This is the last of the pile of books, starting things off with what might possibly be my favourite book of 2022. Another book by Catherine Scotto (photos by Nicolas Mathéus), Morocco: Destination of Style, Elegance and Design is everything you envision Morocco being (for those of us not fortunate enough to have ever traveled there) – colourful, filled with vegetation, tons of textures, rustic, earthy, tiles and marble and all the wonderful things that makes this country so magical.
Discover the colors and textures of 21st-century Morocco in this enticing collection of lush and inviting photographs of homes, gardens, hotels, and historic sites. Brimming with inspiration, this guide introduces readers to the next generation of interior and landscape designers, architects, and stylists who are transforming and reinforcing the country’s reputation as a center of cultural and historic discovery. Combining modern technology with a deep respect for tradition, these locations and influencers incorporate natural materials such as earth, wood, and bamboo into buildings that are both simple and elegant, and into landscapes that honor a fragile ecosystem. Armchair travelers, environmental designers, and anyone looking for a colorful immersive experience will find much to discover in this celebration of a country at once rooted in tradition and eager to embrace innovation.

The next book is The Sustainable Home: Easy Ways to Live With Nature in Mind by Ida Magntorn. This is a great little inexpensive book featuring some really pretty spaces and had lots of ideas on how to live greener. Most books I come across are pretty coffee table books so this one was refreshingly educational and a handy reference.
A beautifully produced book on interiors with a focus on sustainability and wellbeing and creating a home with the environment in mind. Inspiration and tips for creating a sustainable home without compromising on style. In The Sustainable Home, interiors writer and photographer Ida Magntorn shows how to create a harmonious, beautiful and functional home that is sustainable in the long run. Taking inspiration from real homes, and following the motto reuse, reduce, recycle – Ida shares new ways to think when decorating – combining low environmental impact with individual style. Room by room, she offers practical and positive advice to create a greener home.

And last but certainly not least, we have Romancing the Home: Stylish Interiors for a Modern Lifestyle by Stewart Manger, with Jacqueline Terrebonne. This one didn’t really grab me as much as some of the others but if contemporary design tickles your fancy, I think you’ll like the spaces Stewart has created. There are some really bold, graphic and colourful elements that really pop and are quite unique.
Stewart Manger is regarded for his bespoke interiors in which exquisite craftsmanship and a classic-meets-modern flair. This rising star’s first monograph showcases his imaginative ways to create vibrant and stylish rooms. His surehanded approach that seamlessly melds the contemporary and the Old World is fresh and inviting, and his affinity for seeking the best artisans and workrooms for custom work results in impeccable homes. Whether a restored late nineteenth-century house that embraces the warmth and comfort of an English country house, or a white-washed hillside house overlooking the sea—Manger singles out a theme that is carried throughout the design. He illustrates the mixing of exotic and playful patterns and discusses how quality antique pieces can add character to a room.

Rye Colonial-Revival is a three-story, Colonial Revival house originally built in the early 1900’s on the grounds of a historic country club. Elizabeth Roberts Architects reimagined and reorganized the house to create an informal and light-filled home for a family of six. Priority was given to creating a new central kitchen. Vertical and entry circulation was reconsidered throughout the house by creating a new stair leading from the family entrance near the garage through an entryway with ample storage for shoes, backpacks and sports gear. The new stairway leads directly to the new and centrally-located kitchen and then directly to the bedrooms on the upper floors. On the main living floor of the house, ERA relocated the kitchen to a space which had formerly been a formal dining room to create a large eat-in kitchen with a new cooking fireplace and a generous island with bar seating. ERA created a double height conservatory room by removing the floor from a second floor guest bedroom to create a new two-story space overlooking the garden and pool area.
I continue to be in complete awe of how Elizabeth Roberts can merge old with new and create such livable, functional homes that are perfectly classic yet modern. Also, including that wood burning fireplace in the kitchen was brilliant.

If a well designed bathroom gives you heart palpitations and has you dreaming of soaking in the most luxurious tub surrounded by the prettiest marble and tile and mirrors and sconces then this book is absolutely for you.
The Ultimate Bath (by cofounder of Waterworks Barbara Sallick) devotes its elegantly illustrated chapters to the most luxuriously designed bathrooms from a wide-ranging list of contributors, including Gil Schafer, Nickey Kehoe, Brigette Romanek, and Miles Redd. These are baths that, while grounded in timeless elements, surprise and enchant. There are grand baths of high style with elegant mirrored and marble surfaces. There are bold rooms of rich maximalist pattern and color. There are strictly tailored spaces of great restraint and serenity. And finally, there are baths with restorative views to the garden or forest—or in the middle of nature themselves. Gathered together, these spaces seduce, delight, and serve as a visual blueprint for readers looking to create rest, refuge, and beauty at home. The end result is a book that celebrates the unexpected and inspires readers to bring a magical quality to their own baths, no matter how modest or grand.

Another book that ended up in my mailbox was Soul: Interiors by Orlando DIaz-Azcuy (written by Jorge S. Arango and Orlando Diaz-Azcuy). Contemporists/modernists this one is definitively for you. This one didn’t really tug at my heart-strings as my style leans more vintage and eclectic but there are some really unique spaces featured here I had not seen before. A great coffee table book.
San Francisco–based Orlando Diaz-Azcuy’s mastery of the home interior has made him one of America’s most renowned designers. Regarded by professionals as a “dean of interior design” and a pioneer of minimalist design since the early 1980s, Diaz-Azcuy has been a major influence in the worlds of interior architecture and design. Bringing soul to modernism is Diaz-Azcuy’s greatest legacy, as well as the subject of this book. Each residence featured in these pages is essentially simple, functional and beautiful, achieved with exactitude, attention to detail and craftsmanship. Diaz-Azcuy’s elegantly composed rooms speak volumes for his spare, intelligent, and disciplined touch. His interiors—located in Miami and New York as well as San Francisco—combine architecturally clean lines and an urbane sensibility with smart flashes of bold color or a pedigreed period statement piece to balance a curated look. By orchestrating textural richness, honest materiality, and judiciously deployed global artifacts and art in perfectly calibrated measure, Diaz-Azcuy transforms modernism into something eminently livable, pioneering a new style that has become ubiquitous today.

Housed at the end of a dead end near the Bastille, the surface, due to the agglomeration of several garages, was dark, low in the ceiling and poorly distributed. But there was this small piece of paved courtyard, abandoned, which gave it a little sense of the countryside in Paris… It became the guideline of the renovation, with in the end, an apartment with a house-like aesthetic, covered with vegetation. The openings have been revised: in the living room, two double glazed doors turn the apartment towards the flowery courtyard. On the street, the old doors have become bay windows filling two bedrooms and the bathroom in light. The floors, none of which were at the same level, were lowered by 20 cm to increase the ceiling height. To allow for more breathing room, and to circulate the through light, all the doors are partially glazed. A wing overlooking the courtyard accommodates two other bedrooms for children, separated by a glass roof, where each has its own unique look. Downstairs, their playground, upstairs, their beds on the mezzanine. A holiday atmosphere, supported by old floor tiles, a farmhouse table, walls with exposed bricks, sinks and an old bathtub, which you would think have always been there.
A unique and very much livable space designed by Camille Hermand. Photos: Agathe Tissier.

Several new books have popped up in my mailbox lately and they really make me want to have a proper library to store them all. I am a book-aholic of epic proportions and I have happy to share my latest treasures with you all.

First up is French Chateau Style by Catherine Scotto with photos by Marie-Pierre Morel. A MUST HAVE. 150%. I loved this so much I read it twice in a row. As you all know j’adore les châteaux and this book is about “ordinary” people having the absolute privilege of living and restoring some of the most beautiful châteaux I have ever seen. (This book was tough to photograph because the pages had a matte finish but that made the photos that much more beautiful in person).
The doors of centuries-old French chateaux are thrown wide open in this sumptuous photographic cross-country tour. Readers will gain entry to a stunning array of stylish private homes within beautiful restored buildings, each one representing very different approaches to décor and preservation. From Normandy to Provence and everywhere in between the owners of these chateaux—including decorators, antique dealers, artists, and collectors—represent the epitome of French culture and taste. There’s something for everyone here—whether it’s homes where simplicity and minimalism reign, rooms as exuberantly busy as a 17th-century tapestry, or interiors transformed by surprising, era-bending feats. 

Next is a book as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. Currently Classic: Jonathan Rachman Design by Jonathan Rachman and Dean Rhys-Morgan with photographs by Douglas Friedman and Suzanna Scott, and illustrated by Marc-Antoine Coulon. The homes in this book are luxurious and decadent, but there is so much inspiration in each of the projects on how to use colour, how to be adventurous and displaying collections seemingly effortlessly.
Jonathan Rachman’s instantly classic designs come to life in vibrant and sumptuous color in this first monograph on the Sumatran-born, San Francisco–based interior decorator. He opens the doors to his universe in this volume illustrating his eclectic, vividly colorful, and markedly refined style, through various projects undertaken for prestigious clients. Rachman injects his projects with his own wide-reaching, worldly experience, his explorations into provincial flea markets, and his taste for textiles, leather goods, handicrafts, and art objects. In each of his designs, he combines the best materials from the East and the West, devising personalized plans for his clients and creating a timeless approach to interior design.