Margaret Russell

From the moment a project is launched, the team at Ferguson & Shamamian work in close collaboration with the world s leading decorators, landscape designers, and artisans to create contemporary houses anchored in tradition and regional character. Distinguished by their dedication to craftsmanship and creativity, the firm s residences balance artistic integrity, historic precedent, and the latest innovations in design, but always with a sense of comfort and innate elegance that endures for generations. The captivating stories behind these singular homes are revealed through gorgeous photography and texts narrating the genesis and evolution of each property. Working closely with their clients and teams of exceptional designers and craftspeople, Ferguson & Shamamian created these distinctive, one-of-a-kind homes that embody the personalities of their owners yet are timeless in their design. An extensive section of drawings and plans enriches the narrative and offers a glimpse inside the firm s creative process.

Based on Vicente Wolf 's belief that the classical elements-earth, water, air, and fire-form the basic building blocks of great interior design, the book is divided into four sections. Through breathtaking photography (by Wolf himself) and an engaging narrative, Wolf walks the reader through the process of designing around these principles. Air showcases projects that contain a lightness of spirit, open in feeling, with a palette that creates an atmosphere without boundaries. Earth features grounded interiors, where stone, wood, and natural textures form the foundation. Water shows fluidity and environments with reflective shades of blues and aqua, while deep colors, reds, and dramatic qualities are showcased in Fire. The dwellings presented, in rich detail, include more than a dozen projects, such as Long Island beach houses, Manhattan apartments, and sumptuous homes in New York, Connecticut, and California. Through this unique concept, Wolf proves why he is the uncontested master of cool, luminous rooms that combine strength and sensuality.

One of the deans of American interior decoration, William Hodgins follows in the footsteps of the legendary Billy Baldwin and also Sister Parish and Albert Hadley, for whom he worked early in his career. Based in Boston since the late 1960s, Hodgins’s work encompasses residential commissions from New England to Florida, as far west as California, and overseas. His interiors have been celebrated in the pages of Architectural Digest, House & Garden, House Beautiful, and other magazines and books. This is the first publication entirely devoted to his oeuvre, which spans five decades. Hodgins’s rooms are beautiful, thoughtful, and poetic; they are airy, light-filled spaces. They are also, in his words, as “extraordinarily luxurious as they can be in a quiet, understated way.” Handsome architectural detailing and a soothing palette work their magic and create visual flow; Hodgins is a master artist, his designs reminiscent of Merchant-Ivory films. A Hodgins interior is governed by white, and the decorator invokes the slightest of subtleties and different shades of white. For Hodgins, whites “reflect the quality of life and light in a room.” They “glow behind the art and furniture,” are restful, timeless, and age gracefully. Yet Hodgins is also noted for his judicious use of exquisitely clear and jewel-like colors: this skillful combination makes his interiors special, inviting, and comfortable. Among the forty notable commissions covered in this generously illustrated book are the private quarters of the American ambassador’s residence in Paris (1997), a pied-a-terre in a 1920s Beaux-Arts apartment building on San Francisco’s Nob Hill, several prewar cooperative apartments in New York City, and a considerable number of houses and apartments in the Boston and Washington, DC, areas and in Palm Beach, Florida. The majority of his commissions have been carried out for repeat and loyal clients, many of whom have commissioned him to decorate multiple homes. This presentation of his work will be valued not only by professional decorators but also by everyone seeking the best in interior design.