Just a few cover-the-waterfront recommendations. About half are from my personal collection. The other half I researched.  

1. An Eye For Color by Olga Gutierrez De La Rosa. Harper Collins, 2007. Hardcover, 240 pages.  Both a show-and-tell (examples from real masters) and DIY guide (a simple “system,” complete with perf-off color palette cards to help you build your own color library).  

2. Kelly Hoppen Style: The Golden Rules of Design by Kelly Hoppen. Bullfinch Press, 2004. Hardcover, 176 pages.  A personal favorite on all levels. I met Ms. Hoppen a few years ago and found her to be so warm, open and down-to-earth. Guess that explains her design sensibility. The book’s loaded with beautifully clean, textural, minimalist rooms. And an equal number of eye-opening design tips. 

3. The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics by Terence Conran. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1994. Paperback, 272 pages. This is my blankie of design books. I got it when it came out, and no matter how many other books I’ve bought since, or how many countless interior design magazines have been delivered to my door, I still regularly lose myself in these oversized pages for the genius inspiration and practical solutions only Sir Terence can provide.  

4. The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen. Three Rivers Press, 2007. Paperback, 204 pages. A New York Times bestseller, it encourages daily consciousness-building without being preachy. It’s got a great listing of online resources, too, and, it’s printed on 100% recycled paper. 

5. The Organized Life: Secrets of an Expert Organizer by Stephanie Denton. North Light Books, 2006. Paperback, 224 pages.  Many other books I’ve seen on this topics don’t look and feel modern, but this one does. The most important thing: Stephanie’s earned her props as an organizer and communicator.  

6. The Way We Live in the City by Stafford Cliff. Rizzoli, 2007. Hardcover, 256 pages.  I mentioned this in an earlier post. Very urban and international. Not all the stuff’s modern and contemporary, but all the spaces are so cool, I suspended judgment…Here’s what they said on the dust jacket: “From lavish penthouses in New York and sturdy brick canal-front townhouses in Amsterdam to sleek modern beach houses in Los Angeles…a comprehensive compendium of every type of residential structure found in cities.”   

7. A Dictionary of Modern Design by Jonathan Woodham. Oxford University Press, 2004. Hardcover, 520 pages.  Covers the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth with over 2,000 entries on names, movements and terminology associated with in interior design, furniture, fashion and much more. There’s a huge bibliography, too, so you can read up even more.