Book picks similar to
French Style and Decoration: A Sourcebook of Original Designs by Stafford Cliff
history
design
design-ornament
patterns
Found Style: Vintage Ideas for Modern Living
David Butler - 2003
Unique style comes with successfully blending the old and new, the unexpected with the familiar - a white antique stove and modern chrome refrigerator placed side by side, or a 50s kidney-shaped coffee table accented by an Adirondack chair. Enter Found Style, the modern-day guide to the mix-and-match aesthetic. From vintage treasures to contemporary furnishings, family heirlooms to flea market finds, authors David and Amy Butler take a friendly approach to creating spaces that are courageously unique - and undeniably stylish. Illustrated with 200 inspiring color photographs, Found Style offers up a host of innovative ideas, as well as tips for honing one's flea market savvy, and blending old and new with unexpected dash. Found Style is a celebration of creating eclectic personal style and a resource for those who live for the hunt.
Weddings by Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart - 1987
Here, in a simply spectacular book, Martha Stewart takes us behind the scenes of some of the most lovely weddings ever. Over 40 weddings and receptions, from small, intimate celebrations for 18 to lavish parties for 400, are documented in more than 700 full-color photographs. The settings are as varied as an idyllic country farm in New Jersey, a gracious mansion on eastern Long Island, an elegant townhouse in New York City, a private island in New Hampshire, a ranch in Texas, and the oldest and most beautiful cathedral in Montreal. We see the choices the brides, grooms, and their families made and how they planned every detail of their special day.All the essential elements of a wedding are discussed in depth in chapters filled with information and ideas: Style, Organization, Invitations, Wedding Dresses, Bridal Bouquets, Ceremony, Music, Decoration, and, of course, Wedding Menus and Cakes. More than 120 recipes are included for varied wedding receptions, from cocktails and hors d'oeuvres to buffets, sit-down lunches and dinners, and even barbecues. Twelve different recipes for traditional as well as nontraditional wedding cakes (including carrot, lemon, and even a cheesecake) are included along with step-by-step instructions for assembling and decorating them.Weddings are back in style, and anyone who is getting married or is involved in some way with a wedding will want to read and use this wonderfully inspiring book.
Black and White (and a Bit in Between): Timeless Interiors, Dramatic Accents, and Stylish Collections
Celerie Kemble - 2011
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.
Captain Cook
Oliver Warner - 2016
He was the first to discover Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and the first to circumnavigate New Zealand. By the 1700s, England, eager to expand its realm of trade, promoted exploration of all the unclaimed regions of the world. The eighteenth century, the age of reason and enlightenment, required a new kind of explorer: not a rover or a plunderer or a seeker of adventure for its own sake, but a master of navigation and seamanship. Captain James Cook filled the bill. No one ever surpassed Cook's record. From South America to Australia, from the ice islands of the South Pacific to the fogbound Bering Strait, lay thousands of miles of islands, atolls, and ocean that Cook charted.
Art Of Japanese Joinery
Kiyosi Seike - 1977
Presenting 48 joints, selected from among the several hundred known and used today, this visually exciting book will please anyone who has ever been moved by the sheer beauty of wood. With the clear isometric projections complementing the 64 pages of stunning photographs, even the weekend carpenter can duplicate these bequests from the traditional Japanese carpenter, which can be applied to projects as large as the buildings for which most of them were originally devised or to projects as small as a sewing box.
Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons From The World's Most Elegant Woman
Karen Karbo - 2009
Delving into the long, extraordinary life of renowned French fashion designer Coco Chanel, Karen Karbo has written a new kind of book, exploring Chanel's philosophy on a range of universal themes - from style to passion, from money and success to femininity and living life on your own terms.For a live viewing of Chesley McLaren's illustrations you can visit The 4th Wall Gallery.Click here for more info.
Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights
Jessica Kerwin Jenkins - 2010
It’s an homage to the esoteric world of glamour that doesn’t require much spending but makes us feel rich.Taking a cue from the exotic encyclopedias of the sixteenth century, which brimmed with mysterious artifacts, Jessica Kerwin Jenkins’s Encyclopedia of the Exquisite focuses on the elegant, the rare, the commonplace, and the delightful. A compendium of style, it merges whimsy and practicality, traipsing through the fine arts and the worlds of fashion, food, travel, home, garden, and beauty.Each entry features several engaging anecdotes, illuminating the curious past of each enduring source of beauty. Subjects covered include the explosive history of champagne; the art of lounging on a divan; the emergence of “frillies,” the first lacy, racy lingerie; the ancient uses of sweet-smelling saffron; the wild riot incited by the appearance of London’s first top hat; Julia Child’s tip for cooking the perfect omelet; the polarizing practice of wearing red lipstick during World War II; Louis XIV’s fondness for the luscious Bartlett pear; the Indian origin of badminton; Parliament’s 1650 attempt to suppress Europe’s beauty mark fad; the evolution of the Japanese kimono; the pilgrimage of Central Park’s Egyptian obelisk; and the fanciful thrill of dining alfresco.Cleverly illustrated, Encyclopedia of the Exquisite is an ode to life’s plenty, from the extravagant to the eccentric. It is a celebration of luxury that doesn’t necessarily require money.
Happy Starts at Home: Change Your Space, Transform Your Life
Rebecca West - 2020
Through aligning your heart, home, and health, experience first-hand how small changes make a big difference.
What does it take to be happy at home? It’s not about buying or not buying a new sofa. It’s about whether your home is working for you in the best way. Your home can directly improve your well-being and contentment with better health, sleep, and relationships, and ultimately decrease your stress levels to increase your all-round happiness. Design expert Rebecca West helps you to learn how to achieve a geographical cure without actually relocating and how to redecorate so you can feel best in your space. Along with beautiful photographs, there are a variety of self-assessment activities to connect your financial, emotional and physical health to your space to ensure it nurtures your vision – and while doing so, investing your time and money more effectively too. With the valuable advice in Happy Starts at Home, you can commit to a philosophy of buying fewer things and doing more to discover what’s holding you back, in order to find joy and create a home that makes you smile.
American Junk
Mary Randolph Carter - 1994
She introduces us to and takes us into the homes of these unusually creative people, who share her belief that thrift, economy, and ingenuity translate into high style indeed. There are before-and-after pictures, tips on repair and storage hints on how to bargain, ideas for themed collections and even a list of what to bring on junking expeditions. The author reveals the price of almost every one of the hundreds and hundreds of items pictured, and best of all provides a directory to more than two "junking sites" nationwide. American Junk is a one-of-a-kind book for those who appreciate the rare, the idiosyncratic, and the unexpected - those who realize that there are as many kinds of junk as there are individuals.
Fashion 150 Years Of Courtiers, Designers, Labels
Charlotte Seeling - 2010
This book is devoted to the legendary world of fashion, from its origins in the late nineteenth century to the present. Which social, historical, and cultural developments coalesced to allow fashion to become what it is today? Which designers had especially significant impact on their fashion era with extensive portraits of the ground-breaking fashion icons and countless expressive photographs. The result is a comprehensive portrayal of the rapid development of fashion from the liberation of women from the corset all the way to the minimalist and luxurious, playful and sober, conservative and revolutionary creations of modern designers.
The Chiffon Trenches
André Leon Talley - 2020
Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella.There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue's masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who's who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived--despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry--to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion.Woven throughout the book are also André's own personal struggles that have impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he has turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Férstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and ongoing faith, which have guided him since childhood.
One Man's Folly: The Exceptional Houses of Furlow Gatewood
Julia Reed - 2014
Antiques expert Furlow Gatewood's highly personal property in bucolic Americus, Georgia, where he has meticulously restored his family's carriage house and added intimate dwellings and outbuildings-several rescued from demolition-has evolved over decades to become a sublime expression of stylish living. The structures exemplify various architectural traditions-from mid-nineteenth-century Gothic to Palladian. He has collaborated with local craftsmen to create these follies and takes delight in designing the picturesque grounds and plantings and in devising comfortable areas for his beloved dogs and peacocks. A gifted designer and longtime associate of antiques dealer John Rosselli, Gatewood has a talent for discovering singular pieces with a poetic patina, composing custom paint finishes and subtle palettes, and knowing how to incorporate distinctive architectural elements. To accompany the book's atmospheric images, close friend Bunny Williams writes about the lessons she has learned from this master of discernment. Gatewood's seductive and hospitable Arcadian oasis, with its exquisite and timeless design, will have an enduring impact on the design community.
Farrow & Ball: How to Decorate
Joa Studholme - 2016
Published on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the iconic brand, the book brings together the expertise of Joa Studholme and Farrow & Ball's creative team to demystify the nitty-gritty of transforming a home - from deciding which colors work best in a north-facing room to creating accents with paint and making the most of a feature wall.
The Real Midnight In Paris: A History of the Expatriate
Paul Brody - 2012
Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and so many more collectively made up this artistic period in time. In this book, you will learn how and why the movement started, what it was like to be a writer in Paris, and what led to its fall.A list of essential reading from the period is also included in the book.
Flea Market Style: Fresh Ideas for Your Vintage Finds
Better Homes and Gardens - 2017
With hundreds of photos showcasing ideas for combining and integrating flea-market finds into a decorating scheme that is economical, environmentally friendly, and one of a kind.