Designer Favorite Coffee Table Books
It’s hardly a secret that interior designers LOVE a good coffee table book. They can be the perfect styling piece, conversation starter, and personalizing element. Starting a collection can be a bit daunting—especially since coffee table books can be pricey—so I’ve rounded up some of my favorites and linked them below.
1 / Louis Vuitton: The Birth of Modern Luxury / If you like a designer handbag like I do, this book is for you! It’s a massive (500+ pages), conversation-starting, showstopping book.
2 / A Tale of Interiors / Pierce & Ward is the design firm to the Hollywood elite, this book showcases their masterful mixing of classic elements with whimsical touches. It’s chalk full of inspirational images for interior design and home decor lovers.
3 / Gstaad Glam / Assouline books are hands down the most gorgeous coffee table books! Their newest Travel Series will transport you to all the most glamorous destinations like Gstaad, St. Moritz, Aspen, Ibiza and so on. The covers and spines of these books make for a bold pop of color on a coffee or side table.
4 / Architectural Digest: A Century of Style / Every space featured in Architectural Digest is remarkable and for this 100th Anniversary book they somehow chose the best of their best. It’s so fascinating to see how design and styles have changed over the decades, I spent a solid hour looking through this the second it arrived!
5 / John Derian Picture Book / I first wandered in to one of John Derian’s NYC stores without knowing a thing about him and his work, but it took me about two seconds to love his very vintage, eclectic look. This book sits front and center on my coffee table!
6 / Michelangelo The Complete Works / I purchased this book for my parents the year we traveled to Italy together and we all decided that the fold-out of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in this book almost topped being there in person. It’s that good. Also, Taschen is another go-to for spectacular coffee table books!
7 / Humans / Brandon Stanton—of the wildly popular Humans of New York social media series—traveled to over 40 countries gathering photos and stories in his typical intimate, candid style. He—and this book—are incredible.
8 / Wild Interiors / Hilton Carter is known for his love of unique, plant-filled spaces. This book would be great just with his showcase of plant-forward designs around the world but the cover art by Alina Fassakhova is INCREDIBLE. Please do judge this one by its cover!
9 / Bill Cunningham : On The Street / Flipping through this book is basically like people-watching on the streets of New York over the span of about 4 decades. Bill Cunningham—an unassuming man known for his signature blue jackets—had the most unbelievable eye for fashion and ability to capture peoples’ style and humanity within the same frame. There’s a great documentary about Bill that predates this book, it’s worth watching and will 1,000% make you want this book!
Tips for starting your collection:
Roughly half of my collection of coffee table books are ones I’ve picked up at thrift or antique stores, estate sales are also a great place to look. I’m not super picky about the content of my thrifted books but I do always peep under the paper dust cover to see what’s underneath. Many times there’s a pretty fabric hardcover under that yellowing 1974 dust cover!
Museum gift shops are a great place to buy coffee table books and can serve as a nice memento of a special exhibit you saw or the trip you were on.
While I rarely see interesting books in-store at HomeGoods or Marshalls, they do sometimes have them online! In fact, I purchased my copy of the Architectural Digest book above on HomeGoods website for a little less than what it was selling for on Amazon at the time!
Amazon is an obvious place to look for books, but did you know you can purchase used books there? Underneath the advertised price you’ll see something like “17 used from $27.94”, clicking there will take you to a list of (usually) independent sellers w/ used copies and the condition they’re in.
Put a pretty coffee table book on your holiday/birthday/anniversary gift wish list! Books make great gifts! I’d much rather have a fantastic coffee table book than more scented candles, socks, and picture frames, wouldn’t you?!