Random House New Releases - Architecture - Interior Design

Decorating in Detail by Alexa Hampton

2013-11-05T00:30:00-05:00

Decorating in Detail
Written by Alexa Hampton

Hardcover, 256 pages | Potter Style | House & Home - Decorating; Design - Interior Decorating; Architecture - Interior Design | $50.00 | 978-0-307-95685-9 (0-307-95685-7)

The celebrated designer and author of The Language of Interior Design takes readers deeply into her process of selecting the details for elegant, classic homes with inviting living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, and other spaces.

In her first book, Alexa Hampton shared the basics of interior design--Contrast, Proportion, Color, and Balance--to rave reviews from readers and the media. In Decorating in Detail, Alexa shares the development process for eight elegant homes in locations from New York City to New Orleans. Walking readers through each room, she describes how she and the homeowners chose all of the elements, from textures to fabrics to furniture.

Sidebars on the best placement for lamps, outlets, and more (inspired by her popular Wall Street Journal "Where-to" column) and Sharpie drawings that show how she visualized the room's transformations help the reader build an unprecedented understanding of interior home design as a whole.

MAKE IT FABULOUS: The Architecture and Designs of William T. Georgis by Natalie Shivers

2013-06-04T00:30:00-05:00

MAKE IT FABULOUS: The Architecture and Designs of William T. Georgis
Written by William T. Georgis, Donald Albrecht and Natalie Shivers

Hardcover, 240 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Individual Architects & Firms - Monographs; Architecture - Interior Design | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-331-5 (1-58093-331-9)

Sumptuous and scrupulous in equal measure, the work of William T. Georgis is a glamorous blend of high-style architecture and expressive, innovative applications of the traditions of the decorative arts. In the twenty years since he founded his namesake firm, Georgis has created a dazzling portfolio consisting primarily of houses and apartments; other projects include restaurants, commercial interiors, and galleries. Georgis melds elegant architecture, imaginative furniture and fixtures (often custom-designed), and a layered assembly of art and objects with what he terms "a bit of magic." A thoughtful eclecticism, informed by an extensive knowledge of art, architecture, and the decorative arts, characterizes all his work.

The first monograph on Georgis, Make It Fabulous presents sixteen houses and apartments in New York City, Long Island, Florida, Montana, and California. All the residences were designed around important art collections and often include specially commisioned pieces. Among the projects showcased are Georgis's own homes, a smoked-glass townhouse in New York and a vacation house that hangs over the bay in La Jolla, California. Also included in the volume are Chinatown Brasserie, a theatrical eatery in lower Manhattan, and the interiors of historic Lever House, a respectful restoration of a modern masterpiece.

Along with lavish, large-scale photography, each project features the architect's trenchant commentary on the architecture, the decoration, and the process. Perceptive essays by design historians Donald Albrecht and Natalie Shivers illuminate Georgis's relationships with his clients, or "patrons," and the creation of narratives in his work. Multifaceted and multilayered, just like the work, this inventive volume is a virtuoso tutorial in the world of fabulous.

Designers Abroad: Inside the Vacation Homes of Top Decorators by Michele Keith

2013-04-16T00:30:00-05:00

Designers Abroad: Inside the Vacation Homes of Top Decorators
Written by Michele Keith

Hardcover, 224 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; Travel - Pictorials | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-351-3 (1-58093-351-3)

Designers Abroad, Michele Keith's follow-up to her highly successful book Designers Here and There, features twenty-two vacation homes of today's top interior designers, exquisitely captured in over 200 lush color photographs.

For some, vacation homes offer an opportunity to escape from the office, to shut off, to wind down. For decorators, however, vacation homes mean just the opposite—they provide the opportunity to bring work home as they roam the globe, honing their design sensibilities and expanding collections of treasures. Designers Abroad takes the reader on a tour of the world, from Sri Lanka to South Africa to Sweden, by peeking into the gorgeously appointed homes of renowned interior designers. In lively and dynamic text, Michele Keith explores how they incorporate the distinct and native character a foreign land into their second homes, all the while expressing personal style. Embracing new cultures’ climates, architectural traditions, and indigenous art, fabrics, and furniture, each designer creates a space at once comfortable and glamorous, a place of solace and inspiration.

Designers Abroad offers inside peeks into residences ranging from a chic studio in Paris to a house perched on windswept cliffs in Nova Scotia, from a beachside abode nestled among boulders in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to a former monastery outside Rome dating back to the fifteenth century. Each project is accompanied by the story of how its design was conceived and executed, and how the attributes of each country inspired its owners—including Lars Bolander, Alessandra Branca, Clodagh, Timothy Corrigan, Mica Ertegun, Fisher Weisman, Juan Pablo Molyneux, Juan Montoya, and Cortney and Robert Novogratz, among others. Designers Abroad demonstrates how these designers incorporate their passion for travel into their own interiors, and thus inspires readers to add a touch of the exotic to their own homes.

French Accents by Erin Swift

2013-04-09T00:30:00-05:00

French Accents At Home with Parisian Objects and Details
Written by Erin Swift

Hardcover, 224 pages | Potter Style | Design - Interior Decorating; Architecture - Interior Design; Architecture - Design & Drafting | $40.00 | 978-0-307-98530-9 (0-307-98530-X)

This lavishly illustrated volume shows you how to choose fabulous French decorating details to create interiors with an unforgettable sense of sophistication and charm. French details are the key to achieving the effortless chic of the French home.

The first step is to understand how the French see—blending rich tradition with whimsy to achieve interiors that are as comfortable as they are stunning. Within these pages, acclaimed stylist Erin Swift offers a look at the exquisite homes of renowned designers, architects, and artists, simplifying the elements that define each room, such as color, art and furnishings, objects and accents, structure, and texture. Sharing the homeowner’s visions, she also highlights hundreds of fascinating and unconventional decorating details that you can draw inspiration from:

·         Hang vintage board games—or a collection of clocks, each set to the time in a favorite travel destination—on the wall
·         Balance impressive architecture with slipcovers in primary colors
·         Highlight antiques by tucking them into a kitchen or bathroom—and display crystal or a stack of books like everyday sculpture
·         Elevate a pitched ceiling or a corner with artwork to make an event out of a space that would otherwise be overlooked

Galleries featuring dozens of choices for molding, stone and tile flooring, frames, paint colors, doorknobs, and textiles offer even more ways to add a French touch.

With a comprehensive resource section, hundreds of photographs that will inspire those on any budget, and countless practical ideas, French Accents is the ultimate celebration of Parisian decorating in all of its ephemeral, individual, and incontrovertible style.

Artful Decoration by Margaret Russell

2013-03-19T00:30:00-05:00

Artful Decoration
Written by Andrew Fisher and Jeffry Weisman
Introduction by Margaret Russell

Hardcover, 224 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; Design - Interior Decorating | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-358-2 (1-58093-358-0)

Andrew Fisher and Jeffry Weisman delight in the unexpected. They revel in beautiful contradictions to create interiors that blend the exotic and the traditional and refresh classic ideas with handmade, whimsical details. Both designers contribute an essential element to every project: Andrew Fisher injects opulence and glamour, hand-decorating chandeliers with shells, crafting side tables with delicate branchlike bases, and choosing ornate accent materials like tortoise, gold leaf, and peacock feathers; Jeffry Weisman contributes restrained architecture, calm visual pauses, and impeccable interior finishes.

As a firm, Fisher Weisman breathes new life into traditional aesthetics, reinterpreting timeless sensibilities with a lively and contemporary eye. Whether recovering Biedermeier chairs in zebra hide and slipper chairs with repurposed Indian saris found on their travels or finishing formal dining rooms in rich chocolate lacquer, Fisher Weisman subverts expectations to create truly extraordinary interiors. Artful Decoration showcases the exquisite work of this San Francisco–based design firm, revealing the imagination, meticulous attention to detail, and the sense of humor with which they infuse every home.

Beguiling touches finish off rooms designed with an enviable knowledge of form, proportion, color, and history to bring traditional spaces into the present and create livable, fresh interiors with an artisanal flair. Artful Decoration features thirteen residences ranging from small but lavish pieds-à-terre to airy Californian estates, from elegant penthouses to one especially elaborate tree house. Two hundred vivid, full-color illustrations reveal these and many other unexpected pleasures on every page to delight the eye and inspire the imagination.

Cohler on Design by Eric Cohler

2012-11-20T00:30:00-05:00

Cohler on Design
Written by Eric Cohler

Hardcover, 224 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; Design - Interior Decorating | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-372-8 (1-58093-372-6)

Dubbed “The Mixmaster” for his ability to blend high- and low-end pieces to create rooms that are simultaneously fresh and classic, Eric Cohler’s interior design is always a tribute to individual personality and style. Full of accessible tips and tricks, Cohler encourages his clients to be true to themselves, revel in what makes them happy, and surround themselves with objects and art that reflect that joy.

Interspersed among the 160 illustrations of his own work are images of seminal historic interiors, artwork, style icons, and architectural masterpieces that have influenced
Cohler’s designs and encouraged him to look at a space in a new way—and likewise teach readers to define what inspires them and how to incorporate that inspiration into their homes in a meaningful way.

Cohler on Design exemplifies how to live well by integrating your personal tastes and passions into your interiors. This lavishly illustrated volume is a visual tour of Cohler’s work, from luxurious penthouses to quaint country homes to glamorous pool-houses; from the bright, clean lines of contemporary design to the rich, intricate detailing of classic architecture. Eric Cohler, a perennial name on Elle Decor’s A-List, translates his extensive education in art and architecture into an uncomplicated, modern approach to interior design. He presents each project not as a merely aspirational fait accompli, but as a real example of a design idea that you can try in your own rooms, whether you’re hanging your collection of original Andy Warhol prints or your child’s finger-paintings. With vivid, dynamic text detailing Cohler’s experiences in the world of interiors, Cohler on Design is a guide to making the fantastic possible, and the commonplace extraordinary.

Stripes by Linda O'Keeffe

2012-10-23T00:30:00-05:00

Stripes Design Between the Lines
Written by Linda O'Keeffe

Hardcover, 224 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; Design - Interior Decorating | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-341-4 (1-58093-341-6)

In Stripes: Design Between the Lines, writer and design expert Linda O’Keeffe explores the lineage of lines as they shape culture, art, and style. The illustrations create a rollicking visual ride while the accompanying text—by turns witty and weighty—shows how these potent, sometimes-charged symbols have even changed the course of world history.

The simplest and most ancient of all decorative markings, stripes perpetually fascinate. Natural inspirations in the forms of zebra stripes, rippled sand dunes, and intricately gnarled wood grain have led us to use stripes in every permutation: on human bodies from elaborate woven textiles to the iconic Breton T-shirt to sharp pin-striped suits, in art from the earliest cave paintings to vibrant op art canvases, and in industrial design from World War II–era dazzle battleships to the ubiquitous bar code. Their appeal endures.

With over 250 full-color images, Stripes: Design Between the Lines provides a wholly original look at one of the most recognizable patterns of all time. Eight thematic chapters present stripes in every conceivable manifestation, from diabolical to decorative, historic to postmodern. The result is a wonderfully varied visual collage that shows how design-savvy people throughout the ages and recent design stars including Jonathan Adler, Geoffrey Beene, Jamie Drake, Jean Paul Gaultier, Josef Hoffman, Sol LeWitt, Todd Oldham, Alberto Pinto, Giò Ponti, Karim Rashid, David Rockwell, Carolyne Roehm, Paul Smith, and Vivienne Westwood have incorporated stripes into their work and daily lives.

New Orleans New Elegance by Julia Reed

2012-05-08T00:30:00-05:00

New Orleans New Elegance
Written by Kerri McCaffety
Introduction by Julia Reed

Hardcover, 220 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; Architecture - Regional | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-332-2 (1-58093-332-7)

Award-winning photographer Kerri McCaffety looks at the city's most innovative and iconic interiors in a quest to define the essence of the unique New Orleans style. Sumptuous fabrics, elegant architectural details, intricate collections, bold abstract art, and fresh, contemporary lines are all captured in her stunning photographs.

What makes New Orleans different from everywhere else? The answer is its history: three centuries of complex cultural influences—French, Spanish, and African—converging in a unique climate and a strategic location at the mouth of the Mississippi River. It’s an alluring but elusive mélange of sophisticated and primitive, elegant and raw in a sultry, seductive atmosphere of faded glory.

But as New Orleans recovers from the devastation wrought by Katrina, there is an infusion of contemporary energy, manifest in all dimensions—political, social, cultural, culinary, artistic. Interior design is moving toward a fresh elegance while still embracing the extravagance of the past. The grandeur of the Greek revival architecture and the drama of the live oaks are tempered by a fresh, more relaxed elegance that respects classical proportions and details but introduces a more contemporary vocabulary in furnishings and accessories.

More than forty houses and apartments are featured from all parts of the city—the French Quarter, the Warehouse District, the Garden District, and the multiple neighborhoods that comprise Uptown.

Social commentator and Vogue contributor Julia Reed’s introductory essay surveys the traditions of the city, placing its style in a cultural and historic context. Commentary from interior designers, scholars, and antiques dealers creates a rich tapestry of perspectives and opinions on a perennially fascinating place.

Coastal Modern by Jake Townsend

2012-04-03T00:30:00-05:00

Coastal Modern Sophisticated Homes Inspired by the Ocean
Written by Tim Clarke and Jake Townsend

Hardcover, 224 pages | Potter Style | Architecture - Interior Design; House & Home - Decorating; Architecture - Decoration & Ornament | $50.00 | 978-0-307-71878-5 (0-307-71878-6)

The beach house is more than just a place to live—it is a symbol of a life well lived. —from the Introduction

   Coastal homes capture our imagination because they hold the promise of freedom, escape, and pure relaxation. Celebrity decorator Tim Clarke is acclaimed for creating residences that are deep reflections of the people who live in them, as well as of the gorgeous natural environments that surround them.
   In these luscious pages, you will be transported to fifteen of the most extraordinary homes inspired by the essence of the coast—every one a unique blend of beauty and comfort. In a style Tim identifies as Scandia surf, white paneling, blue-gray hand-blocked curtains, and timeworn driftwood side tables offer a quiet retreat from the owners’ busy lives. Tim’s native woods aesthetic plays out in a sprawling outdoor living room with a reed ceiling and a Balinese light fixture; lush foliage planted around the perimeter lends an exotic ambience. And in a refined beach classic home, where nothing is too precious for the everyday and where flip-flops are welcome, furniture made from weatherproof fabrics and vintage nautical objects make the rooms feel as timeless as khakis and a white shirt.
   Noted photographer Noah Webb captures the warmth and elegance of these seamlessly connected interiors and exteriors. Paired with Tim’s unique insights into sophisticated yet undeniably fresh design, this beautiful volume will inspire you to channel all that you love about the shore into a truly livable modern home.

HERS by Jacqueline deMontravel

2011-12-13T00:30:00-05:00

HERS Design with a Feminine Touch
Written by Jacqueline deMontravel

Hardcover, 224 pages | Potter Style | House & Home - Decorating; Architecture - Interior Design; Architecture - Decoration & Ornament | $35.00 | 978-0-307-88598-2 (0-307-88598-4)

Design your own beautiful sanctuary in any space, with unabashedly feminine style

Whether you are happily single or a mother of four, having a room that pleases you is a common fantasy. After all, what woman doesn’t want a modern, romantic, feminine, grown-up space that she can call her own—where she can listen to opera (or eighties music) and engross herself in the pages of Jane Austen (or the latest celebrity gossip)?

Hers offers hundreds of stylish ways for creating your own private retreat, even when your bedroom doubles as your living room or when delicate furnishings don’t seem compatible with kid-friendly living. With some thoughtful rethinking of your home’s layout and some imagination, you can dedicate part of a shared space to your own interests, and Jacqueline deMontravel will show you how.

These interiors celebrate the beauty and comfort of feminine design with color, furniture shapes, and attractive accessories. Lose yourself in such imaginative possibilities as:

   • an old-glamour boudoir complete with a vanity table and a bed piled high with linens
   • a sophisticated dressing room with a plush ottoman and a floor-to-ceiling mirror
   • a delightful nook created by an antique bench, a Parisian rug positioned beneath a staircase, and a whimsical clock
   • a bedside seating area accented with a tufted lounge chair and a mirrored nightstand holding a collection of fashion books
   • a small reading corner with a bright orange chair next to a mod table and a vase of Gerbera daisies

And because a woman’s style doesn’t always mean frills and lace, Hers includes modern interpretations of the feminine classics: stripes in place of florals, hot pink shoes displayed like works of art, or a retro red-and-black color scheme with pop accessories.

Along with hundreds of enchanting photographs, you’ll find plenty of ideas for personalizing and enjoying your space; hints on how to make your space sexy, special, and inviting; guidance on being prepared to entertain guests at a moment’s notice; new ideas for organizing and displaying collections; and even tips for beautifying a work area so it encourages creativity and not stress. With the endless inspiration and ideas in Hers, you’ll learn everything you need to know about designing a place of personalized retreat or where you can just savor doing nothing.

Unassisted Living by Wid Chapman

2011-11-15T00:30:00-05:00

Unassisted Living
Written by Jeffrey P. Rosenfeld and Wid Chapman

Hardcover, 240 pages | The Monacelli Press | House & Home - Decorating; Architecture - Interior Design | $45.00 | 978-1-58093-302-5 (1-58093-302-5)

Unassisted Living documents the shift away from the senior housing that promoted disengagement toward architecture and design that promote active aging. The book is organized in six sections, corresponding to the concerns and special interests of Boomers—those who intend to remain in an urban setting, those concerned with sustainability, those with complex families and non-traditional households, and those who seek a community based on spirituality or shared interests.

Boomers are perhaps the largest generational cohort the United States has ever seen. Numbering some 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964, Boomers are not accepting traditional retirement or “senior housing” and are instead determined to remain active and engaged professionally and socially.

Great Houses of Havana by Hermes Mallea

2011-11-08T00:30:00-05:00

Great Houses of Havana
Written by Hermes Mallea

Hardcover, 272 pages | The Monacelli Press | Design - Interior Decorating; Art - Caribbean & Latin American; Architecture - Interior Design | $75.00 | 978-1-58093-288-2 (1-58093-288-6)

Great Houses of Havana celebrates one hundred years of creativity, design, and style that made the city "the Paris of the Caribbean." For four hundred years, Havana was the center of Spanish trade in the western hemisphere. With the expansion of the sugar industry, independence from Spain, and North American investment, Havana became a city of great wealth, great style, and great houses in a vocabulary that was a unique amalgam of European, American, and Caribbean elements.

Great Houses of Havana traces the evolution of the Cuban home from the classic, Spanish colonial courtyard house to the “Tropical Modernist” villas of the 1950s—houses reflecting international architecture trends while remaining true to the Cuban tradition.

Cuba’s social history is woven throughout the book. Vintage photographs illustrate Havana’s sophisticated lifestyle—the masked balls, yacht club picnics, and dynastic weddings of fashionable Cubans and their international guests. Popular cafes, hotels, theaters, and weekend resorts are also featured, creating a view of the privileged life inside the gated mansions of the city’s grandest neighborhoods.

Black and White (and a Bit in Between) by Celerie Kemble

2011-11-01T00:30:00-05:00

Black and White (and a Bit in Between) Timeless Interiors, Dramatic Accents, and Stylish Collections
Written by Celerie Kemble

Hardcover, 256 pages | Potter Style | House & Home - Decorating; Architecture - Interior Design; Architecture - Decoration & Ornament | $50.00 | 978-0-307-71598-2 (0-307-71598-1)

Black and white décor is at once dramatic and understated, modern and classic, apparent in the work of iconic designers such as Dorothy Draper and Madeleine Castaing but just as present in design today. And the inspiration is all around us—from nature (a zebra’s stripes, tree trunks rising from drifts of snow) to old Hollywood movies and fashion to black-and-white photography and patterns we encounter in our everyday lives (crossword puzzles and the pages of our favorite novels).

In Black and White (and a Bit in Between), acclaimed interior designer Celerie Kemble trades in her signature vivid palette for this iconic aesthetic, highlighting the black and white work of design stars and peers, including Bunny Williams, Thomas O’Brien, Mary McDonald, Victoria Hagan, Mark Hampton, Delphine Krakoff, Brad Ford, Philip Gorrivan, Carrier and Co., and Miles Redd, and welcoming you into more than 100 spaces in every imaginable aesthetic. Woven throughout are her witty observations and expert advice on choosing the best paints and finishes, adding patterns and accessories, building an entire room scheme based on inspiration found in nature, collecting black and white objects, and even choosing the perfect accent colors.

With more than 350 gorgeous color photographs, this is a vividly photographed celebration of a timeless scheme, infused with inspirational tips, glimpses into showstopping homes, and proof that a limited palette is anything but.

Brilliant by Linda O'Keeffe

2011-10-25T00:30:00-05:00

Brilliant White in Design
Written by Linda O'Keeffe

Hardcover, 224 pages | The Monacelli Press | House & Home - Decorating; Architecture - Interior Design; Design - Interior Decorating | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-324-7 (1-58093-324-6)

It all begins and ends with white.

White is everywhere, from sculptures and art installations to interior and furniture designs to fields of snow and mythical animals. In its countless tones—eggshell, ballerina, off-white, edelweiss, and so many more—white elicits a range of emotions, depending on the viewer, the design, the culture, the use.

Brilliant: White in Design examines the spectrum of colors and talents inherent in white, exploring how it is used, and viewed, in art, design, architecture, and nature. Noted design writer Linda O’Keeffe parses the language of white and considers its strengths and, at times, its weaknesses. She shows that living with white has soothing rewards and dust-collecting drawbacks; that beige is not a four-letter word but a glamorous alternative to its more pristine counterpart; that designing with white reduces everything to pure form; and much more.

In more than 250 photographs, O’Keeffe showcases work, both recent and historic, from around the world—France, Japan, Spain, England, Mexico, Canada, South Africa—and across the United States. Designers and artists include Jonathan Adler, Orlando Diaz-Azcuy, Andy Goldsworthy, Kelly Hoppen, Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Richard Meier, Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, Andrée Putman, Robert Ryman, Philippe Starck, Kelly Wearstler, and Vicente Wolf.

White always makes a statement. It is distinct, versatile, and unparalleled; it is brilliant.

The Birding Life by William Stites

2011-10-18T00:30:00-05:00

The Birding Life A Passion for Birds at Home and Afield
Written by Larry Sheehan, Carol Sheehan and Kathryn Ge Precourt
Photographed by William Stites

Hardcover, 240 pages | Potter Style | House & Home - Decorating; Nature - Birds & Birdwatching; Architecture - Interior Design | $50.00 | 978-0-307-71635-4 (0-307-71635-X)

Birds are both marvels of nature and artistic muses. The mere chance of sighting a prized species has long motivated human observers to brave early mornings, long days, and severe conditions. Birds have also inspired artists to honor them in imagery throughout the ages. In the form of bird-themed art and décor, the beauty of winged creatures informs the “nests” and working spaces of the birders, artists, collectors, and conservationists featured in the more than twenty delightfully written stories in The Birding Life. Through evocative writing and two hundred gorgeous color photographs, the authors of The Sporting Life and Living with Dogs capture the beauty, intrigue, and fun of birding—at home, in the country, in the city, and out in the field—with a special focus on the nostalgic memorabilia that signals devotion to birds of all kinds.

In Part I: Birders in Birdland, you will meet Alexander Wilson, John James Audubon, and Roger Tory Peterson, the iconic figures responsible for first documenting America’s native birds for the public, and Kenn Kaufman and David Allen Sibley, authors of today’s most well-known American birding guides. You will visit Buck Hollow Ranch in Concan, Texas, where more than two hundred species of birds, including endangered species unique to the Hill Country, pass through in prime season. From there you will travel to New York City to meet thirteen-year-old Alexander Gottdiener, a licensed falconer who enjoys birdwatching in Central Park and in more exotic climes.

Part II: Bird Houses welcomes you into the homes and studios of bird enthusiasts, artists, and collectors. In Houston, Texas, artists Lisa Ludwig and Joseph Havel’s home, which includes an aviary for injured birds and a studio where Lisa creates bronze bird-nest sculptures, serves as a tranquil retreat from the bustling city. Kristof Zyskowski, manager of the vertebrate collections at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, gives you a behind-the-scenes peek at the museum’s meticulously curated collection, which includes specimens from about 70 percent of the world’s bird species.

In Part III: At Home with Birds, you will meet homeowners who have decorated their personal nests to reflect their love of avian life. In antiques dealers Paul and Sharon Mrozinski’s home, Victorian collections of specimen eggs and nests punctuate an eclectic mix of antique furniture and art. The Brooklyn loft shared by young sisters Hollister and Porter Hovey is a hipster ode to nature, featuring taxidermy and an assortment of curios, fabrics, and furniture that reflects their collective adoration of flora and fauna.

Field trips throughout the book give readers a taste of the authentic experience of birders in bird-rich locations in Maine, Texas, North Dakota—and New York City’s greatest sanctuary, Central Park.

Sidebars throughout the book cover how to start a birding hobby, what to pack in your birding bag, what to pack in your birding bag, what garden plantings best attract birds to the home, and what bird enthusiasts are wearing and collecting. An extensive resource section offers countless options for further exploration.

A gorgeous volume and endless source of inspiration for lovers of birding and of bird-themed design alike, The Birding Life shows myriad ways to reflect your passion in your home.

Expressive Modern by Amy Lau

2011-10-11T00:30:00-05:00

Expressive Modern The Interiors of Amy Lau
Written by Amy Lau

Hardcover, 216 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; House & Home - Decorating | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-308-7 (1-58093-308-4)

Vivid color, specially commissioned artisanal pieces, and exquisite midcentury furnishings define the work of interior designer Amy Lau. Inspired by her passion for nature and abstract art, she incorporates elements of both into every space while tailoring each experience to the personalities and lifestyles of her clients.

Thirteen residential interiors, from glass-walled city apartments to demure Hamptons cottages, are presented in luscious full-color photography; lifely text peppered with design tips captures the designer’s energy and explains her creative process. Prior to opening her firm in 2001, Lau managed the prestigious Lin/Weinberg Gallery in New York City—specialisits in twentieth-century furniture and decorative objects—and her love of this period permeates her work to this day. Her designs are sophisticated yet exuberant and full of impeccably restored original pieces yet entirely livable.

Amy Lau’s belief in curating rather than merely decorating spaces results in collections arranged to complement the most unique feature of each individual object, color schemes that relate to a property’s location or enhance a specific view, and in one-of-a-kind textiles designed to subtly mirror a room’s other artwork or furnishings. A final chapter details the artists, movements, places, and visionaries that have had the largest influence on Lau’s development of her own unique style, and encourages all interested in design to create a similar catalog of admired pieces in order to begin refining and defining their own tastes.

Big, Easy Style by Kerri McCaffety

2011-10-04T00:30:00-05:00

Big, Easy Style Creating Rooms You Love to Live In
Written by Bryan Batt and Katy Danos
Photographed by Kerri McCaffety

Hardcover, 208 pages | Potter Style | House & Home - Decorating; Architecture - Interior Design; Architecture - Decoration & Ornament | $35.00 | 978-0-307-59190-6 (0-307-59190-5)

An enchanting space that’s truly unique calls for a sense of humor, whimsy, and an open mind.

From a charmed New Orleans childhood to a successful acting career on Broadway and the award-winning TV show Mad Men to the opening of his popular Big Easy home furnishings boutique, Hazelnut, Bryan Batt has always turned to home design as a creative outlet. To him, the best rooms are unexpected yet refined and, above all, evoke emotion. He doesn’t think twice about hanging oversized decorations from a Mardi Gras float in an elegant dining room or bringing home vintage etchings of sconces when he was actually shopping for real ones. He believes that a vibrant orange wall can be a neutral backdrop for an antique writing desk and earthy accessories, and that an artist’s whimsical bird’s nest sculpture hung in a lavender entryway couldn’t serve as a better welcome into a cozy abode. New Orleans has taught Bryan so much about how to pull together a space that’s fearless and colorful with plenty of panache. With the city as his muse—its strong roots in history, its celebration of tradition, and, of course, the wild festivities of Mardi Gras—he believes that designing a fabulous, livable home that truly reflects a dweller’s passions need not be intimidating.

Big, Easy Style showcases rooms that make Bryan smile, with pages of rich photography featuring the work of many designers—and plenty of Crescent City interiors—framed by his own entertaining maxims on color, pattern, collecting, living areas, intimate spaces, and more. Explore rooms he’s personally designed and others that inspire him; from an old-world kitchen imported straight from the heart of France to a luxurious Art Deco media room, these homes are enticing and unique, and through their surprising details, completely inviting.

Decorating your home to reflect your personality and taste takes practice and patience and can be a daunting undertaking, but Bryan proposes that we not worry about making mistakes, that any decision we make is better than no decision at all. With Big, Easy Style, learn how to put aside your hesitation and surrender to the wild side of home design for a big statement that’s easy to achieve.

"You’ll love his collection of photographs of beautiful New Orleans rooms layered with his design tips and anecdotes of his own design experiences."—Southern Living

"[Big, Easy Style] reads like a hard-copy extension of Batt's personality--elegant, gregarious, funny, showman-like. The rooms he's chosen to showcase are painstakingly designed, yet, in that enviable way, appear so easily tossed together."— Susan Langenhennig, The Times Picayune

"With great passion and a zest for creativity, [Bryan Batt] and Katy Danos offer thoughtful tips on color, collecting, patterns and much more along the way. Kerri McCaffety captures the beauty of each room in her inviting photographs. I love Batt's unique whimsy style. How many of us would think of placing giant decorations from a Mardi Gras float in a lavish dining room? Or how about hanging an ornate crystal chandelier in the kitchen? Or what about painting a Chippendale-style chair mellow yellow. But they all work!"—Jeryl Brunner, Stylist.com

"If you've missed Bryan Batt since he left the set of Mad Men in 2009 (he played Salvatore Romano), catch up with him in a decor ode to his hometown: New Orleans. [In Big, Easy Style], we're treated to his vision of making rooms inviting, festive and ultimately setting the foundation for entertaining, which is what this get-down town is all about."—San Francisco Chronicle

"The book is full of Batt's tips. It's like spending an afternoon with someone who you'd like to watch decorate a home."-- Karen Dalton-Beninato, Huffington Post Books

The New French Interior by Penny Drue Baird

2011-09-27T00:30:00-05:00

The New French Interior
Written by Penny Drue Baird

Hardcover, 208 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; House & Home - Decorating | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-310-0 (1-58093-310-6)

Through her first book, Bringing Paris Home, Penny Drue Baird established herself as an authority on all things French—interior design, flea market and antiques shopping, Parisian life, and stylish entertaining. In The New French Interior, she moves beyond the traditional historic styles to explore the design elements that make up the fresh, clean look—architectural details adapted from art deco, a monochromatic palette based on creams and ivories highlighted with rich browns and blacks, bold forms in furniture and lighting, and restrained tabletop settings.

To illustrate the style, Baird draws on ten of her own recent projects, apartment and house installations, and presents French precedents and influences through specially commissioned photography of Parisian interiors. Images of cafes, markets, shops, and street scenes add to the magical Parisian ambiance she creates.

Traditional Now by Chesie Breen

2011-09-27T00:30:00-05:00

Traditional Now Interiors by David Kleinberg
Written by David Kleinberg
Contribution by Chesie Breen

Hardcover, 240 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design; House & Home - Decorating; Design - Interior Decorating | $60.00 | 978-1-58093-322-3 (1-58093-322-X)

“Beauty meets quality of life.” This is the mantra David Kleinberg adopted from his sixteen-year tenure at the venerable design firm Parish-Hadley, and it is the mantra that guided his own firm, David Kleinberg Design Associates, in its rise to the top of the interior design hierarchy. In Traditional Now, the first book on his work, he demonstrates the meaning of those words in more than twenty projects.

Kleinberg’s body of work is wide-ranging in style yet always modern in sensibility; each residence is calibrated to its occupants’ needs and tastes. A curated mix of antiques, fabrics, textures, finishes, art, and objects is key to the striking rooms he develops. Kleinberg explains his approach in thoughtful commentary on each project, addressing larger questions of interior design—where do you start? how is the color palette determined? what is the furniture plan? how do you select antique pieces?—thoughtfully and informatively. And he offers a wealth of insider information gleaned from his long career:

In every apartment or house there should be a cohesive thread that starts at the front door and continues to the back hall. It is the design equivalent of a trail of bread crumbs . . . People always worry about mixing antiques with reproductions. The key is to respect the scale of the antiques . . . In decorating, most people associate texture only with fabric; in fact, all materials have texture.

Among the projects showcased in Traditional Now are a series of luxurious New York apartments and townhouses—a Fifth Avenue duplex centered on a stunning ivory stair hall, an East Side townhouse featuring a collection of postwar art, a dramatic Tribeca duplex—as well as houses in Connecticut, Long Island, and Florida and an island villa on Mustique. The introduction presents Kleinberg’s course as a designer, starting with a summer job at Denning & Fourcade and progressing though his tenure at Parish-Hadley. Finally, Kleinberg opens the doors to his own residences, from a 250-square-foot homage to 1970s industrial chic to his current apartment in a refined prewar building, a representation of the design of his past and the design of his future.

Living Traditions by Matthew Patrick Smyth

2011-04-19T00:30:00-05:00

Living Traditions Interiors by Matthew Patrick Smyth
Written by Matthew Patrick Smyth

Hardcover, 240 pages | The Monacelli Press | Architecture - Interior Design | $50.00 | 978-1-58093-309-4 (1-58093-309-2)

Classic style and impeccable attention to detail are hallmarks of the work of interior designer Matthew Patrick Smyth. His comfortable, timeless rooms are tailored to fit his clients’ personalities and lifestyles, whether they are dynamic young couples with children or cultured art collectors. Smyth masterfully blends contemporary pieces with antiques to endow each space with a sense of solidity and history while maintaining a completely fresh, modern sensibility.

Smyth credits his mentor David Easton for teaching him how to see the intrinsic value of any given piece and to successfully mix furnishings with similar lines, materials, and forms even when they are products of different centuries. Easton also embedded in Smyth a love for travel—leading to the designer’s devotion to all things French that permeates his work. Smyth opened his own firm in New York in 1987 and now works with clients around the globe. His designs—characterized by refined, flawless interior architecture—are seen in grand Shelter Island mansions, classically proportioned San Francisco townhouses, and demure Parisian pied-à-terres alike.

In this lavishly illustrated volume, Smyth reveals his own design tips, rules, and approaches to meeting challenges offered by uniquely shaped spaces. He focuses on editing collections to better showcase individual works, the personal nature of color selection, adding—or restoring—historical references, and finishing a space off with glorious, often unexpected fabrics and trims. Over two hundred color photographs showcase a wide variety of styles, from a nature-infused Aspen vacation home to the quintessential Upper East Side apartment to a London flat that smoothly blends its owner’s inherited collection of Renaissance art with fine Indian pieces.

Random House New Releases - Architecture - Interior Design

Decorating in Detail by Alexa Hampton

Decorating in Detail Written by Alexa Hampton

MAKE IT FABULOUS: The Architecture and Designs of William T. Georgis by Natalie Shivers

MAKE IT FABULOUS: The Architecture and Designs of William T. Georgis Written by William T. Georgis, Donald Albrecht and Natalie Shivers

Designers Abroad: Inside the Vacation Homes of Top Decorators by Michele Keith

Designers Abroad: Inside the Vacation Homes of Top Decorators Written by Michele Keith

French Accents by Erin Swift

French Accents At Home with Parisian Objects and DetailsWritten by Erin Swift

Artful Decoration by Margaret Russell

Artful Decoration Written by Andrew Fisher and Jeffry Weisman Introduction by Margaret Russell