18 Best Interior Design Books of 2018

If you’ve been known to flip right to The New York Times’ Art and Design section, this gorgeously designed hardcover is one you’re sure to enjoy over and over again. Its 272 pages are filled with striking full-page photographs of interiors, along with in-depth interviews with their owners, showcasing everything from fresh-start country homes, to innovative and eco-friendly architecture, to the most minuscule of city apartments.

More: 17 Best-Selling Coffee Table Books for Your Tabletop

If there’s anyone who can actually turn all of their #decorgoals from Pinterest into reality, it’s Diane Keaton. In this interior design tome, the actress and prolific Pinner documents her process of gathering home inspiration from the site, honing in on her industrial-chic aesthetic, and working with architects and designers to build a brand-new 8,000-square-foot home from the ground up. The pages are also peppered with advice for refreshing and rethinking your own space, both indoors and out. Keaton’s method of home design may be divisive, but it makes for a compelling read.

There’s something truly special about homes with a creative spirit. Designer and DIY expert Janet Crowther walks readers through 60 diverse decor projects (including a knotted rope ladder, an heirloom linen table runner, and even a simple-sewn hammock!) to add high-end style with a homespun touch to your home. Whether you’re a beginning crafter or are ready for something more challenging, this interior design book is chock-full of inspiration.

If eclectic clutter and eccentric personal style are your jam, The Selby Is in Your Place needs a permanent place in your coffee table stack. A project born out of his eponymous blog, photographer Todd Selby interviews and takes pictures of the homes of various offbeat personalities, from Jonathan Adler to Erin Wasson to Karl Lagerfeld. The book is like a giant game of I Spy — the more you flip through it, the more witty and minute details you’ll start to notice.

Whether you flip through it for an education in home decoration or simply as design porn, The Finer Things is a book on interiors that appeals to the bon vivant in all of us. Offering insights into the history of the furniture and decor basics that we’ve come to accept as fundamental elements in a room, author Christiane Lemieux weaves expert advice with insider buying tips, and demonstrates how to put it all together in the most eye-catching way.

If you’re familiar with author Moorea Seal’s best-selling listing journals, The 52 Lists Project and 52 Lists for Happiness, you can safely assume that her latest read, Make Yourself at Home, is an interior design book that prizes individuality over rigid style categorization. In it, she chronicles her own homemaking journey and gives readers a look into her own space, offering conversation prompts and stylistic suggestions along the way to spark your own ideas.

She also highlights the homes and workspaces of a variety of inspiring, creative women, to show how they’ve tailored their own interiors for productivity and comfort.

If you aspire to have the kind of home that looks like each piece was carefully selected by a personal decorator, the way to make that dream a reality is by seriously rethinking your storage solutions. This new book from the editors at Remodelista is a great resource for minimalists and maximalists alike, as it lets you apply their new rules of organization to your own living style. It’s less about starting from square one than it is about making your home as efficient and streamlined as possible.

Starting from square one in terms of interior design knowledge? Fear not — this slim paperback serves as a fully comprehensive (and illustrated!) primer into the lingo, sizing, and proper styling of nearly every foundational decor element you can think of. Author Jessica Probus, an interior designer for Homepolish and also BuzzFeed’s DIY editor, walks design newbies through the various types of tile patterns, shade mounting options, how to choose the correct size rug for a bedroom versus living room, and so much more.

Styling a beautiful space isn’t just about placing the furniture in the right spot or strategically hanging a piece of art. It’s more about the intangible elements, like the mood, the scent, and familiarity that makes it a special place where you’d want to spend your time. Interior designer and blogger Lauren Liess divides her thorough “field guide” for decorating beginners into three parts to help you consciously consider every room in your home and find the best ways to make it come alive.

Home design and home organization go pretty much hand in hand. There’s a multitude of ways to store your art and treasures as well as your less-attractive, but functional extras in the tidiest and most seamless way possible. This book teaches the art of aesthetically pleasing storage that flows beautifully with the rest of your home, instead of looking like an eyesore or an afterthought.

When it’s not adorning your coffee table, this stylish tome has plenty of sound advice from home design pro Emily Henderson, to help you to rethink the arrangement of your home. It allows you to revaluate your own personal style to get a fresh outlook on dressing up your space.

What we love about this interior decor book is that each home featured belongs to a different (real!) person, showcasing a variety of styles from which to glean inspiration. Blogger Anne Sage’s personable prose highlights events in her subjects’ lives that have inspired these eclectic and beautiful spaces, because real homes can tell some pretty incredible stories.

It’s easy to feel discouraged and stuck while in the midst of making decor changes to your home, especially if you’re renting your space for the foreseeable future. For anyone who doesn’t have the freedom to re-tile their bathroom, paint their walls, or expand their living room, blogger Myquillyn Smith gives the much-needed encouragement and sage stylistic advice to help you see your space with new eyes.

This highbrow hardcover looks at a multitude of different types of homes, surveying the surrounding area just as much as the indoors, and profiling the regular people who have built a lovely, yet imperfect life within those walls. The secrets of casual, happy, and realistic living are disclosed in this book, making it one to return to time and time again.

You can talk the talk when it comes to interior decorating, but once kids come along, that’s when the major changes begin in the home, and they don’t slow down for a while! Authors Sherry and John Petersik know all about this transition from personal experience as the parents of two children. The home becomes less reflective of the self, and more representational of the whole family — but that doesn’t mean aesthetic and personal flair have to go right out the door! Meeting at the intersection of style and function, this beloved blogging duo breaks down how to make the same home space adapt to accommodate the needs of your own growing family.

Sometimes all you need is a quick refresh in order to start seeing your space in a whole new way — and it doesn’t need to cost a whole lot or be a huge time investment, either. Home design pro Sarah Richardson has packed this guidebook full of budget-friendly tips and tricks that she makes work beautifully for a diverse range of spaces.

A lot of our picks on this list have come from design bloggers who gained their loyal followings by letting readers see behind the scenes of their own daily home projects. Melissa Michaels of The Inspired Room blog has been sharing simple, no-nonsense DIY and home decorating tips since 2007. Her most recent work allows readers to revisit her timeless tips for easy, near-effortless updates to the space you already live in and love!