© Tim Salisbury
The design of a space has a profound effect on our day-to-day life – colours affect our moods and levels of light impact our sleep and cognitive function. Even the configuration of a space influences us. The principles of interior design can empower us to create spaces that feel functional and deeply personal. Whether you’re a seasoned designer or someone eager to turn their home into a cosy haven, explore our curated selection of books on interior design, all packed with endless inspiration on how to transform your living spaces and fill your life with colour.
1. Anna Spiro
Long hailed as Australia’s most original and creative interior designer, Anna Spiro’s aesthetic is unapologetically maximalist. For Spiro, working with patterns – combined with her intuitive layering of colours, objects old and new, art, books and foraged treasures – creates spaces that sing with individuality.
In the eponymous Anna Spiro, the designer shares a lifetime of hard-earned decor wisdom complete with mood boards, fabric suggestions, furniture ideas and room layouts, showcasing a bold and visually complex style that can only come from an interiors expert at the height of their powers.
Discover Anna Spiro.
2. Living Bright
Think beige, grey and white are the only neutrals? Think again. As a lifelong fan of rich jewel tones, fashion designer turned interiors expert Matthew Williamson makes the case for living cocooned in colour. Packed with inspirational images of interior decorating projects, including his own homes in London and Mallorca, as well as visual references that will transport you to the places that are close to his heart, Living Bright is the hardworking handbook to take on your journey to colourful living.
Discover Living Bright.
3. Making Living Lovely
Interior design can be daunting and knowing where to start can be a struggle. Changing Rooms design duo Russell and Jordan offer a fresh approach with Making Living Lovely, an interiors bible of tips and techniques for restoring design confidence.
This essential companion covers everything from handling original features and choosing materials to using colour, pattern and texture. Focusing on people and how we use our spaces, this book enables readers to create interiors that express their personality and address their needs.
Discover Make Living Lovely.
4. The Flower Room
For Charlotte Coote, the interiors that have stayed with her are those that feel confident and unashamed. Her book The Flower Room offers an abundance of inspiration on how to bring the colours, patterns and textures of nature into your home. These botanical-inspired interiors, from chintz to chinoiserie, demonstrate the endless inspiration that the natural world provides.
Discover The Flower Room.
5. Victorian Modern
Loved for their period character, Victorian homes aren’t always suited to modern living. Not only does Victorian Modern place period features and 19th-century design in context, it explores how today’s designers are adapting these houses in innovative ways for contemporary lifestyles.
The ultimate design bible to help you make sense of those inherited quirks and features, Victorian Modern explains how the Victorians designed and decorated these spaces, before moving on to their modern interpretations, alongside plenty of tips, tricks and inspiration for transforming your 19th-century home into a light-filled modern one, ready for the 21st century.
Discover Victorian Modern.
6. This Creative Life
Step inside some of the world's most exciting designers' private spaces, from one-bedroom flats and compact country cottages to mansions, villas and palazzos. The spaces featured cross six countries and represent thirteen different architectural styles spanning more than five hundred years – from a 14th-century Italian palace to a 21st-century renovation in the English countryside – each one an endless source of inspiration for creative living.
Discover This Creative Life.
