The Best Books for Home Style
If you're decorating your home and hiring an interior designer isn't in your budget — or you just prefer to take on home projects yourself — read on for the best books for home style…
(These also make great gift ideas if you're on the hunt!)
What are your favorite resources for choosing furniture and decor and styling your home? What do you think are the best books for home style? During the past year and a half, have you used some of your extra time at home to focus on decorating your house or apartment?
The Best Books for Home Style
General Home Style Books
Domino: The Book of Decorating by Deborah Needleman, Sara Ruffin Costello, and Dara Caponigro [Amazon/Bookshop]
Several years ago, domino editors created this general guide to make it simple to decorate every room in your home, with a chapter for each type of room with different styles shown for each of them, plus advice on mixing styles within your home.
Furnishing Forward: A Practical Guide to Furnishing for a Lifetime by Sheila Bridges [Amazon]
This book is almost 20 years old but is still recommended as a classic guide that explains how to use your personal style to decorate your home. It includes tips on budgeting, shopping, and working with professionals, as well as anecdotes from Bridges's life and her career as a designer.
Design the Home You Love: Practical Styling Advice to Make the Most of Your Space by Lee Mayer and Emily Motayed [Amazon/Bookshop]
The cofounders of the online interior design service Havenly wrote this book to help readers identify their own style preferences and find and incorporate furniture that coordinates with that style — and their budget — step by step, through each room in the home.
The Best Decorating Books for Minimalist Style
Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillyn Smith [Amazon/Bookshop]
If you're a “hands-on woman who'd rather move her own furniture than hire a designer,” this book was written for you. This guide will help you decorate every room of your home, starting with taking stock of what you already have. Smith's advice will help you find your unique style and live with less.
This is Home: The Art of Simple Living by Natalie Walton [Amazon/Bookshop]
This guide explains how to live simply, find your decorating personality, and discover what makes you happy in your home (without needing a huge budget). It features 16 case studies and 200 photos from homes in the U.S., Australia, and Europe to highlight its guiding principles.
{related: how to set up the best home office}
The Best Home Decor Books for Maximalist Style
Jungalow: Decorate Wild by Justina Blakeney [Amazon/Bookshop]
Jungalow is the name of this book and also Blakeney's design brand — of course, the name = “jungle” + “bungalow.” This style guide helps you get creative and break rules when designing the rooms in your home, using bold colors and patterns along with inspiration from nature and from your heritage and travels.
Everything: A Maximalist Style Guide by Abigail Ahern [Amazon]
“Everything” is definitely the perfect title for book about maximalism, right? This book guides you in exploring and experimenting with maximalist design as you blend home style periods and furniture styles; play with colors, textures, and patterns; and have fun while you make your home into a “decorative melting pot.”
The Best Home Style Books for Apartments/Small Spaces
The Little Book of Living Small by Laura Fenton [Amazon/Bookshop]
If your home is 1,200 square feet or less, you'll want to check out this book for specialized advice. Using 12 case study homes of all sorts — urban and rural; minimalist, boho, and other styles; homes of single people and homes of people with kids — it gives you techniques, tips, and lists to help you be happy with your small space.
Rental Style: The Ultimate Guide to Decorating Your Apartment or Small Home by Chelsey Brown [Amazon/Bookshop]
Not all books about small spaces stay within the limitations that people who rent have to deal with — but here's one that does, while sticking to realistic budgets. The advice for renters includes how to maximize small spaces, deal with limited storage, add seating and entertain, and find removable products that are worth using.
{related: how to decorate your home if you work all the time}
Home Style Books for Families with Kids
Elements of Family Style: Elegant Spaces for Everyday Life by Erin Gates [Amazon/Bookshop]
This book explains how to have a stylish, practical, and functional home that can stand up to everyday life — helping parents express their own style while keeping the space durable, kid-friendly, and safe. It guides the reader through designing shared family areas, kids' spaces, and retreats for parents. Gates also shares some personal essays.
Dream Rooms for Children: Inspiring Spaces for Sleep, Study, and Play by Susanna Salk [Amazon/Bookshop]
This guide, which features rooms by many well-known designers, helps readers create stylish, fun, and functional nurseries, bedrooms, playrooms, and studies for kids of all ages using various styles. It shows parents how to solve common design problems and create multipurpose areas for sleeping, playing, and studying.
{related: the best places to buy furniture}
Other Home Style Books
Soul of the Home: Designing with Antiques by Tara Shaw [Amazon/Bookshop]
There are tons of books about buying and valuing antiques, but here's a book that specifically explains how to decorate with them — written by a designer and antique dealer who shares stories from her antique-hunting travels. It explains how to choose antiques and how to feature them in a home with a more contemporary style.
Wild Interiors: Beautiful Plants in Beautiful Spaces by Hilton Carter [Amazon/Bookshop]
If you became an avid plant parent during the pandemic, this book will show you how to integrate your greenery into your home decor. In addition to a list of Carter's 10 favorite houseplants, advice on choosing plants for each type of room, and tips on plant care, the book features photos from 12 stylish, plant-friendly homes.
Readers, do tell! What are your favorite books for home decor? What's your favorite decorating style — and do you have any favorite brands or designers you follow for inspiration? Have you ever used an online design service?
Hard pass on “Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff” by Myquillyn Smith. Took it back to the library half read. Wasn’t very helpful, prose was annoying, and unexpectedly religious if you don’t swing that way.
I echo the Erin Gates rec, though I preferred her first to the family style book. I also recommend the Emily Henderson book Styled and Rebecca Atwood’s books
The first Apartment Therapy book. The paperback one, with no pictures. Gold.