In interior design, inspiration is practically everywhere. Sometimes it arrives in conversation, sometimes in a hotel lobby or museum corridor, often it derives from fashion. One constant source for me and non-negotiable when trying to develop a common language with a new client, are interior design books. These coffee table books are great for styling surfaces obviously. But they also serve as portals and design archives.

Over the last years, I’ve organically built a design library that feels like a living studio companion. Certain books have travelled with me from project to project and show my love for them by their levels of wear and tear (including the love from rabbit Rabiu who loved to nibble on the edges..). Others are newly acquired and way too many are on my shopping list (Nate Berkus - Foundations, The Expressive Home by Ray Booth, the new Andrew Martin Volume, Flack Studio’s Interiors and the new 100 Rooms of the Interior Design Master Class series).

Each one I have acquired has offered something that shaped my design eye and the new additions will be no different.

Today’s Blog Post features the books I return to the most. Books that inspire me, provoke me to think outside the box and teach me so much to become a better designer and listener to space and people.

Evocative & Thoughtful: Kelly Wearstler

Kelly Wearstler’s world is one I never tire of entering. “Evocative Style” and “Synchronicity” are works of emotional architecture. Her design is a whole vibe, a signature mood that reveals project over project how great her instinct is and how perfectly aligned every space feels despite constantly breaking rules and pushing the envelope. Nobody understands juxtaposition better than her: polished against organic, sculptural against delicate, saturated against mineral. Her designs refuse to dilute personality; nothing of what she does plays safe or is timid. Her oeuvre including her books encourage me to be braver and trusting my intuition more than any logic.

Timeless Sophistication: Suzanne Kasler, Ray Booth and Stephanie Hunt

Suzanne’s serenity is distinctive. Her style never rushes and has this perfect mix of elegance and comfort. “Edited Style” has been a touchstone of balance. It features what I would describe as quiet glamour, with architecture being treated respectfully and antiques placed for belonging. Her work reminds me that a home should feel curated but never stiff.

Ray Booth’s “Evocative Interiors” is intellectual design. His spaces feel composed, architectural in spirit, and romantic only when earned. I love the tension between modern clarity and Southern generosity. He is one of the best designers out there when it comes to intelligent and highly engaging floor plans. Waiting eagerly for his latest publication “The Expressive Home”.

“Simply Chic: Modern Interior Design” features 30 spectacular homes around the world that are the epitome of chic, including coastal escapes, country retreats and dramatic city lofts. It’s a celebration of interior design that is authentic, alluring and always dazzling. All homes share a common thread of understates elegance and elevated ease. Traditional backdrops feature delightful surprises that are inspiring. “Simply Chic” is utterly stylish without trying too hard or being overly trendy.

Design as Identity: Studio McGee and Mitchell & Guzman

This book is beautifully curated and serves almost as an encyclopaedia of all projects StudioMcGee and all lessons Shea McGee learned throughout the 10+ years of constant growth of the Studio. Apart from being a perfect catalogue of their projects through the years, it is also a clear, accessible guide to Shea’s design language: finishes, proportion, styling, home rituals, mood construction - all beautifully structured for reference and inspiration.

**Patina Modern by Chris Mitchell & Pilar Guzman**

This is a favorite - full stop. I love their aesthetic deeply: clean architectural lines, enriched by vintage and craft. Their work lives between warm rigor and humanity. Their design philosophy is grounded in modernism, but softened through patina, texture, object heritage, and personal rhythm. It’s modernity without any of its sterility in some contemporary spaces. A deeply human, cultured modern that is warm, approachable and full of soul.

Natural Elegance and Patina Homes

One of the most visually meditative books is “Natural Elegance: Luxurious Mountain Living” by Rush Jenkins and Klaus Baer. Rustic architecture elevated to refinement with mesmerising mountain landscapes translated indoors, this gorgeous coffee table book is a masterclass in approachable luxury. Totally up my design alley!

**Patina Homes by Steve & Brooke Giannetti**

There are books that age beautifully and “Patina Homes” is one of them. Deep in heart, I am a country girl and fancy living in big farmhouses with wooden beams, exposed bricks and lots of organic cotton materials. This book features many of Giannetti’s projects and highlights the architectural bones behind it. Giannetti’s homes all breathe and hold a softness in materials even after they weather. They perfectly highlight heritage, craft, and the beauty of age in interiors that no trend can replicate. Patina, to the Giannettis, is understood as memory, not wear. Their spaces remind me that beauty often emerges slowly.

Curated Collections & Anthologies

**Andrew Martin Interior Design Review Vol. 25 - 28**

The Andrew Martin’s “Interior Design Review” series has become a ritual purchase. Each yearly volume presents designers from around the world: the new, the established, the unconventional. Seeing such a global cross-section is humbling and inspiration alike. It features many of my favourite designers and thinking about AD Design being included one day is an absolute dream for me. It is THE atlas of design ambition.

**Architectural Digest — “The Most Beautiful Rooms In The World”**

This is curation at its highest form. Rooms that exist in memory, not just in photography. Rooms that teach proportion, lighting intention, shape theory, and the emotional logic of space. Perfect for studying scale, sequence, balance and mood. “The Most Beautiful Rooms In The World” with its pink spine shows curated excellence from top designers around the world, with chapters of US, Middle East, China, Italy and Spain being my favourites.

Interior Design Masterclass by Carl Dellatore distills principle. It is one of the most instructive compilations ever printed: thoughts from master designers on lighting, balance, mood, sequence, and even sex. If design school had only one textbook, it could be this. Which is indicative of the post-its stuck on many of the pages. A must-have. The new edition, 100 Rooms, is next on my list.

Not the magazine, but the extraordinary anniversary Anthology published by Vendome.

It combines fashion illustration, artisan textiles, interiors dripping in depth and pattern, delicate drawings, rich archival photography. To flip through it is to time travel. The beautiful linen cover with golden embroidery and the inner print are of highest quality and such a good investment. Or equally nice as a gift for any design, history or art lover.

Beyond Interiors… Yet Still Design

Sometimes, inspiration doesn’t announce itself as interior-related at all.

Vincenzo de Cotiis’ “Interiors” reads like emotional theater. The quality of production and photography is sublime with spaces that look like scenes rather than rooms. De Cotiis’ sculptural view into spaces feels like installations with a delectable raw elegance. This is emotional architecture at its finest. Major inspiration here stems from architectural structure, light and silhouettes.

And “The Book of Flowers” by Pierre-Joseph Redouté is pure visual tenderness. It is of a smaller size, but a permanent feature on my coffee table. It is a visual meditation on detail, tone, bloom and structure in nature. The drawings by Redouté are pure art and serve as reminder that interior palettes often begin in organic forms.

Why These Books Matter to Me

Every designer needs visual grounding. Not mood boards, not short-form images that disappear as quickly as they arrive, but physical sources that slow the eye down and allow you to study with ease. Real books make you pause and allow ideas to settle. These publications reveal a timeless approach to interiors because they challenge repetition and echoing trends.

Most of the books that speak to me all feature spaces that are both layered, imperfect, and dimensional. These books shaped my work because I immersed myself in them as they taught me so much about confidence, editing, patina, memory and intention.

And isn’t this the highest purpose of good design?

My Favourite Design Books: lessons, inspiration and the joy in design

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