Flipping through gorgeously photographed books that discuss the process and stages of design are surefire ways to spark creativity and reignite a passion for what you do. Reading about the challenges and other unique facets of the industry offers introspect into your own interior design business and adds a fresh perspective to current practices. If you’re looking for ways to boost your business, creativity, and work ethic, the five books below are sure to help.
1. The Tailored Interior by Greg Natale
Natale offers in-depth advice that dives deep into the elements and principles of design, emphasizing the amount required for great processes and pragmatics. This book is filled with inspirational images and wise design advice to benefit work and practice.
In The Tailored Interior, Natale shares his approach to design and showcases spaces he’s worked on in this book. This Australian born-and-based designer focuses on designing spaces with a bold, fresh, and modern Antipodean style that brings classic interiors into the current century.
2. Design for People by Scott Stowell
Stowell highlights how we often see the outcome and not the process, which he attempts to change with this book. Design for People showcases how design brings people together, specifically focusing on twelve design projects done by his firm, Open.
The book opens with a short history of those involved with the project—designers, clients, interns, collaborators, and mentions influential people in the design world. He emphasizes how the work is completed when it’s shared with everyone involved. Each member within the stories discusses getting the job done and the creative process behind it, remembering that it’s not always pretty but that’s just a part of the process.
3. Sage Living: Decorate for the Life You Want by Anne Sage
This interior design book features individual homes that all have their own unique feel, bringing to light plenty of design and style inspiration. In prose that’s informal and personal, Anne Sage discusses how the events that occurred in the lives of the people included in this book inspired these eclectic and beautiful spaces.
She knows that real homes tell incredible stories. The homeowners featured decorated their spaces with their own wants and desires in mind for rooms that are personable with feeling. The book gives advice regarding how to incorporate your own goal-orientated decorating, making it a must-have for your interior design business.
4. The Kinfolk Home by Nathan Williams
Not only is this book good, old-fashioned eye candy to fill you with new ideas for your design business, it showcases how homes have been put together, slowly, purposefully, and with great intention. Nathan Williams is a Canadian creative director and Editor-in-Chief of Kinfolk magazine. He created this book with one purpose in mind: Intention and time to create beautiful spaces.
Williams provides the reader a tour of 35 unique homes in places such as Japan, Canada, the U.S., and Scandinavia. With inspiration from all over, he emphasizes that it takes time to for a space to come together. Reviving feelings of community and simplicity, Williams spotlights how reclaiming time emphasizes the ideals that shape homes and in turn, how the homes shaped the owners.
5. Black and White (and a Bit in Between) by Celerie Kimble
Interior designer Celerie Kemble is a residential and commercial interior designer as unique as her clientele. She draws inspiration from the animal prints, films, and patterns she encounters in everyone’s lives. This book’s aesthetic highlights black and white work of different design stars in over 100 spaces, accompanied by Kemble’s witty observations and expert advice regarding choosing paints and finishes, adding accessories, and building room schemes based on one theme.
Black and White shows off timeless and stylish spaces with monochromatic schemes, allowing more room to play with texture and furniture design to truly see colour pop in a space. Kimble’s advice and lack of colour make this book a definite keeper for any interior design business.
