know where to start 

As the title suggests, Interior Design Master Class: 100 Lessons from America’s Finest Designers on the Art of Decoration, is like a taking a crash course in interior design. It features “one hundred essays by America’s top designers –  from established design legends to members of the new guard  and explore in detail the process of designing a home, from the fundamentals to the finishing touches.” Of course, every essay (on topics as varied as floor plans, light, the color red, and antiques) is paired with gorgeous images of the designer’s work.

 

BUY NOW $49.50.

2. Perspective by Steven Gambrel.

Best If: you just want to re-paint 

Before you go and collect a thousand paint chips, consider perusing top interior designer Steven Gambrel’s book, Perspective. His inspirational interiors range from “elegant country to high-gloss urban” but what unites them all is his confident color perspective. It will be sure to inspire a room or two of your own.

BUY NOW $65.

3. Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney.  

Best If: you love Before & Afters and DIY projects

Design*Sponge creator, Grace Bonney’s Design*Sponge at Home, combines all the popular elements of home design into one definitive guide: real life interiors, DIY projects, tutorials, and satisfying Before & Afters of real people with budgets. With 700 photographs and illustrations, it’s packed with style, too.

BUY NOW $35.

4. Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating by Lauren Liess.  

Best If: you’re a nature enthusiast 

Lauren Liess is an interior designer and founder of the popular blog Pure Style Home whose book Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating invites readers to bring nature inside. Her uniquely styled rooms mix “textures of natural elements such as wood and stone with eclectic groupings of modern and quirky vintage pieces.” Liess walks through the fundamental elements of design, then the intangibles of creating a mood and wraps it up with solutions to specific design challenges.

BUY NOW $35.

5. Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People.  

Best If: you’re really into fashion

This gorgeous book, Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People is brought to you by some of the most preeminent photographers (like Cecil Beaton, Annie Liebovitz, Bruce Weber) and writers (like Hamish Bowles, Joan Juliet Buck, Marina Rust) of our time. Featuring Madonna’s romantic rural English countryside home, Oscar de la Renta’s coral-stone Palladian mansion on the coast of the Dominican Republic to Donna Karan’s zenlike Manhattan aerie, be inspired by how the most fashionable tastemakers style their most intimate environs.

BUY NOW $85.

6. New York Splendor by Wendy Moonan.  

Best If: you love the city 

Let design authority Wendy Moonan take you on a tour. A tour  of the grandest and most unforgettable residential rooms in New York City. It includes Brooke Astor’s library, artist Donald Judd’s modern loft and the mayor’s dining room at Gracie Mansion. If you’re looking to replicate the “wow” factor in your own home, look no further than this compelling book, New York Splendor: The City’s Most Memorable Rooms which proves that “New York is the epicenter of interior-design innovations.”

BUY NOW $85.

7. Island Hopping by Amanda Lindroth. 

Best If: you love the beach

Coastal design isn’t all seashells and anchors. To see it done right, check out Island Hopping: Amanda Lindroth Design. The Florida-born designer has become the “go-to designer of island dwellers from Lyford Cay to Antigua, Abaco to Belize, Harbour Island to Palm Beach, and Southampton to Great Cranberry Island in Maine.” Her airy and clean aesthetic merges colonial and island influences. It makes every home feel like summer year-round.

BUY NOW $60.

8. A Point of View On Decorating by Veere Grenney.

best If: you’re an Anglophile 

There’s just something intrinsically cozy yet grand about English homes. To get that special Englishness, pick up a copy of Veere Grenney: A Point of View On Decorating which “eloquently explores streamlined, glamorous, classical rooms with an English touch.” This rich album features charming country homes as well as urbane city apartments, organized by room-by-room.

BUY NOW $

9. The New Bohemians Handbook by Justina Blakeney.  

Best If: you’re a recovering minimalist 

Had enough of gray walls and stark white kitchens and bathrooms? Bring In the noise and the funk with The New Bohemians Handbook: Come Home to Good Vibes. LA-based designer Justina Blakeney explores 20 homes of creative and free-spirited individuals who apply their no-rules lifestyles “to all areas of their existence, including their homes.” Each home is accompanied by an Adopt-an-Idea section. It gives the reader thoughtful tips on general decor, styling, and shopping for easy duplication in your own home.

 

BUY NOW $35.

10. This is Home by Natalie Walton.  

Best If: you’re still searching for your authentic decorating style

Amidst all the eye candy that is out there, sometimes it makes sense to go back to the basics. This is Home: The Art of Simple Living helps the reader get to the “essence of what makes you happy at home and creating spaces that reflect your needs and style.” Through eight case studies from Australia, the US and Europe, depicted in 200 color photographs, popular Australian interiors stylist, Natalie Walton, thoughtfully considers how our “homes can function as a place to rest our bodies, rejoice in our relationships and restore our values.”

BUY NOW $40.

The Best Luxury Interior Home Design Books Right Now

There you have it! Our picks for the best luxury home interior design books right now. We hope they’ll provide inspiration for your next interior design project. And we can’t wait to see what you’ve done with the place!

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Crediting her training as a cultural anthropologist at Wellesley College, Julie has immersed herself in various industries in the last 15 years including fashion design, event planning, and fitness. Julie lives in New York where she loves trying every ramen and dumpling restaurant with her husband and three children. She finds joy in bold prints, biographies of fierce women, kickboxing. And spending way too long finding the perfect polish color to express her mood.

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