The Well-Loved House - by Ashley Whittaker (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Elle Decor A-List decorator Ashley Whittaker believes houses are meant to be beautiful, but also lived in and enjoyed. She fearlessly marries adventurous colors and patterns while retaining a sense of elegance and restraint. In her first book, Whittaker shares her secrets for creating inviting and sophisticated homes, always balancing the importance of practicality with the necessity of beauty to the last detail. The book includes nine dwellings, including a stately 1920s Georgian-style house in Connecticut, a midcentury modern house in upstate New York, an elegant Manhattan brownstone, and an escape on the Florida coast. She also features the story of her own house that she designed and built from the ground up in Millbrook, New York. Within each house, Whittaker shares her knowledge and strategies for achieving elegance and ease, from the importance of providing consistent decorative threads throughout a home, to playing up contrast and juxtaposition. She offers guidance on furniture plans, how to complement the architecture of a space, and using color. The results are stunning: bohemian patterns mix with classic palettes, rich saturated color mingles with highly polished finishes. Lacquered blue walls show off a collection of blue-and-white porecelain. An inviting L-shaped sofa and games table reinvent a rarely used library into a favorite space for socializing. Ashley Whittaker's houses are share both a sense of drama and a sense of comfort -- they are homes that welcome you at the end a long day, homes for living, homes to love." --

Book Synopsis

In her first book, Elle Decor A-List decorator Ashley Whittaker shares the secrets of her colorful, pattern-filled classic rooms.

Ashley Whittaker's work is distinctively classic and sophisticated, but also inviting and warm. Dubbed a neo-traditionalist, she fearlessly marries adventurous colors and patterns in rooms yet still manages to retain a sense of elegance and restraint. In The Well-Loved House, she shares a selection of dwellings, from gracious Connecticut estates to chic Manhattan pieds-à-terre to waterfront beach houses on the Florida coast, most exclusively photographed for this book, including her own house never before seen. Whittaker believes houses are meant to be beautiful, but also lived in and enjoyed, and she shares her knowledge and strategies for achieving this interplay. Within each house, Whittaker offers guidance on furniture plans, complementing the architecture of a space, playing with color, and mixing pattern. She explains why it is important to have consistent threads throughout a home, but also contrast and juxtaposition. The results are stunning: Bohemian patterns mix with classic palettes; rich, saturated color mingles with highly polished finishes. Lacquered blue walls show off a collection of blue-and-white porcelain. An inviting L-shaped sofa and games table reinvent an unused library into a favorite space for socializing.

Whittaker's houses all share both a sense of drama and a sense of comfort--they are homes that welcome you at the end of a long day, homes for living, homes to love.

Review Quotes

"Ashley Whittaker is another beloved designer that is adding "author" to her multidisciplinary job title in 2021. Her first book is exactly what devotees have anticipated from Whittaker, a celebration of color, comfort, and drama in design. The creative shares a collection of projects that span down the East Coast, along with sage advice for aspiring designers and neo-traditionalists like herself. Plus, you'll find a charming foreword from ceramicist, tastemaker, and Whittaker's neighbor, Christopher Spitzmiller." --VERANDA.COM

About the Author

Ashley Whittaker's work has been featured in Veranda, House Beautiful, the New York Times, Southern Living, Coastal Living, and Domino. Acclaimed ceramicist Christopher Spitzmiller is the author of A Year at Clove Brook Farm.