8 Best Interior Design Books in 2024: Reviews & Top Picks

Interior design can be a great deal of fun, but it doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and some people can struggle to come up with ideas or learn the skills that they need to implement them. Some people can find someone to help teach them, but others will need to rely on informative books to gain an education. If you are considering getting an interior design book but aren’t sure which one to choose, keep reading for a list of reviews of the most popular ones. There’s also a buyer’s guide with tips on what to look for in a design book.

A Quick Comparison of Our Winners (2024)

Rating	Image	Product	Details
Best Overall		The Interior Design Handbook: Furnish, Decorate, and Style Your Space	Explains several basic rules Easy-to-understand illustrations Covers everything from painting to placing decorations	CHECK PRICE
Best Value		Beautifully Organized: A Guide to Function and Style in Your Home	Five simple steps to transform any room Focus is on creating a welcoming atmosphere for friends and family Plenty of high-quality photographs	CHECK PRICE
Premium Choice		Workstead: Interiors of Beauty and Necessity	Well-explained ideas that are easy to follow Strong focus on simplicity and Americana Plenty of high-quality photographs	CHECK PRICE
		The New Design Rules: How to Decorate and Renovate	Large amount of detailed information Provides a complete interior design walkthrough Helps you determine when it’s better to hire professional help	CHECK PRICE
		Feels Like Home: Relaxed Interiors for a Meaningful Life	Focus is on an emotional connection with home Shows you how to create an environment based on a theme Discusses several types of homes	CHECK PRICE

The 8 Best Interior Design Books

1. The Interior Design Handbook: Furnish, Decorate, and Style Your Space — Best Overall

“The Interior Design Handbook” is our pick as the best overall interior design book. It focuses on how you decorate and the materials that you use to help you take a balanced approach to your home design. It teaches you several basic rules, so it’s easier to determine how large your coffee table should be and where you should hang your pictures, for example. It includes several easy-to-understand illustrations, and it’s a fast read, but there’s plenty of information that you will keep with you for a lifetime.

The only downside is that it’s expensive.

2. Beautifully Organized: A Guide to Function and Style in Your Home — Best Value

“Beautifully Organized: A Guide to Function and Style in Your Home” is our pick as the best interior design book for the money. It goes over five important steps that can help you transform any room in your house and focuses on creating a welcoming atmosphere that people can enjoy. It provides plenty of high-quality photographs that can help you understand the points the author is trying to make, and it’s easy to follow along.

“Beautifully Organized” is an excellent choice when looking for help with interior design. The only downside is that the author has a dedicated YouTube channel that covers much of this material, so if you are already an avid follower, you may feel that it’s a waste of money.

3. Workstead: Interiors of Beauty and Necessity — Premium Choice

“Workstead: Interiors of Beauty and Necessity” is our premium choice interior design book. It contains a wealth of information covering a special blend of historic renovations with elegant modern designs. You can use this book to help decorate the interior of your private home or a large commercial space. It has a strong focus on early Americana, which involves using wooden floors and furniture, mixed with Scandinavian restraint and local artwork to create something unique. The book walks you through 10 homes and provides plenty of high-quality photographs so you can see the interior design in action.

This book has many interesting ideas, and it’s easy to follow, but it’s quite expensive.

4. The New Design Rules: How to Decorate and Renovate, from Start to Finish: An Interior Design Book

“The New Design Rules: How to Decorate and Renovate, from Start to Finish,” is one of the newest books on this list, with a 2022 publication date. It’s also quite lengthy at more than 300 pages and contains plenty of great information that can help you change the interior of your home for the better. The author walks you through every decision, from picking out paint to placing light fixtures. It helps you look at your design options realistically so you know when it would be better to hire a contractor to finish the job. It also explains how to plan out your materials so you can set up a budget. There are plenty of photographs to see how all the ideas look.

This book can be a great choice for someone who is new to the field and has not yet done any interior design work. However, the book goes into such detail that it can seem too basic or long-winded for those who might find the long descriptions repetitive or distracting.

5. Feels Like Home: Relaxed Interiors for a Meaningful Life

“Feels Like Home: Relaxed Interiors for a Meaningful Life” is this author’s third interior design book, so you know that you’re getting your information from a well-researched professional. This book focuses on our emotional connection to our home and helps you look beyond traditional ideas and rules to create something personal and unique. It looks at several types of homes, from a farmhouse to a Spanish colonial, and explores how to create an environment with an overall theme, like comfort, calm, love, or belonging.

This fantastic author’s third installment has plenty of good ideas. The only downside is that the paper seems low quality, and it has a grey tint, making it feel like it isn’t as durable as most other books of this type.

6. Universal Principles of Interior Design

“Universal Principles of Interior Design” provides a comprehensive explanation of nearly every topic involved with interior design. Every discussion includes high-quality illustrations that make it easy to understand. The author presents the topics alphabetically, so they’re easy to find when you need them, and they also list the most common interior design questions and show you where the answers are.

This book is a great choice for someone working in interior design who needs to find solutions and answer questions quickly. It’s also a good book to have on hand for planning future projects. However, its technical nature may prevent you from coming up with new ideas. It also has fewer pages than many other books and is quite costly.

7. Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave

“Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave” is one of the older books on this list, published in 2018. However, at 352 pages, it’s packed with information to help you create your dream home. It uses several examples from a wide range of homes to help you learn more about your priorities and instincts. This approach enables you to create an enjoyable environment instead of one that follows the rules and modern design trends. It even includes a removable design template that lets you plan and sketch out your design plans ahead of time.

We like this book’s approach and includes plenty of fantastic tips and tricks. However, some people might be concerned with the age of the book not being up to date with the current modern trends, and others might find it more of a picture book or portfolio of the author’s work highlighted with tips and tricks instead of a manual designed to teach.

8. At Home: Evocative & Art-Forward Interiors

“At Home: Evocative & Art-Forward Interiors” strongly focuses on creating a living extension of yourself. It relies on the motto, “function and comfort first and always,” when exploring different ideas about interior design. It discusses furniture placement and lighting and explains how it affects your environment and comfort level. It also shows you how your memories can impact your design decisions and how to use them to create an interesting interior.

The biggest downside to this book is that it’s rather short at only 160 pages, so you can read it quickly. This leaves you hungry for more and possibly questioning its high cost.

Buyer’s Guide: Selecting the Best Interior Design Books

Conclusion

When choosing your next interior design book, we highly recommend our pick for the best overall. “The Interior Design Handbook: Furnish, Decorate, and Style Your Space” has plenty of great tips and tricks and provides you with guidelines that you will likely use throughout your career. Another great choice is our value pick. “Beautifully Organized: A Guide to Function and Style in Your Home” teaches you general guidelines to help you make better design decisions moving forward. It focuses on creating an environment that people will enjoy visiting.

Featured Image Credit: hayrullah-gozcu, Unsplash