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A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
Above all others, this book has been our guiding light. How do you design a home so that it feels wonderfully comfortable? These simple patterns explain. See our DESIGN section for more information.
While this book is profound, it's written in a difficult style and is really more suitable for designers and professionals. For non-professionals, we recommend the next book, Patterns of Home and Sarah Susanka's books.
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Patterns of Home by Jacobson, Silverstein + Winslow
This spin-off from A Pattern Language is written in a more accessible style by California architects who coauthored A Pattern Language. They chose ten patterns considered most important for home design. Each pattern is illustrated with sketches and photographs and the authors provide examples of 33 homes by various U.S. architects or designers. |
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Home Design Handbook: The Essential Planning Guide for Building, Buying, or Remodeling a Home
by June Cotner Myrvang
Recommended by a customer, this book will educate you in all facets of home buying, building and remodeling. If you want to get your thoughts organized, have a framework from which to proceed and be a more informed consumer, this is a good book for you. |
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A Home for the Soul: A guide for dwelling with spirit and imagination
by Anthony Lawlor
How to develop a consciousness about the spiritual possibilities inherent in our interior surroundings, opening our vision to the hidden possibilities. Exquisite photography and thoughtful, well written words of wisdom for building a soulful home. |
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The Good House: Contrast as a Design Tool by Max Jacobson, Murray Silverstein & Barbara Winslow
A collaboration of ideas and opinions with a nuts + bolts approach to design that awakens the senses, memories and minds of their occupants. An academic book with more sketches and diagrams than color photographs, this book has been in our library for years and has served as a reference for designing homes with soul. Helpful for design professionals. |
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House as a Mirror of Self
by Clare Cooper Marcus
After 25 years of research and interviews with more than 60 individuals, UC Berkeley Architecture Professor reveals a theory of what our relationship to our home says about ourselves. This book is mostly text with only a few photographs and is listed in architecture and psychology.
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The Essential House Book
by Terence Conran
A big, beautiful, practical book with 650 colorful photographs and over 200 illustrations giving the reader valuable information on many aspects of home design, remodeling and decorating. There are chapters on the various rooms in homes, how to change rooms and how to decorate. Comprehensive! |
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Nature on View
by Peggy Landers Rao & Jean Mahoney
Features 180 photos of 28 American homes and gardens in various urban and rural settings that show how Japanese principles of design can be incorporated into both new construction and remodel projects. |
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The Japanese Dream House: How Technology and Tradition Are Shaping New Home Design
by Azby Brown, Joseph Cali
In this lushly illustrated, all-color volume, Brown presents his take on Japan's high-tech yet serene home designs. This is one of the first English language books to appear on the subject in a long time. |
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Home Quick Planner
by Dan Reif
Not a book, but a handy tool to help you get your home design ideas down on paper. The Home Quick Planner contains hundreds of precut, 1/4-inch scale, reusable peel and stick furniture and architectural symbols, plus a Floor Plan Grid. Use it to design your new home or to remodel your existing home by knocking down walls and moving furniture, fixtures, cabinets, windows and doors. |
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Santa Fe Style by Christine Mather
An exploration of the origins and current manifestations of style in Santa Fe, from the ancient inspiration of the Canyon de Chelly to the architectural innovations of Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries. 450 illustrations, 220 in color, mostly interior shots with some interior design close-ups and a few exterior photographs. A nice overview of Southwestern architecture that captures the romance of Santa Fe and the appeal of its lifestyle; casual elegance and a timeless mix of old and new. |
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Facing Southwest by Chris Wilson
Filled with stunning photographs capturing the personality of southwest architecture, this book is an intensive introduction to the architecture of John Gaw Meem. Meem created the Territorial Revival style and worked to unite Moderism with southwestern design with his own solar adobe homes. If you are looking for inspiration and like southwestern architecture, we recommend this book! |
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Home Office by Sarah Gaventa
From detailed questionnaires that help define what you want from your home office to dozens of color photographs displaying a range of design options, equipment and accessories, this informative book will give you much food for thought for designing your own home office. Also included: six different offices which reveal the thinking behind a successful design. |
