The inspiring Design Book by Alexa Hampton

Alexa Hampton has been president of Mark Hampton, LLC, interior design company, since 1998. She has been named one of Architectural Digest’s AD100 top interior designers every year since 2002 and has been included in House Beautiful’s list of America’s 100 Best Designers every year since 1999. Alexa Hampton is also the designer of a growing stable of eponymous licensed products for the home, a frequent keynote speaker at design events and conferences, and a member of the board of the New York School of Interior Design. In 2012, she became the first female designer to win the International Market Centers’ Design Icon Award.

Alexa Hampton

The Language of Interior Design is a inspiring design book (published by Potter Style). In this book the interior designer provides a tour of stunning residences from her own portfolio and organizes her discourse about design in 4 main aspects of design – Contrast, Proportion, Color and Balance.

The Language of Interior Design by Alexa Hampton

Contrast “creates tension and ‘action’ that keep the eye engaged and moving around the room.”, Proportion “serves as the grammar of the design: it establishes the spatial relationships between the various elements of a room and defines the structure or backbone of a space”, Color “provides the descriptive adjectives…” and Balance “underlies the entire composition; it gives each item relevance and meaning, bringing continuity and harmony to the whole.”

The Language of Interior Design by Alexa Hampton

Trend has an impact on commerce. I don’t  let it dictate to me. I like what  I like — I like pretty things, I  like variety.” Alexa Hampton.

Eighteen classic spaces illustrate in rich detail the elements that govern cultivated design contrast, proportion, color, and balance. Among the residences are a landmark 1912 McKim, Mead & White restoration on Fifth Avenue in New York City; an eclectic house by the sea layered in textures, patterns, and colors; a contemporary apartment distinguished by simple geometry and clean lines; and Hampton’s own apartment, filled with an exquisite collection of architectural elements.

The Language of Interior Design by Alexa Hampton

Hampton also explains how she tailored each space to meet her clients’ needs while retaining a timeless aesthetic, and she provides design expertise on everything from fabric schemes to the particulars of paint. From a French neoclassical tour de force of architecture, artwork, and design to a Queen Anne summer cottage furnished to showcase the house’s graceful nineteenth-century dimensions, the spaces here speak the language of design, a language that, under Hampton’s tutelage, anyone can master.