On My Coffee Table Right Now…

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Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope you’re doing well! It has been a very busy week on our end, with new projects seeding and older ones coming to a completion. I’ve been dreaming up color combinations and furniture layouts for a sweet client right here in Massachusetts and have been looking for inspiration in some great old books I am very much into right now and  thought it would be fun to share them with you. If you love the English Country Style with all that it entails – cozy living in country houses grand and small- then you will probably want to give these a glance. My latest discovery is an old print of House & Garden magazine’s “best of” collection from the late 90s –  The House & Garden Book of Country Chic, by Leonie Highton (1998).

The book delves into some of the most fashionable country homes of the 90s that,  surprisingly (or not), look wonderful to this day. Some rooms and spaces do look a bit dusty but with a couple of tweaks could be just as current as what we see published right now. Overall I thought that the interiors offer great inspiration and insight into what will/or will not stand the test of time. 

And speaking of time, I spent a couple of hours this week looking into my timeless Colefax & Fowler books. The Best in English Decoration by Chester Jones is a tour de force of a design firm as legendary  as its founders –  Lady Colefax and John Fowler. A fascinating read about the firm’s most notable decorators, their lives and design legacy. 

Last but not least in my English Country selection for today is Martin Wood’s book John Fowler, Prince of Decorators. Focused entirely on the life and work of Fowler, Wood zooms in on a lifestyle of grandeur and decorating genius and features never-before-seen black and white photographs and watercolor renderings of some of Fowler’s earlier work. All in all, it is a treasure of a book for a quiet moment on a Sunday afternoon. 

I also wanted to share a non-design related series of books that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying these days, for those of you looking for some light (but highly entertaining) summer reading  – all books by Alexander McCall Smith, including the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Series. On the surface every book deals with an interesting mystery but in reality, they are all about the immense love of a man for his country, Africa and its people… Alexander McCall Smith’s books are insightful and gentle, and delightful to read. 

I’m down to the last pages of this one and I do not want it to end…

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!