Design Books for Every Occasion: Exploring Inspiration

Kathryn Ireland is a top designer known not just for her work, but also her fabric line, her TV show (Million Dollar Decorator—if you haven’t watched this, I highly recommend it!), and her books. I have most of the books and refer to them often. Most are monographs of her work or her home in the South of France.

This one is a little different.

In Inspired By, the designer shares the homes of many creative who have inspired her life and her work.

I’m a sucker for this type of book as I lean towards unique, collected interiors.

The clever trick here is that Ireland interviews her subjects about what inspires them (favorite book, favorite movie, artwork you would like to add to your collection, favorite place to travel), which thereby inspires us the readers. At the end of each chapter, she shares a list of things that have inspired her from the home. It’s fun to go back through the photo and see what she sees. If you happen to be familiar with her work, it’s also immense fun to see these threads of influences from her favorite people in her own designs.

I have to say, this book also inspires me to think back on my own design influences. I love the idea of piecing together where my deepest ingrained beliefs about design came from.

I may have just been inspired to start a new blog column: Inspired By!