The first book to focus on twentieth-century French interior design, a sleek and elegantly minimal style very much in vogue today.

This book explores the beginnings of the interior design profession in nineteenth-century France. Drawing on a wealth of visual sources, from collecting and advice manuals to pattern books and department store catalogues, it demonstrates how new forms of print media were used to ‘sell’ the idea of the unified interior as a total work of art, enabling the profession of interior designer to take shape. In observing the dependence of the trades on the artistic and public visual appeal of their work, the book establishes crucial links between the fields of art history, material and visual culture, and design history.

Designing the French Interior traces France's central role in the development of the modern domestic interior, from the pre-revolutionary period to the 1970s, and addresses the importance of various media, including drawings, prints, pattern books, illustrated magazines, department store catalogs, photographs, guidebooks, and films, in representing and promoting French interior design to a wider audience. Contributors to this original volume identify and historicize the singularity of the modern French domestic interior as a generator of reproducible images, a site for display of both highly crafted and mass-produced objects, and the direct result of widely-circulated imagery in its own right. This important volume enables an invaluable new understanding of the relationship between architecture, interior spaces, material cultures, mass media and modernity.

Bursting with color and dramatic focal points, these exceptional interiors offer exclusive access into the homes of Paris’s finest art and antiques aficionados. The magic of Paris is distinctly captured in its interiors: windows are tall, and rooms have high ceilings with grand architectural details; but the real charm comes in the thoughtfully selected elements that bring those spaces to life. Paris is rife with antique collectors, art historians, architects, and interior designers who dedicate their lives to the contemplation of each element that goes into the ideal interior. Barbara and René Stoeltie invite us inside the private oases of twenty of the city’s celebrated interiors gurus, capturing in vivid photographs these havens of perfection, brimming with inspiration for the home. While each interior is distinctly unique, they all draw from a rich historical tradition of decorative arts combined with an instinctive desire to reinvent itself, mixing the best elements from different epochs with contemporary art, bold colors, or surprising pattern combinations. A foreword from Jacques Garcia, with his gracious nod to the great Madeleine Castaing, opens this handsome volume.

This broad spectrum of interiors draws inspiration from both the classic French decorative tradition and the freshest Parisian home designs. Discover the rich diversity of Parisian style in thirty-four interiors that are rife with inspiration and grouped into five thematic chapters. Classic interiors feature crystal chandeliers and gilt-framed mirrors, a marble bust flanked by eighteenth-century Louis XV rattan chairs, or floral-embroidered Chinese tapestries paired with a mother-of-pearl-inlaid armoire. Modern interiors incorporate mod Tulip chairs, geometric Calder-esque mobiles, and vibrant-hued polycarbonate dining sets. A passion for collecting comes to the fore through taxidermy, tribal arts, Slavic textile motifs, 1950s domestic design pieces, or expertly grouped photographs. Designer and artist abodes exude an irrepressibly creative vibe, from kitsch playland to 1940s boudoir lounge. Romantic interiors include powdered palettes and Provençal fabrics or plush velvet couches and a whitewashed pine buffet.Guillaume de Laubier leads us into the private realm of the Parisian design elite, chez Jacques Garcia, Vanessa Bruno, Jacques Grange, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Pierre et Gilles, or the late fashion muse Loulou de la Falaise. His photographs capture sleek Scandinavian lines, traditionalist opulence, modernist curves, and exotic accents, documenting each unique interior with flair.

- Prominent decorator and author Penny Drue Baird helps to guide readers toward successful rooms and spaces with On Interior Design, an exploration of the essential aspects of contemporary interiors - Baird is the author of Bringing Paris Home, The New French Interior, and Dreamhouse - Opinionated and knowledgeable, Baird shares the insider secrets gained from more than thirty years in the profession - More than 180 photographs, with informative captions, illustrate her distinctive approach Crown moldings or cabinetry? Vintage or Victorian? Orange or ocher? Successful interior design - creative, comfortable rooms with a personal touch - is built from layer upon layer of color, texture, pattern, embellishment, and more. But the plethora of choices available in the early twenty-first century has made it almost impossible to assemble these layers thoughtfully. Prominent decorator and author Penny Drue Baird is here to help with On Interior Design, an incisive exploration of the essential aspects of contemporary interiors. Baird considers architectural details, furniture, color, fabric, flooring, lighting, and accessories, offering equal servings of expertise, history, and recommendation. She illustrates her topics with dozens of photographs of her own work, from apartments in New York City to houses in the Hamptons and Palm Beach to a residence in Paris. Building on her three previous books, in On Interior Design Baird imparts the lessons and principles gleaned from her thirty-plus years in practice.