Refreshing your homewares and updating your living area doesn’t have to cost the earth. There are simple ways to add lovely new touches to your home, for example updating your coffee table books in your lounge room.
Refresh your living area with contemporary coffee table books. Styling: Emma Blomfield. Picture: Lisa Zhu.
A vase of fresh flowers, pretty books, and a candle might be all you need to add extra wow-factor to your space so that coming home each and every night becomes one of the happiest parts of your day – if it isn’t already.
From books filled with picture-perfect imagery to illustrations from the streets of New York City and to-die-for styling for the interior decorator in you, here are five coffee table books to inspire your home decorating.
1. Wild Beauty (Hardie Grant Books)
Love nature? This one’s for you. A compilation of perhaps some of Australia’s most extraordinary natural treasures and experiences, including swimming with minke whales near the Great Barrier Reef, this book showcases the wild beauty of Australia.
“We sought out places that were able to stare back at us in their wildness,” says photographer Vanessa Hunter. Hunter together with journalist Graham Lloyd spent four years researching for the book – the result is 26 gorgeous images that best reflect our country’s natural phenomena.
2. New York: Through a Fashion Eye (Hardie Grant Books, S$41.60)
Just another day in New York. Illustration: Megan Hess
Megan Hess is loved by the likes of Chanel, Dior, Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton, thanks to her bespoke fashion illustrations.
In her fourth book, she beautifully depicts life in New York straight from where all the action happens: Hotels, fashion-themed restaurants, parks, shops, and galleries.
Hess’ full-color artworks bring NYC to life across several pages, making this book a gorgeous keep-sake and a wonderful flick-through for anyone spending an afternoon on your couch.
3. The Bondi Book Photographs (Aquabumps)
We know and love his work – a lot. You know the ones: Those quintessential aerial prints of bathers on Coogee Beach.
Eugene Tan, the master of ocean-inspired photography, has released his third coffee table book and it features all of the Aquabump gallery’s most-loved images taken in Bondi over the last few years.
“For the past 17 years, I’ve dedicated my mornings to photographing Bondi beach… every single day” writes Tan on his website.
“There’s always something to shoot… pink sunrises, big waves, huge crowds, odd faces, rogue storms or just an empty shoreline and a beautiful beach. Welcome to my third book.”
4. In the Mood for Colour (Ryland Peters & Small, S$41.95)
As we know colors have a powerful effect on our emotions: They can soothe, excite and enchant.
In his latest book, celebrated interior stylist Hans Blomquist reveals his passion for color and how it has the ability to transform spaces to become cool and calming, dynamic and stimulating or moody and intriguing.
Divided into five sections – Dark, Pale, Soft, Natural and Bold – this is a must-have for any die-hard home stylist.
How do pops of crimson red in your living room make you feel? Picture: Hans Blomquist and Debi Treloar
5. New Zealand Wine: The Land, the Vines, the People (Hardie Grant Books, S$89.14)
From Central Otago to Kumeu, Waipara to Wairarapa, this stunning book journeys around New Zealand to highlight some of the country’s most notable vineyards.
Author Warren Moran, geographer and wine enthusiast offers information on the climate, soils, and geography the winemakers work with; the grape varieties; and the extraordinary people who’ve made the wine and the industry what it is today.
Seifried Redwood Valley Vineyard. Picture: New Zealand Wine
Article repurposed from 5 coffee table books to update your lounge room by Kristy Barratt. Author at realestate.com.au.
