When you find a designer or architect whose work you admire, you want to see as much of their work as possible – especially if you are considering hiring them for your next project. You can scroll through their website and social media, or pick up a copy of House & Garden in the hope that they might be featured, but nothing quite compares to leafing through the pages of a beautifully produced book. Luckily, a fair few names on the HG101 list have written or contributed to books that showcase some of their most memorable projects. These are filled with fascinating stories, captivating imagery and bright ideas that can recreate at home.
We have gathered together some of favourite monographs from the past few years to create the ultimate HG101 library. Not only will these books provide plenty of inspiration, but they will also look the part on your coffee table or ottoman.
It is a joy to open this book and find every page brimming with all that this designer is known for: colour, creativity and craftsmanship. We are treated to the full breadth of Kit Kemp’s work in recent years, from her instantly recognisable Firmdale hotels to private homes across the world (including her own in London, Hampshire and the Caribbean), restaurants, offices, textile and tableware collections. There is also the most enchanting gypsy caravan that lives in her garden at home in the New Forest, which you can read about here. Rose Washbourn
Interior and architectural designer Patrick Williams belongs to a new generation of creatives championing a sympathetic but unstuffy approach to renovating period buildings, using natural materials and traditional techniques. Like a modern-day William Morris, Patrick believes that, in a post-modernist era, design has become divorced from craft. Part memoir and part manifesto, The House Rules is not your conventional interiors book. In place of case studies, themed chapters explore the influences that have shaped his own rules. His slower and more authentic approach is not just pleasing to the eye, he argues, but also better for our health – and that of the planet. A relevant message indeed. Serena Fokschaner
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Repurposing old materials makes economic and ecological sense. But what Adam Hills and Maria Speake, co-founders of the London-based salvage and design firm Retrouvius, have also done is to make reclamation chic and modern. They gave us the museum cabinet as kitchen island; the chunky iroko wood worktop salvaged from a science lab. Adam and Maria met as architectural students in Glasgow. In the early 1990s, as congregations dwindled, scores of ecclesiastical buildings were succumbing to the wrecker’s ball. Appalled at the destruction, the couple set out to save their architectural treasures. Word spread and, in 1993, Retrouvius began. Their interiors projects convey a knack for reuse in settings that span a Bayswater apartment and a Hebridean bolthole. Fossil-embedded limestone from Heathrow and sea-green copper from a 1970s office building add patina. What strikes you most is their ingenuity: old cigar moulds inset into a door like an abstract relief. In Retrouvius’s world, resourcefulness – not newness – is all. Serena Fokschaner
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Thoughtful is the word that comes to mind when reading this book about the interior design of Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham. This is no soft, pensive elegy, but a bright, revelatory ‘modern expression of classic English decorating’ by two designers who constantly study its minute details. The pair work to adapt its lovely legacy for life today, when such back-of-house spaces as pantries, boot rooms and cloakrooms are given almost as much attention as the drawing room. Nine projects are examined in depth, from a grand country house to a London pied-à-terre and US mountain retreat. Elfreda Pownall
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If you’re an admirer of the contemporary country house look, you may well be very familiar with Sims Hilditch’s work. The nine projects featured in this book demonstrate studio founder Emma Sims-Hilditch’s impressive ability to blend timeless charm with 21st-century functionality. Expansive rural newbuilds and restorations stand out not only for their elegant drawing rooms and bedrooms, but also for the practical yet thoughtfully detailed back-of-house spaces. Londoners especially will find inspiration in the clever remodelling of a Victorian townhouse and the chic decoration of a flat in The OWO building on Whitehall. You can see an unusual Warwickshire project featured in the book here. Rose Washbourn
‘The colours we choose to decorate our homes with or surround ourselves with convey feelings and narratives that words may not fully capture,’ writes Martin Brudnizki in the introduction to his brilliant debut book. ‘Colour is the language of dreams, and this book is my small contribution to this beautiful and expressive dialect of design.’ It is a fitting theme for a designer who is known not only for his incredible eye for colour, but for his ability to bring a sense of fantasy and wonder to any space he works on. He has long put off writing this book – ‘I never thought I had completed enough projects,’ he explains – but it is more than worth the wait, showcasing 40 incredible examples of his work, from his own home in West Sussex to his legendary work for hotels and members’ clubs around the world. With each chapter devoted to a different colour, the book takes you on a kaleidoscopic journey through Martin’s magical creative world – a real treat for anyone in need of a little escapism. Rose Washbourn
That Nicola Harding describes the creation of a home as a kind of alchemy – an enchanting and near supernatural process of transformation – speaks to the numinous nature of the interior designer’s approach to decoration. Unlike the ancient philosophers, Nicola is happy to share her secret ingredient in this new monograph, explaining, ‘In my pursuit of spaces that are soulful, and hold and move us, colour is indispensable.’ This exploration of her philosophy and practice features stunning photographs of her projects – from a Tuscan villa to a Georgian house in the English countryside. The book also reveals Nicola’s admirable intellectual humility, which allowed her to not only absorb the expertise of mentors in her early career, but also maintain a deep curiosity about her craft. It is a quality that has, over time, transmuted into a formidable authority with which she dispenses, in a disarming and warm tone, valuable advice on how to ‘unlock the soulfulness’ of a home. Aida Amoako
Following his previous two books English Decoration and English Houses, the renowned architect and decorator Ben Pentreath showcases some of his most recent, and most impressive, work in An English Vision. ‘An early decision – actually, for which, I have Veere Grenney to be grateful – was to include not just decoration and private houses in the book, but some of the masterplanning projects too,’ Ben himself writes in an exclusive piece for House & Garden. ‘Veere was adamant that this was all a part of what made me, me. And so the warp and weft of text and ideas and themes began to take shape. Now the book has four main sections – Cities, Towns & Townhouses, Country Houses, and Farm & Village – and it opens with some ideas on ‘My Way of Thinking’ – looking at the complex strands that link how we design an individual building, or an interior, or the streets of a new town. It showcases some 30 of our completed projects, of all different scales and types. It’s all, really about the idea of harmonious comfort, visual beauty and about being informed by the best parts of history – but never being afraid of the future.’
As a limited edition, this book is a collector’s item. Exquisitely produced, with photographs by James McDonald and an excellent narrative by Serena Fokschaner, it catalogues the beautiful projects, paintings and drawings executed over the years by the designer and artist John Minshaw. John is a Neoclassicist and nothing in his interiors is there by accident. It was John who taught me the importance of what he called ‘the space between’, emphasising each piece of furniture as he described the layout of an interior we were to visit. Together with his wife Susie (who is justifiably credited as his muse), he has produced some of the most exacting and glamorous interiors of the last century. This is a beautiful book that – like John’s work – will not date. Liz Elliot
In his forward to this book, the writer and curator Owen Hopkins makes the point that the architect Chris Dyson is impossible to categorise. His projects ‘seem like they have always been there. It is architecture that seems old and new at the same time’. That sets this book up rather nicely as it takes a tour of private houses, mixed use spaces and commercial projects. Chris Dyson is most known for his extensive work in Spitalfields, with numerous sensitively renovated and reimagined houses under his belt, but this book looks beyond EC1 to with exciting glimpses of what he can do in the countryside which is every bit as appealing. David Nicholls
In the acknowledgments at the back of her book, Beata Heuman thanks her friend Matthew Bell ‘for helping me edit the text with good humour’ and ‘no tolerance for clichés’. For Beata, ‘no clichés’ is a design mantra. She turns her back on accepted norms to strike out for a new kind of interior – and she is not afraid of choosing a detail that some people would describe as a bit ‘off’. Above all, she seeks to express the personality of her clients. Her book, she writes, ‘isn’t about static perfection or rigorous rules. It is about individuality and striking a chord’. The same could be said of the interiors she designs. Elfreda Pownall
Living Tradition captures the range of the architectural work of Hugh Petter – a director of Adam architecture since 1997. This includes new country houses, additions to major institutions, as well as urban master planning, including for the Duchy of Cornwall at Nansledan and Tregunnell Hill, in Cornwall, and in Kennington, London. We are given delicious insight into a series of elegant and handsomely detailed new country houses on the 18th-century model, and a breathtaking Palladian ‘dream’ house in the Bahamas. His major addition, inspired by Lutyens and Wren, to British School at Rome speaks of his tact and skill as a designer, as does his magisterial Levine Building for Trinity College, Oxford; in both cases, modern classical work adds to the aesthetic harmony of the whole. It is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary traditionalist in architecture – and the continuity of the country-house story. Jeremy Musson
‘I love seeing now his interest in layering spaces, making them whimsical, full of references, but also the quality and comfort that are at the end of that process,’ writes architect Annabelle Selldorf in the foreword to this monograph on the work of the New York- and London-based interior designer Bryan O’Sullivan. ‘He has an ability to reference periods distant and close in a very freewheeling way—the whole time with an unerring sense of quality.’ This book features some of his favourite projects to date, from the Red Room at the Connaught Hotel and Berkeley Bar & Terrace residential projects across Europe and the US.
How does a designer as busy and in demand as Flora Soames find time to author a book? But here
it is, part memoir, part decorating inspiration, sumptuously illustrated with her own homes, her parents’ and clients’ houses, and interleaved with dreamy images of a country house lifestyle. The images are delicious, but there is a counterpoint in the text, which charts her personal life as well as her aesthetic development, through the shock and tragedy of bereavement to the joy of motherhood. The ambiguous title refers to her lifetime habit of collecting – boxes and trunks of old fabrics among other things – the ‘one day’ being that ‘rainy day’ when they might find a role. It arrived in 2019 when she launched her first collection of textiles, including the already iconic ‘Dahlia’. ‘For me home isn’t bricks and mortar, it is feelings,’ she says. This is a book designed to make you feel happy. Ros Byam Shaw
Seeking Beauty is the story of the three current homes of Veere Grenney, an interior designer at the very top of the tree. There is The Temple, a Georgian fishing lodge in Suffolk, with one glorious Palladian room, whose windows look in one direction over a canal, its long stretch of water bordered by an avenue of trees, and in the other over gentle arable land. There is a London flat, small and intensely chic, with chocolate brown cashmere walls, a shiny egg-yolk yellow kitchen and marvellous art. He describes his third home, Gazebo, in Tangier, now his main residence, as ‘the acme of my creative powers’. This deeply personal book is a complete joy for anyone who loves interior decoration, but there is another more profound skein in his writing, referenced in its title. Alongside his Christian faith, mentioned at intervals in the book, the search for beauty in his work and in his surroundings, is his defining lifelong quest. ‘I think I have become more fluent in beauty,’ he says, ‘and I’m still learning.’ Elfreda Pownall
This is a delight of a book, with Sophie’s friendly tone immediately giving the impression of being on a private tour of her home and favourite projects. Sophie spent some of her formative years in South Africa and the colours and textures of the Bushveld and the African sky are clearly a big influence. She has coined the term ‘happy clashing’ for her style, but it is far more sophisticated than that, and shows a formidable talent for mixing unexpected shapes, colours, textures and time periods. Her versatility as a designer comes across in each project – highlights include a sophisticated Parisian apartment, a contemporary seaside villa and the colourful, layered interior of JM Barrie’s former home in Hyde Park. A must-buy for anyone thinking of redecorating. Ticky Hedley-Dent
Leading figures in British design, Emily Todhunter and Kate Earle have been devising impeccable schemes for more than 20 years. This book encapsulates Todhunter Earle’s design ethos: creating striking interiors in sympathy with a building’s architecture. Modern English grants behind-the-scenes access to several of their projects, illustrated by an array of photographs taken around the world, from the most elegant townhouses and British country retreats to covetable hideaways in Sardinia. While each project is distinctive, all are indicative of Todhunter Earle’s classic yet personal style. Christabel Chubb
