A guide to classic colonial style for the modern home covers fabric, furniture, and finishing touches and features photographs of examples of colonial decorating.

Take a tour of comfortable and charming farmhouses, presented Country Living style. Breathtaking photographs, accompanied by marvelously in-depth information, reveal the myriad ways these old-fashioned homes can fit beautifully into our modern-day lifestyles. While the exteriors of these houses all retain their strong lines and architectural origins, the interiors showcase a variety of sensibilities. See sophisticated farmhouses that smoothly combine the best of old and new; homes entirely decorated in flea-market finds; houses that serve as showcases for magnificent antique collections; and contemporary redefinitions with loft-like spaces and fashionable d�cor. Each profile goes room by room, carefully explaining the owner’s needs, desires, and design decisions: everything from wall treatments and light fixtures to shelving and appliances receives meticulous attention and discussion.

This New York Times bestselling book from interior designer Mark D. Sikes is a celebration of American style today, showcasing chic and accessible ideas for every home. Modern and unfussy, Mark D. Sikes’s interiors are classic takes on California indoor/outdoor living, with natural fibers and crisp coloration, informed and influenced by the fashion world where he began his career. In eight chapters, he explores approachable, stylish looks, from "Blue and White Forever," which features indigos, stripes, batiks, and wicker in casual rooms such as porches and pool houses; to "Timeless Neutrals," presenting semiformal rooms filled with chinoiserie, gilt, glass, mirrors, banquettes, and French chairs; to "Garden Greens," featuring happy, casual family rooms and kitchens inspired by the garden with treillage woodwork, rattan, and cotton. There are also "Beautiful Brights," colorful rooms that are eclectic, layered, and fun, with chintz, florals, and Middle Eastern influences; and "Sun Faded Hues," rustic coastal rooms with weathered fabrics and furniture. Each chapter presents light-filled images of the designer’s looks and offers the reader inspiration and advice. As famed film director Nancy Meyers writes in the book’s foreword, this is a book that shows design lovers "how classic can look fresh, how style and comfort go hand-in-hand."

The author of Beautiful is back with a new book of his interiors, filled with blue-and-white vignettes, wicker, saturated color, and pretty patterns. Interior designer Mark D. Sikes burst onto the publishing scene with his New York Times best-selling first book, Beautiful. His new book, aptly titled More Beautiful, picks up where the first left off, in a celebration of classic, all-American decorating. The rooms featured in More Beautiful are divided into five distinct styles, all of which exude the happiness that comes with surrounding oneself with things you love. "Traditional" is chockablock with vibrant color, antique furniture, and heady doses of trim and pattern. "Country" is a new take on the style, where distressed finishes and modern silhouettes mingle for a warm welcome. "Coastal" is streamlined, with natural woven fibers, sun-faded linen and neutrals, and blues and whites galore. "Mediterranean" evokes faraway lands, with a saturated palette, ornate tiles and ikats, and iron details. Finally, there's "Beautiful": a peek inside Mark's own Hollywood Hills home, which nods to all of his favorite design signatures--including Italian wicker, blue and white, Anglo-Indian antiques, and more. With all-new photography by Amy Neunsinger, the book will inspire with rooms that are light-filled and crisply patterned, chic yet comfortable, and just the way people want to live today.

These rooms will never go out of style! Classic decorating, by definition, transcends time and place, passing fads and tastes. And that sense of comfort and permanence permeates all these well appointed interiors, carefully made furnishings, and judiciously placed accessories. Everything has a pleasing sense of proportion and order, from the warm colors to the traditional textiles to the finishing touches. Find out about doing period restoration, try the many practical ideas for capturing the essence of this look, and feel inspired by the magnificent homes showcased in hundreds of photographs. It's the definitive book on American decorating. "Beautifully illustrated with photographs of contemporary interiors...takes a look at how the American Colonial style has been interpreted today. Recommended."--Library Journal

Mixing gorgeous interiors with sparkling social history, this is the first book on the visionary women whose work shaped the principles of modern interior decorating.

Mary Emmerling takes a fresh look at American Country decorating, showing classic examples of the style in updated, sophisticated, and eclectic settings for the 1990s. 400 full-color photographs.

Interior designer and decorative arts and antiques expert Thomas Jayne follows up his essential 2010 compendium The Finest Rooms in America with this new collection of his own work. Thomas Jayne possesses a unique dual vision—he keeps one eye focused on the aesthetic traditions of the past, and the other looking forward: innovating, creating, and imagining interiors to suit modern sensibilities. His reverence for traditional ideas does not restrict Jayne’s understanding of what makes a beautiful room—rather than seeking to replicate and repeat the exact décor from past, Jayne finds inspiration in the distinctive histories of the spaces in which he works. In every project he undertakes, he draws on his rich academic background in the decorative arts to design interiors that harmonize with their historical settings, yet also connect intimately to the active and modern lives of families who call these remarkable buildings home. Jayne believes that American interior decoration is unique in its combination of elements from European and Asian cultural traditions with indigenous ideas and materials, in its emphasis on comfort and livability, and in its human scale. Presented here for the first time, his projects reflect this sensibility, drawing from established traditions and reinterpreting them for contemporary life. Drawing on the legacies of Albert Hadley and Sister Parish, Jayne insists on authenticity and comfort, incorporating elegant antiques and art with a subtle but warm palette and a welcoming setting. In this richly illustrated collection of both city and country residences, Jayne reveals the inspiration and thought behind each design, identifying elements from the architecture, the clients’ collections of art and antiques, and from the site itself that serves as the basis for the decoration of the rooms.

Study of the architecture and interiors of American Federal style houses