Italian Rustic: How to Bring Tuscan Charm into Your Home

A celebration of Tuscan farmhouse style, with practical advice on how to bring the look home.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of living under the Tuscan sun, Italian Rustic is the next best thing—a step-by-step guide to recreating the romance and appeal of the weathered Italian farmhouse. This nuts-and-bolts guide to building Italian-style walks the reader through all the elements that make the rustic Italian home so unique, from the hand-laid stone walls to the artisanal stucco wall finishes.

Author Elizabeth Minchilli, an American design writer based in Rome and Tuscany, received dozens of questions from readers after publishing her last book, Artisan's Restoring a Home in Italy. The queries went beyond the usual searches for fabric and couches. "People were hungry to know how terra-cotta tiles were laid, or how fireplaces were built," she says. Italian Rustic, researched with the help of her Italian architect husband, is the user-friendly result: a book that explains, in clear text accompanied by photographs and drawings, how to lay a tile floor a la Italiana, or add a Tuscan-style pergola to any garden.

With more than 300 stunning photographs shot on location in Tuscany and Umbria, the book contains profiles of local artisans, engaging text on how the farmhouse style evolved, and targeted advice on how Americans can find Italian-style building materials and craftsmen close to home. This essential sourcebook will appeal to anyone building an addition or an entire house from scratch, or for homeowners who want to add just a touch of Italian style to their houses.

Elizabeth Helman Minchilli is the author of Artisan's Restoring a Home in Italy (now in its third printing), and the recently published Italian Rustic. Her passion for Italy led her from her native United States, where she studied architectural history, to Italy in 1987. She writes on architecture, design, and food for a variety of publications and is the author of four other books on Italian culture.

Simon McBride has been photographing gardens and interiors for over two decades, working regularly for Architectural Digest, Country Living, and House & Garden, among other magazines. His numerous book credits include Ski Style and Private Tuscany. He lives in Bath, England.