Meditations on Design: Reinventing Your Home With Style and Simplicity

Home is a place to express yourself. Whether a five-story walk-up or a palatial penthouse, home should creatively reflect its owner, whatever the size, location, or budget.

Renowned designer John Wheatman has worked with apartment dwellers, country homesteaders, and city sophisticates over the course of his extensive and award-winning career in interiors. Now, he's making the expertise usually reserved for clients available to all with his first book, Meditations on Design, a simple and sumptuous study that applies his distinctive design principles to every kind of interior. Every idea and suggestion is based on Wheatman's philosophy that while a living space should be functional and comfortable, it should also reflect the life within it and make that life more enriched and fulfilled.

John Wheatman's trade secrets in Meditations on Design will enable readers to claim their living space, make it their own, and display the things they love so their home can say, "This is who I am." From "tablescapes"--the art of arranging collections--to "letting the outside in"--an approach to incorporating light and nature to any room--John Wheatman lends his artistic sensibility to home-making.

Interior decorating is meant to be a personal business, but often designers have such a specific vision that they ignore beloved collections or mementos. In Meditations on Design, John Wheatman insists that it's those extremely personal items that make your home a work of art, and goes on to show a myriad of possibilities for display. Wheatman's vision is of a home that is never "done"--as he says in the first chapter, "Who you are and what you want to say about yourself is continually changing." With pages of lovely photos combined with thoughtful text, he does a great job of showing possibilities for both your home and your inspirations. Couches are low and comfortable, obviously meant for dogs and children as much as for swanky adult gatherings. Colors tend to be bold on the walls while neutral on the furnishings--after all, it's certainly cheaper to repaint than it is to reupholster. Living-room shelves are full of books, window treatments are minimal, and walls are consistently covered with the personal art collections of his clients. Whether your tastes run to chairs (his favorite), African masks, or Japanese pottery, Wheatman has a practical and low-maintenance way to show off treasures while integrating them naturally into the room. The close-up photos of statuary, gardens, and textured pottery will inspire readers to combine their own decorating schemes with day-to-day practical needs. --Jill Lightner