Home Design History

One of the classic works on interior decoration, Edith Wharton’s The Decoration of Houses offers a comprehensive look at the history and character of turn-of-the-century interior design. Co-written with architect Ogden Codman, Jr., this invaluable reference provides us with numerous keen and practical axioms for house design, such as (1) The better the house, the less need for curtains, and (2) the height of a well-proportioned doorway should be twice its width.

A collection of the timeless, the priceless and the unforgettable, this beautiful compendium accompanies the beloved BBC One TV series. Antiques Roadshow has graced our screens for forty years and has become one of the nation’s most beloved television programmes and a national institution. It...

One man's quest to seek out--and be inspired by--the great historic kitchens of Canada and the USA. John Ota was a man on a mission--to put together the perfect kitchen. He and his wife had been making do with a room that was frankly no great advertisement for John's architectural expertise. It...

I always imagine each of the signoras who lived in this house—where she shelled peas, rocked the grandchild, placed a vase of the pink roses. Now I would like to take one of these women back to my house in California to show her how Bramasole traveled to America and took root, how the doors...