12 Glamorous New Design Books to Add to Your Library

Far more than pretty pages, design tomes offer immersive portraits of the tastemakers shaping how we live. From self-taught stars and legacy creatives to textile luminaries and venerable show houses, each of the 12 volumes below reveals distinct visions of beauty, personality, and place, whether you prefer in-your-face maximalism or subtle refinement.

1. Torrey: Private Spaces: Great American Design (Rizzoli) 

Self-taught designer Andrew Torrey’s can-do attitude and infectious optimism has translated into blistering success for his eponymous interiors firm, which masterminds extraordinary residences like art-filled South Florida aeries and Manhattan pieds-á-terre imbued with his signature bold elegance. Dedication to mastering his craft remains his lodestar, and his red-hot passion for design is palpable on the pages of Torrey: Private Spaces: Great American Design (Rizzoli), fittingly wrapped in a sumptuous red extending across the cover, spine, and endpages. Inside, Galerie contributor Gay Gassmann unpacks his unlikely ascent and explains how a series of star-making commissions—a training center for the Brooklyn Nets, a louche smoking room at the 2018 Kips Bay Decorator Show House—propelled him on to design-world greatness. 

2. Alfredo Paredes: At Home (Rizzoli) 

As one of the visual masterminds who helped bring Ralph Lauren’s all-American universe to life for decades, Alfredo Paredes learned how to make whip-smart design decisions on the fly at an early age. Spearheading all things creative under the fashion legend turned out to be ideal training for the New York designer, who went solo and launched an eponymous interiors studio in 2019. In six short years, his reliably steady hand and eye for the finer things has yielded an abundance of handsome residences that revel in minimalist rigor yet exude a lived-in charm that honors the past with masculine winks. His debut monograph, Alfredo Paredes: At Home (Rizzoli), journeys into four of his own homes—in Locust Valley, the East Village, Shelter Island, and Provincetown—where the Americana style he helped oversee for Lauren is undeniable. 

3. Liberty: Design. Pattern. Color. (Thames & Hudson) 

Liberty’s unmatched legacy in textile design comes vividly to life in Liberty: Design. Pattern. Color. (Thames & Hudson), a visual celebration of 150 iconic prints spanning delicate florals to daring abstractions. Cultural historian Kassia St Clair contextualizes these patterns within Liberty’s broader design history, from its Tudor-revival storefront on London’s tony Regents Street to the brand’s resounding influence on global fashion and craft. Archival treasures and contemporary collaborations trace the evolution of a fabric house whose resounding influence on the visual language of textiles has practically elevated it into a cultural institution. 

4. The World of Peter Dunham (Vendome) 

Place is central to how Peter Dunham conjures the fabulously fun yet poised interiors that have propelled the multi-talented designer to industry sainthood. His many locales coalesce with graceful aplomb in the exceptional array of punchy textiles and toothsome homes that Dunham has dreamed up for himself and his high-profile clientele, who clamor for his signature layering of zestful colors, lively patterns, and transportive textures. Ditto for the handcrafted furniture, fabrics, and vintage finds that he offers at Hollywood at Home, the L.A. design emporium he has helmed since 2007 and that opened a New York showroom last year. A dozen of his most recent projects star in The World of Peter Dunham (Vendome), an exhilarating volume that illuminates his ethos and sheds light on the people and places that shaped his sui generis approach.  

5. Aerin Lauder: Living With Flowers (Rizzoli) 

Flowers and their wondrous aromas have captivated Aerin Lauder’s imagination since childhood. An affinity for blooms runs in the family—some of the lifestyle brand founder’s most cherished memories involve her grandmother, the makeup magnate Estée, mixing floral scents like rose, lily, and tuberose when devising fragrances. Her mother, the trendsetter Jo Carole, potted geraniums at her birthday parties. Lauder would go on to parlay these experiences into a successful career as the style and image director for Estée Lauder Companies as well as her own lifestyle brand Aerin. “Flowers and photographs are what make a house a home—what makes it personal and welcoming,” Lauder writes in the introduction to Living With Flowers (Rizzoli), a lavish new tome in which she divulges her favorite ways to enliven interiors through radiant blooms and décor. The book journeys into her homes to provide a deeply personal glimpse at her tips in action and unpacks the symbolism behind some of her favorite blooms. 

6. David Kleinberg: Interiors (Phaidon) 

David Kleinberg has described himself as the “evil spawn child” of legendary interior designers Sister Parish and Albert Hadley, for whom he worked 16 years before establishing his own Manhattan practice in 1997. The steady hand with which he creates his inimitable spaces indeed reflects the best of both mentors: Parish’s freewheeling, instinctual poise and Hadley’s disciplined calculus. These divergent sensibilities are clear in a wide-ranging portfolio of elegant interiors that Kleinberg has realized in the nearly three decades since branching out on his own. They also seep through the pages of David Kleinberg: Interiors (Phaidon), a handsome new monograph that journeys through 11 of the esteemed decorator’s most notable recent projects. Though each embodies his signature fusion of antiques, design objects, covetable art, refined furniture, and sophisticated finishes, no two rooms look or feel the same.  

7. Curated Style: Kerrie-Ann Jones (Rizzoli) 

In Curated Style: Artfully Edited Homes (Rizzoli), Australian stylist Kerrie-Ann Jones offers a smart, personal guide to designing interiors that reflect who you are and how you live. Equal parts visual inspiration and practical handbook, the volume breaks down her key styling principles—layering, texture, mood, and more—through a global selection of expressive homes, including projects in Los Angeles, New York, Copenhagen, and beyond. Jones draws on her editorial expertise to help readers articulate their own aesthetic with intention and individuality. “Style is a form of self-expression,” she says. “It allows us to communicate our personality, feelings, interests, quirks, and what brings us joy. But finding and expressing that style in our own home can be challenging. This book was created to help you unlock and apply your own aesthetic, in a way that feels intentional and deeply personal.” With its linen cover and bronze detailing, Curated Style is as artful as the interiors it celebrates. 

8. Robert Wilson: Chairs (August Editions) 

Robert Wilson has a special relationship with chairs. When the legendary stage director was young, his uncle gifted him a high-backed wooden chair that he still thinks about. Today, his personal collection easily surpasses 1,000 chairs. And as his early directorial career took off, he often integrated chairs into his productions. One of the earliest was The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud (1969), for which Wilson designed a hanging chair that was progressively lowered from the proscenium across three acts before finally landing on the floor as “a kind of timepiece to measure the length of the play,” he describes in the introduction to Robert Wilson: Chairs. Published by August Editions and the New York design gallery Raisonné, the title chronicles the extensive history of how chairs have informed Wilson’s avant-garde approach to stage design across his five-decade career. As the publication’s title suggests, chairs—many of Wilson’s own design—are cornerstones in his experimental productions. 

9. Svenskt Tenn: Interiors (Phaidon) 

Svenskt Tenn has been celebrating its centenary in thought-provoking ways: first there was an exhibition illuminating the Stockholm design emporium’s heritage and founder Estrid Ericson’s caring approach to domestic life; it recently debuted a homewares capsule with the estate of late Greek artist Alekos Fassianos; and now it reveals Svenskt Tenn: Interiors (Phaidon), a richly illustrated monograph designed by Irma Boom. Spanning more than 500 images and newly unearthed archival material, the volume traces the shop’s evolution from humble pewter shop to global design icon. Essays by Hedvig Hedqvist, Ulrica Sievert, and Nina Stritzler-Levine explore the visionary contributions of Ericson and her collaborator Josef Frank, whose vibrant textile patterns helped define the brand. Showcasing rare letters, drawings, and collaborations with India Mahdavi and Michael Anastassiades, the book offers an in-depth look at Svenskt Tenn’s enduring relevance and philanthropic mission under the Kjell & Märta Beijer Foundation. 

10. A New English Style: Timeless Interiors by Salvesen Graham (Quadrille) 

Nicole Salvesen and Mary Graham are bringing their refined take on English country house style to the page, distilling their signature blend of tradition and modernity into richly layered interiors. A New English Style (Quadrille) charts the London-based duo’s evolution of “future heritage,” a philosophy that champions charming spaces imbued with elegance, timelessness, and personality. Across a dazzling range of projects, from a handsome Victorian townhouse in Chelsea to a Craftsman-style home nestled in the Rocky Mountain foothills, they reveal how thoughtful combinations of antiques, color, and contemporary touches can elevate any room. Each chapter, organized by property, ventures beyond visual inspiration to offer practical insight and expert pointers to achieve the firm’s approach to warm comfort and enduring style. 

11. Iconic Rooms: Kips Bay New York Decorator Show House at 50 (Gibbs Smith) 

The Kips Bay Decorator Show House has long served as a launchpad for emerging talent, and its new book, Iconic Rooms: Kips Bay New York Decorator Show House at 50 (Gibbs Smith), cements that legacy. Spanning five decades and more than 800 designers, the volume revisits legendary rooms—from Mario Buatta’s dreamy blue bedroom and Mark Hampton’s glass-walled conservatory to recent stunners by Kit Kemp and Sasha Bikoff. Alongside lush photography, it captures the evolution of American interior design while honoring the event’s deeper mission: supporting 11,000 children annually through the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club.  

12. Kendall Wilkinson: Beauty All Around (Pointed Leaf Press) 

In her first monograph, Beauty All Around (Pointed Leaf Press), Kendall Wilkinson distills more than three decades of experience designing high-end homes for discerning clientele into a richly photographed showcase of luxurious, emotionally resonant interiors. Known for her seamless blend of traditional and contemporary influences, the San Francisco designer crafts spaces that reflect her clients’ personalities while achieving an elevated sense of warmth and refinement. From fashionable Pacific Heights homes to sleek penthouses with picturesque skyline views, the projects highlight Wilkinson’s embrace of the transformative power of well-considered design and her longstanding belief in how beauty is meant to be lived in.