By Prasun Pakhira Books indeed transport us to different places across space and time. Not to mention their power to give us information while being super fun.
You would be wondering how come we are now philosophizing about books. Well, that’s because books are one of the best sources to gain interior design knowledge, understand different styles, and increase your creativity.
You should read interior design books to get the best of the field! But first, let’s get a brief overview of interior design.
Understanding interior design
Interior design is a field that enables us to interact with spaces and utilize them for our needs. It requires a good understanding of textiles, materials, space planning, sustainability, software applications, building codes, and health & safety issues, among other things.
As an interior designer, you will work with architects, engineers, craftsmen, businesses, and homeowners to design the best place. Using good study material for interior designing will help you to interact in these spaces and make the best out of a given problem.
So, here’s a list of five best books for interior design that you can start with!
Best books for interior design
While the internet gives answers to many of our problems, books make their magic happen.
Did you know over 1.5 million books were published in 2021? Books help you fuel your imagination and make you realize the nuances of life.
Let’s look at some of the books on interior design:
1. The Interior Design Reference & Specification Book: Everything Interior Designers Need to Know Every Day
Written by Chris Grimley, Linda O’Shea, and Mimi Love, this is one of the best interior design books for beginners. It explains comprehensively how coloration and interior design should be able to impact the function and feel of the human senses. It provides a step-by-step overview of interior projects and describes the scope of professional services, project schedule, and the various tools used by designers. It discusses colors, material, texture, and pattern while focusing on sustainability guidelines. It’s one of the best books for interior design if you want a good insight into how the field of interior design works.
2. The Interior Design Handbook
Another amazing book to make you familiar with the basic principles behind interior and styling is penned by Frida Ramstedt! The book provides the perfect blend of styling information, design trends, furniture, etc. It aims to provide the readers with balanced designs that not only look good but also feel good. The interior design handbook is quite technical based on how it suggests room layouts and color schemes. However, the book lacks photographs so you’ll have to work your brain to realize the designs.
3. Jungalow: Decorate Wild
Penned by Justina Blakeney, this book enables you to design wild creative interiors! It contains photographs by Dabito of original styles and patterns to fill you up with ideas. Each chapter consists of her point of view about interior designing – the colors and patterns you should choose, taking cues from nature, and decorating wildly. This is one of the recommended books for interior design students to understand how to apply nature to their designs. You should decorate a space by acknowledging its experience and culture, and this book provides insights for exactly that.
4. Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave
A necessary characteristic that books for interior design need to have is to be able to tell the readers how to prioritize their instincts. Joanna Gaines does exactly that with her design book, she provides practical steps to navigate and embrace your authentic design style. While you might find it not handholding you through the process of setting up an ideal home, she gives general advice about designing different rooms. Mostly with her book, she will inspire you to create cozy homes respecting the ideas and styles that the owners have.
5. Residential Interior Design: A Guide To Planning Spaces
This is one good study material for interior design as it highlights fundamental skills required to plan interior spaces in all types of homes. Co-authored by Courtney Nystuen and Maureen Mitton, the book illustrates a step-by-step approach to designing residential spaces. It describes essential elements like a minimum amount of space required in each room to function properly and detailed accessibility information. It gives great insights, along with multiple photographs, as to how a space should be more for people than designs.
If you are reading this blog, you are either pursuing interior design or want to pursue this field. While there’s an extensive collection of interior design books, you can make a headstart with one of the above mentioned books.
As an interior designer, you need to understand the principles of balance, harmony, proportion, contrast, details, etc. A guidebook will help you to focus on distinct elements that are often overlooked. Open the book, take a pen, and start making notes of essential designs.
How can ISDI help:
Interior design is essential in its practice, to make a place beautiful, liveable, and accommodative. At ISDI we hope to help you do just that.
ISDI offers various design programs such as Strategic Design Management, Fashion Design, Fashion Communication and Styling, Interior Design and Strategic Design, Communication Design, Product Design, and Management. Pursuing one of the degree programs, that is, Bachelors in Design (B.Des) – 4-year program or Postgraduate In Design (PGDI) – 11 months program. Either of the programs is an alternative to a career in fashion and design.
The ISDI campus is located in the business district of Mumbai, the commercial center of India. ISDI consists of a curriculum that is based on that of the Parsons School of Design, experienced and industry-leading faculty, and practical project-based training, all situated on a state-of-the-art campus. ISDI is just the right place for someone looking to start a career in design.
