Classical Interiors

Marshall Watson’s first book reveals how to make traditional interiors fresh. Known for his meticulously researched, European-inspired style, Marshall Watson creates interiors that are rich in texture, detail, and simple luxuries. In his first book, Watson shares his finest work, demonstrating that while each of these homes is as unique as its owner, they all adhere to principles that transform a mere series of spaces into a genuine, coherent home: warmth; light; peace; comfort; balance; proportion; livability; and last but not least, appropriateness. Whether in an Italianate villa in Los Cabos or a family idyll on a Swedish island, a Gramercy Park apartment that blends shimmer and restraint, or a Newport Beach cottage warmed by walls finished in egg-yolk yellow, Watson explains how he translated each family’s lifestyle and aspirations, the house’s history, and the surrounding environment into a highly original form of elegance—and how anyone can discover his or her own. Beautifully photographed with lavish images of Watson’s work, this inspiring book is a must-have for interior design lovers.

For Alessandra Branca, living means living comfortably. Growing up in Rome, Branca was always surrounded by exquisite art and architecture. She learned early on that beauty is meant to intermingle with everyday life, and to this day her interior designs, while abiding by classical principles, comfortably accommodate her clients’ lifestyles. “You can’t just do something that looks pretty,†? she says. “It has to work.†? In this book, the designer—based in Chicago—generously reveals her step-by-step creative process, offering invaluable guidance to anyone who wants a home that is both gorgeous and livable. Beginning with her own Chicago townhouse and interweaving insights drawn from several other prominent projects, she shows how she assesses each space’s form and function, selects foundation elements, chooses furniture and lighting, and, finally, incorporates decorative elements that reflect the resident’s personality. Illustrated with 200 lush photographs, the book offers a welcomes introduction to Branca’s enchanting and livable interiors.

Filled with hundreds of ideas drawn from tradition, this work is both a confident style statement for the enthusiast of English design, and a reference work for the home decorator.

The classic American bungalow is as popular today as when introduced in the Victorian era. This title shows a wide variety of interior details and describes how to add or restore elements that suggest a historic flair while keeping the home comfortable and functional.

Lars Sj?berg is one of Sweden's national treasures. He is as widely known for his encyclopaedic knowledge of Sweden's historic houses as he is for his passionate concern to preserve them. Presented here are the eight houses (and one church) that he has acquired over forty years, many of which he bought in order to save them from being demolished. They range from a miniature Baroque manor house to an imposing Italianate Neoclassical villa, from a late 17th-century aristocratic mansion to the two-room dwellings of early 19th-century smelting workers. Each house tells a story giving an insight into why it was built and how it changed with succeeding generations. Each has been lovingly photographed by Ingalill Snitt. Text and pictures combine to show how the appealing style that has come to be recognized as quintessentially Swedish developed from its roots in the late 17th century to flower in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Here are the pale wood floors and muslin curtains, the elegant Gustavian furniture, the gleaming gilded mirrors, the charming painted wall decorations and the simple sprigged or striped fabrics, used in entirely authentic interiors. An art historian and a museum curator, Sjoberg is also a superb self-taught craftsman who believes ardently in the value of learning from the past to preserve the future. His principles are borne out by the meticulous way in which he has restored and conserved his houses. His first and most complex undertaking was the manor of Regnaholm. Built in the 1770s, redecorated in the early years of the 19th century and unoccupied for about forty years when he took it on in 1966, it allowed him to experiment with interior decoration and refurnishing. He has built on this knowledge over the decades, reproducing furniture, having fabrics rewoven and reprinted and lighting and even porcelain copied. This book is a ravishingly beautiful, deeply personal summary of everything Lars Sj?berg has learnt in his years of working and living with classic Swedish interiors.

Having worked in period interiors for all her successful transaltantic career, Henrietta Spencer-Churchill turns to her key area of expertise: architectural detail and how to incorporate period details into your own home. This comprehensive guide to the best of three centuries of the most enduring decorating styles, explains and illustrates the distinguishing characteristics from both the European and American periods, and from the Baroque through the end of the nineteenth century. Henrietta shows how architectural elements of these classic decorating styles can be adapted and used in the home today to produce her trademark understated grandeur. Divided by period, each section begins with a beautifully illustrated introduction and chronology of interior styles, with a guide to the history, nature, and the most enduring aspects of the time. Covering both architectural and furnishing detail, photographs illustrate the best of period features and schemes from real homes, and Henrietta shows how to use influences from the past to create a period feel.

Krista Schrock and David John Dick, founders of DISC Interiors, masterfully combine traditional inspiration with contemporary elegance. Headed by principals Krista Schrock and David John Dick, DISC Interiors is an interior and furniture design firm based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. DISC Interiors strives to create homes of calibrated simplicity that balance the push and pull of modern life, address a sense of place and persons rather than any particular period or style, and balance the traditional with the modern and aesthetics with function. DISC Interiors favors earthy color palettes that transition like seasons, and organic textures that patina gently like metals that burnish with touch, leathers that soften, and floorboards that reveal more of a home's soul with every year. The homes they design are filled with vintage furniture and rugs juxtaposed against custom upholstery to feel contemporary yet classic and familiar. The projects designed by DISC Interiors represent a one-of-a-kind combination of traditional details and contemporary chic, and Portraits of Home is inspiring for all those seeking both contemporary and traditional solutions to twenty-first-century living.

A lavishly illustrated history of Sweden's most significant works of architecture is paired with capsule biographies of many of the region's top contributors, in a volume that includes coverage of such structures as the royal palace of Stockholm and the Pavilion at Haga.

The first book on the work of a designer whose refined classical interiors are widely desired and emulated as the epitome of French style. Honored as one of the top designers by all the international design magazines and universally admired by design editors, Jean-Louis Deniot is in demand. His updated classical approach now graces interiors in Paris, the French countryside, Moscow, India, New York, Chicago, L.A., and beyond—and his legacy is already being compared to that of design greats such as Jacques Grange and Alberto Pinto. Deniot is an architect first, ensuring that the interior architecture of his rooms is harmonious before giving a neoclassical approach to the decor. He brings education, logic, and design history to his work, with one eye looking at the most refined style of French eighteenth century and one eye on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His mix is highly individual and includes contemporary art and custom-made furniture, yet his rooms always look comfortable and are never overly formal or trendy. This book demonstrates a new, sophisticated classical style that is changing the scene for international design and offering inspiration and ideas to decorators, homeowners, and antiques enthusiasts.

The principles of classical architecture applied to the design of interiors, both residential and public. A practicing architect shows how the elements that constitute the classical interior-wall and ceiling treatments, doors and windows, fireplaces, and stairs-can be composed into rooms satisfying both aesthetic and practical criteria. Historic and contemporary examples illustrate both generic and specific solutions for designers working in the classical tradition today.