11 Best Decorating Books
The best decorating books, ranked by how many expert sources recommend each one, with notes on who each suits, from practical guides to room inspiration.
Our take
Decorating books can help you solve a room problem or discover a style you had not considered. Some explain proportion, furniture placement, and color. Others invite you into finished homes and let you study how materials, objects, and personal history work together. Choose according to the decision in front of you: an awkward layout, too much clutter, a hesitant color scheme, or a room that needs more character.
The Interior Design Handbook and Domino offer useful foundations before you start buying things. Beautifully Organized puts function first, while Living with Pattern concentrates on combining prints and textures. Lauren Liess’s books lean toward natural materials and relaxed living; Jungalow embraces more exuberant color and personal expression. The photographed homes in Live Beautiful and Still reward slower observation rather than copying a complete room. Start with a practical guide, then use a style-focused book to refine the choices that feel right for your home.
11 books · 7 sources · Last updated
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How to choose from this list
Skip to the full rankingIf you want decorating foundations: The Interior Design Handbook → Domino
If you want rooms to function better: Beautifully Organized → The Interior Design Handbook
If you want natural textures and relaxed rooms: Habitat → Down to Earth
If you want more color and pattern: Living with Pattern → Jungalow
If you want inspiration for considered living: Live Beautiful → Still
The 11 books, ranked
Ranked by how many expert sources name each book. Ties go to the book more people recommend.
For readers who want natural textures and collected pieces supported by practical decorating guidance. It gives more attention to building a room than a purely photographic showcase, though Liess’s personal aesthetic strongly shapes the examples.
What it's about
Lauren Liess brings the outdoors into interior design through natural textures, materials, and collected objects. Photographs and practical guidance explore combinations of vintage and contemporary pieces, helping readers understand her approach to creating layered, personal living spaces.
The Interior Design Handbook
For beginners who want to understand proportions, furniture placement, and how rooms work. Its instructional focus fills a gap between the photographed homes here, though readers seeking lavish visual inspiration may prefer a more image-led book.
What it's about
Frida Ramstedt explains the principles behind arranging and furnishing a home, including proportion, balance, lighting, and spacing. Drawings and practical guidance help readers understand why rooms work and apply those ideas to their own spaces.
For readers who want room-by-room decorating help with varied examples. Its combination of inspiration and practical choices offers a broader starting framework than a single designer’s portfolio, though product references and some styling reflect its publication era.
What it's about
Deborah Needleman, Sara Ruffin Costello, and Dara Caponigro offer a room-by-room decorating guide drawn from Domino's approach to interiors. Inspiring photographs, practical advice, and insights from designers help readers translate their tastes into a coherent, personal home.
For readers drawn to relaxed rooms, natural materials, and everyday comfort. Liess connects decorating with a way of living, though the recognizable earthy aesthetic offers less range than a survey of contrasting design styles.
What it's about
Lauren Liess explores relaxed interiors shaped by natural materials, personal belongings, and everyday living. Photographs and reflections on her design approach show how modest details and a connection with nature can create comfortable spaces with character.
For readers whose rooms need to function better before they need more decoration. Boyd connects organization with appearance more directly than the design showcases here, though the emphasis is storage and routines rather than architectural planning.
What it's about
Nikki Boyd presents five steps for creating a home that combines order with style: assessing, decluttering, cleaning, organizing, and beautifying. Photographs and practical guidance connect useful storage and everyday routines with welcoming spaces for family and guests.
Live Beautiful
For readers who learn by examining how finished homes come together. Calderone makes personal objects and layered details easier to notice, though the photographed spaces offer more inspiration than a complete course in decorating fundamentals.
What it's about
Athena Calderone explores how carefully designed homes take shape through inspiration, personal objects, and distinctive details. Photographed interiors and homeowner conversations accompany practical observations on layering textures, mixing patterns, collecting pieces, and creating spaces with a personal identity.
For readers who hesitate over mixing prints, textures, and colors. Atwood gives this specific decorating problem more attention than the general home books here, though the narrow focus leaves layout and broader renovation decisions elsewhere.
What it's about
Rebecca Atwood explains how pattern works within a home and how to combine it with confidence. Photographs and practical guidance explore prints, textures, color, and layering, including patterns already present in everyday architectural details and belongings.
For readers who want confidence with expressive color, plants, and collected objects. Blakeney links personal identity with a distinctive decorative approach, though the exuberant style offers less guidance for restrained or traditional interiors.
What it's about
Justina Blakeney connects decorating with creativity, nature, travel, and her cultural heritage. Photographs and personal reflections explore exuberant color, pattern, plants, and collected objects, showing how interiors can express the experiences and interests of their inhabitants.
For readers who want comfortable rooms with layered materials and a collected appearance. Lewis connects styling choices with everyday use, though the finished interiors can be easier to admire than to reproduce on a limited budget.
What it's about
Amber Lewis explains her approach to comfortable, layered interiors through photographs and practical design advice. Topics include selecting paint, combining patterns, arranging objects and lighting, and choosing materials whose appearance develops with everyday use.
For readers who want their home choices to reflect slower, more considered living. Walton connects interiors with materials and habits rather than appearance alone, though the home portraits provide fewer sequential decorating instructions.
What it's about
Natalie Walton explores homes shaped by principles of sustainable, local, organic, and whole living. Photographed interiors and their owners' stories examine how choices about construction, materials, furnishings, and surroundings can support simpler ways of living.
For readers curious about contemporary Southern interiors and the people shaping them. Rosenheck’s interviews add cultural context to the photographs, though the regional design conversation makes this more of an exploration than a general decorating manual.
What it's about
Alyssa Rosenheck surveys a contemporary movement in Southern interior design through photographed homes and interviews. Designers, artists, and entrepreneurs discuss how tradition, natural materials, personal creativity, and changing cultural perspectives shape their spaces and approaches to living.
Sources
- 1
27 Best Interior Design Books
houseofhipsters.com
- 2
100 Best Decorating Books of All Time
shortform.com
- 3
12 Design Books Every Design-Lover Should Own
architecturaldigest.com
- 4
looking for essential interior design book recommendations
reddit.com
- 5
Books/Magazines on Interior Decorating
reddit.com
- 6
16 Interior Design Books You Must Read in 2026
andacademy.com
- 7
Decorating Books
goodreads.com
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Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shape MRB and its growth.
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