It also makes sense that fashion designers are also fashion-conscious about the home. Tommy Hilfiger says, “Wherever I go, I’m always looking at houses and the way people live.” He embraces change in fashion just the way he embraces change in his home décor: “The pendulum swings back and forth in fashion and it’s the same for me in home too.”

Lulu Guinness, a purse and accessories designer, writes in her essay on how her travels as a young girl and her desire to be different were always at the forefront of her decisions about home decor: “When I finally got my own apartment, I had dreams of what it would be like. I knew that when I got something, it had to be different. I always wanted everything to be different from everyone else. On every level, every level. A very, very tiring thing to be.” Her essay focuses on her inner creativity and how it was the driving force in what kind of home she wanted for herself and her family.

Michael Graves, famous both for his architecture and his product designs for Alessi and Target (his famous tea kettle has become iconic), speaks eloquently about how he developed his eye for design when living in Rome, Italy, and studying the history of architecture. He ultimately found that knowing more about the past made it easier to design for the present. He was heavily influenced by Italian buildings and artifacts and now fills his home with beautiful objects from his travels. Graves writes, “If you allow your mind to comprehend that about everything you see (though you obviously discard some things), you end up holding on to certain ideas for life.” In speaking about his house, he summarizes what many people have found to be true. “The house is filled with things that give me inspiration: books, artifacts, paintings, drawings, objects I’ve designed. The whole house is a big story.”

This book is ultimately a revealing and insightful exploration and may cause you to take a closer look at your own home environment and ponder how it came to be and what it really means. I highly recommend it.

References:

AllBookStores.com is a great resource for finding home interior books, including all 60 books by Stafford Cliff.

Recently published books by Stafford Cliff:

The Way We Live With Color (Rizzoli, 2010, $17.98).

The Way We Live With The Things We Love (Rizzoli, 2009, $45).