Best Design Books

Aspen House, a Contemporary Country Home with an Elegant Feel

April 5, 2022

Aspen House was a 6000 square feet neo-Georgian House built in the early nineties where Mark Howorth saw an opportunity. Located in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, Aspen House is now a 5-star contemporary country home. The purpose was to create a sublime and luxurious home that reflected the client’s personality and Nigerian influence, taking advantage of the large and well-organized spaces without laking the countryside setting. Let’s take a look at this marvelous contemporary home with a punch of BRABBU‘s influence. Aspen House Aspen House can be described as a classic contemporary home built with much elegance and personality. All the elements were well-thought to orchestrate together and create the full finished look. As in every other project of Callender Howorth, consultants in the area were contacted to make sure the home has the latest technology and innovation. Aspen House Aspen House The first thing one enters the house is greeted with a double staircase composed with renews flooring, lightened by a signature custom-made element. This chandelier is crafted in hand-blown glass with different colours, adding some punch to the minimal marble floors and dark grey trim of the main entrance hall. It is also a way to integrate the client’s personality as an integral part of…

Book Review: The Inn at Little Washington – A Magnificent Obsession

January 7, 2016

Book Review: The Inn at Little Washington, A Magnificent Obsession – The remarkable story of the architecture and interior design of America’s most famous country inn and restaurant. The transformation of the internationally acclaimed Inn at Little Washington—from a rural garage into a sumptuous country house hotel—reads like an enchanted fairy tale. See also: Book review: The American Mater, Jeffrey Bilhuber Legendary chef and owner Patrick O’Connell tells the story of how this property was reimagined with a team of skilled designers and architects. The inn, which opened in 1978, is considered a masterpiece in American hotel and restaurant design and has expanded to include not only the original main building, but an entire village of cottages, guesthouses, and gardens. British interior designer Joyce Conwy Evans collaborated with O’Connell in creating the sensational English-style ambience. See also: Hotel Libraries Around the World Lavishly photographed and enhanced by Conwy Evans’s watercolor renderings, this gorgeous book features luxurious guest rooms, stunning bathrooms, exquisite tabletop vignettes, floral arrangements, and displays of art, which will inspire every home decorator. Keep following Best Design Books for the lattest book reviews from the best editors like Rizzoli and the best books like Book Review: The Inn at Little Washington, A Magnificent Obsession….

21st century design by Marcus Fairs

December 12, 2013

If you’re looking for design-related Christmas presents, this makes the perfect gift, etc etc! Twenty-First Century Design is an overview of design at the start of the new millennium, presenting over 200 of the most important buildings, interiors, products, furnishings and lights from the last few years. With a forward written by Marcel Wanders and lavish colour photos over more than 450 pages, the book also has chapters on clothing, landscape and urban design, graphics and homeware. The book was published in October last year. Frame magazine’s reviewer called it “a 463-page encyclopaedia of cutting-edge design” and added it was “worth the design aficionado’s time and money” (see the full review at the bottom of this page), while Architecture Review described it as “an entertaining romp.” In its review, the Daily Telegraph said “Marcus Fairs knows a thing or two about design.” This beautiful book is an exuberant manifesto defining the design zeitgeist at the start of the twenty-first century, charting the bewildering array of new movements and styles that have erupted over the last few years. It essentially sets the scene for a dramatic transformation in the way design is perceived that will influence the objects and buildings that…