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10 Best Interior Design Books for All Styles

While it’s easy to hop on Pinterest or Instagram for home inspo, interior design books can give you fresh ideas and knowledge from licensed designers.

10 Best Interior Design Books for All Styles

Whether you’re looking for renewed creativity for your next project or would like an interesting coffee table book, these top interior design books are sure to deliver.

Best Interior Design Book by Category

What to Look for in an Interior Design Book

The best home decor books offer advice, inspiration, or both. Some books will teach design concepts like mathematical proportions, the science of styling, and how to lay out furniture. These books are classic, with little information changing over the years.

But books on specific design styles will change as trends change. For example, the farmhouse style of 2016 looks much different than the farmhouse style of 2023. So, if you’re looking for current design inspo, ensure the style-specific book you purchase isn’t over a few years old.

Top 10 Interior Design and Home Decor Books

Here’s a look at our picks for the top 10 interior design books.


The Interior Design Handbook: Furnish, Decorate, and Style Your Space

The Interior Design Handbook

The Interior Design Handbook will teach design fundamentals, focusing on the “how” rather than a specific style. In this book, you’ll learn about mathematical proportions, styling rules, the proper size of the furniture, how low to hang a light fixture, and more.

Whether you’re interested in an interior decorating career or want to make the most of your space, you can resort to this guidebook over and over. Its advice will never go out of style.

Buy it from Amazon or GoodReads.


Made for Living: Collected Interiors for All Sorts of Styles

Made for Living: Collected Interiors for All Sorts of Styles

If you’re after an effortless style, designer Amber Lewis’s book, Made for Living, will provide you with inspo pics and advice. Lewis’s designs focus on her “California Cool” style, which features mostly white walls, a mix of textures, and a focus on comfortable spaces.

Her book offers tips for nailing down the right paint color every time, picking stone counters, and the best way to mismatch patterns.

Buy it from Amazon or GoodReads.


Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave

If you’re a Joanna Gaines or Fixer Upper fan, you’ll want to add Homebody to your interior design book library. In her book, Joanna walks readers through creating spaces they’ll never want to leave with tips on decorating each room. She also highlights different design styles, although you’ll still find plenty of modern farmhouse inspo pics.

You can use this book to help identify the design style that best represents you and use it to create the relaxing home of your dreams.

Buy it from Amazon or Target.


The Evolution of Home: English Interiors for a New Era

The Evolution of Home: English Interiors for a New Era

If you love the relaxed and layered feel of English interiors, The Evolution of Home is a must-have book. Designer Emma Sims-Hilditch highlights some of her top projects, giving tips for styling each space.

The inspo in this book ranges from townhouses to seaside cottages to lake homes. But regardless of the location, all designs focus on functional living, a relaxing atmosphere, and a healthy, slower pace of life.

Buy it from Amazon or Waterstones.


Minimalista: Your Step-by-Step Guide to a Better Home, Wardrobe, and Life

Minimalista: Your Step-by-Step Guide to a Better Home, Wardrobe, and Life

Minimalista bridges the gap between home organization and design. It walks readers through getting rid of excess items and organizing the rest. The book is chock full of practical tips for paring down items. It also features many pictures of bright, minimalist spaces throughout.

If you’re working on redecorating your home and have too much stuff, this is a great beginner home decor book.

Buy it from Amazon or Barnesandnoble.


The New Design Rules: How to Decorate and Renovate, from Start to Finish

The New Design Rules: How to Decorate and Renovate, from Start to Finish

If you’re getting ready to renovate a space in your home and want to oversee the project yourself, let this book by Emily Henderson be your guide. The New Design Rules will walk you through picking the finishing touches, when to work with contractors, how to measure for various elements, and so much more.

The book also provides plenty of design inspo with dozens of stylized rooms.

Buy it from Amazon, Barnesandnoble, or Target


Still: The Slow Home

Still: The Slow Home

If you base your home design around sustainability and prefer the slow living movement, Still: The Slow Home will provide tips and inspiration. The book looks at 12 case studies from homeowners who live sustainably, with dozens of interior pictures and first-hand accounts of how slow living has improved these homeowners’ lives.

Even if you’re only a little interested in minimalism or sustainability, you’ll walk away with insights from this book.

Buy it from Amazon or Thriftbooks.


Parisian by Design: Interior by David Jimenez

Parisian by Design: Interior by David Jimenez

In Parisian by Design, designer David Jimenez shares his best tips for achieving the French style. Jimenez has worked in Paris for years, creating modern and classic French-style interiors that he highlights in his book.

In addition to decorating advice and inspo pics, Jimenez shares his favorite art galleries, flea markets, and antique stores in New York and Paris.

Buy it from Amazon or Barnesandnoble.


Home with Rue: Style for Everyone

Home with Rue: Style for Everyone

Home with Rue takes a look at many styles and budget levels. Their book features dozens of real homes, with practical how-to and design advice. The book is divided into ten chapters, each focusing on a separate space.

Home with Rue is a great home decor book if you draw inspiration from many styles, locations, and budgets.

Buy it from Amazon or Penguinrandomhouse.


Design Remix: A New Spin on Traditional Rooms

Design Remix: A New Spin on Traditional Rooms

If you love traditional style with pops of color or pattern, you’ll enjoy Design Remix: A New Spin on Traditional Rooms. Designer and author Corey Damen Jenkins walks readers through designing many types of modern-traditional rooms.

Design Remix is full of inspirational pictures and practical advice you can apply to your own house.

Buy it from Amazon or GoodReads.