Gift Guide | Books

The only thing I love as much as getting books is giving them! I think you tell a lot about a person by the books they have on display in their home. The more books, the better! I have the titles I love most scattered around every room in my home. They're stacked on my coffee table, the floor, my entry table, even on a side chair — like Ryan Korban, who I blogged about here, did. They make a home feel lived in. So, this holiday season I plan to share some of my favorite reads and coffee table books with the ones I love. It's a meaningful gift that will inspire for years to come. I'm always be a sucker for a good hardcover and these are just a few of the beautiful design books I have saved in my Amazon Wish List:

1. Domestic Art: Curated Interiors 2. The Sartorialist: Closer 3. Living in Style: Paris 4. The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge 5. Jacques Grange: Interiors 6. Tom Ford 7. Jansen 8. Pierre Cardin Evolution: Furniture and Design 9. Habitually Chic: Creativity at Work 10. The Big Book of Chic 11. Carine Roitfeld: Irreverent 12. Rhapsody: Kelly Wearstler 13. Frances Elkins: Interior Design 14. Grace: A Memoir

Purposeful Piles

I love a good organized pile. It’s an obsession - inherited from my father - that has persisted since my youth, and I can’t seem to shake it. There are piles on my desk, under my nightstand, on my ottoman...name a space or surface of my home and I'll bet that I have a pile of something in it or on it. So when I spotted the images above you can only imagine the excitement/jealousy I felt. Why didn't I think to turn my hoards of shelter and fashion magazines into a console table? I mean, is this not the most genius/purposeful pile you have ever seen?

And I kind of feel like finding these pictures was gods way of telling me to stop obsessively looking for a bookcase and instead create large stacks of books around my apartment à la Ryan Korban. Weird, I know, but I've been searching for the perfect bookcase for my home office for months now and being picky and liking expensive things is obviously a bad combo when you're on a budget.  So for now I'm going to listen to god and create purposeful piles. ;) 

(Images 1 / 2 / 3)

Smitten | Katie Ridder Rooms

I have long been a fan of Katie Ridder -- I mean, honestly, who did not love her candy-colored living room design that graced the cover of Elle Decor back in 2008 -- so I'm just dying to get my hands on her soon to be released book, Katie Ridder Rooms.  There is much that I admire about Katie's work. She has an amazing sense of color and a keen eye for detail which, I think, makes her rooms feel layered and full of life.  Based on the preview (available here) and the images above, I have a feeling this book is going to be good, reallll good.

(Images by Eric Piasecki)

The Illustrated Woman

Maira Kalman is so inspirational...and funny!  After watching this video from TED I am eagerly awaiting the October 14th release of author and illustrator Maira Kalman's latest book, And the Pursuit of Happiness  (another title to add to my ever-growing list of must-read).  It seems to me she is as witty, as wise and as deliciously charming in person as she is on paper.

(Illustrations by Maira Kalman for The New York Times)

Madeleine Castaing

Speaking of the French and their love of Madeleine Castaing fabric, I am eagerly awaiting the release of The World of Madeleine Castaing.  The book, written by the lovely Emily Evans Eerdmans, with a Preface by Frederic Castaing and a Foreword by Jacques Grange, will be released October 26th but is available now for pre-order.  According to the publisher, "This lavishly illustrated volume—the first on her work—explores in-depth the elements of her style, and examines how she crafted interiors so emotive that visitors felt that they had stepped into a Balzac novel or a Proustian recollection."  As far as I am concerned, Madeleine consistently created glamorous interiors and is the only decorator that I am aware of that managed to pull off plastic flowers successfully! 

Want a sneak peak at the making of the book?  Emily's blog features photos from her research trips to Paris as well as images that weren't able to make it into the book.