Our Favorite Coffee Table Books

Coffee table books are a great way to add style and elegance to any living space. 
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We love books. We love reading them. We love how they feel and smell, as well as how the right ones can elevate your interior style. Coffee table books are a great way to add style and elegance to any living space.  They can add that hint of color, some much-needed texture, variety, or become a statement piece on your coffee table or a credenza. Here we list our favorite coffee table books and how to style with them.
 
Home Accents
There are many ways to style with books. A couple of tricks I learned in my staging years in New York City were to choose the appropriate size of books for the piece of furniture like a coffee table, if you place books that are too small for a large coffee table, they will disappear and have no impact. If you choose books that are too large for a side table you are styling, they will weight down the table and make it look awkward. You want to make sure the books and the piece of furniture you are styling work in harmony.
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Some great ways to style with books is to stack two or three books with another stack, an open book in the opposite corner of the table or use a book stand which adds a little height and variation.
I'm sure most of you know this, but I will still mention it. While styling an area with coffee-table books, make sure you place the larger-book on the bottom. The book placed on top can be the same size as the book underneath. I prefer for the top book to be a half an inch smaller on each side. I like books to be similar in thickness. As for the colors, you can keep it neutral (whites, grays, blacks, beiges) for additional layers of texture and sophistication, or you can add a pop of color that ties to your accent pillows or that favorite side chair for some interest and fun.
 
We have combed through a lot of books out there and chose some great picks to help you elevate your style game.
 

amazon.com
/5
Throughout her illustrious career, Tonne Goodman has made the famous stylish and stylish famous. The Vogue fashion director has not only shaped the way women dress and see themselves, but she has also created a nexus in which the worlds of celebrity and style continually collide. Now, in Point of View, Goodman’s life and career are explored for the first time. Organized chronologically, this book charts Goodman’s career from her modeling days to her freelance fashion reportage, to her editorial and advertising work, through to her reign at Vogue. The editor’s recollections of some of the world’s greatest photographers, models, celebrities, and designers of our time are illustrated throughout, with behind-the-scenes fashion photos and shots of Goodman’s personal life.

$48.89

amazon.com
/5
In spring 1947, Christian Dior presented the first collection of his newly founded eponymous fashion house. Soon dubbed the “New Look,” it grabbed headlines all over the world and turned Dior into one of the most influential brands of all time. After the couturier's untimely death in 1957, Yves Saint Laurent took the helm of the fashion house before being succeeded by Marc Bohan, who was in turn replaced by Gianfranco Ferré in 1989. In 1996, John Galliano was appointed creative director, designing flamboyant collections for a decade, before the arrival of Raf Simon in 2012, who gave the house a newly imagined identity for the 21st century. Maria Grazia Chiuri's arrival in 2017 as the first woman designer in Dior's history also marks the seventieth anniversary of the “New Look.”

$67.50

amazon.com
/5
This definitive publication on Alexander McQueen (1969–2010) invites you into the creative mind and world of one of Britain’s most brilliant, daring, and provocative designers, and the many themes and references that shaped his visionary fashion collections. A truly comprehensive study, this catalog is the first in-depth look at McQueen and explores key themes of the exhibition—tailoring, gothic, primitivism, naturalism, and futurism. The book also features previously unseen material as well as groundbreaking essays and feature spread by multiple authors and leading fashion commentators. This kaleidoscopic approach explores themes central to the designer’s work and his collections, such as the psychology of fashion, natural history, the theatre and spectacle of his shows, and the key creative collaborators during McQueen’s lifetime.

$69.99

assouline.com
/5
In the gardens of the Palace of Versailles there stands a statue of Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, the creator and director of the royal fruit and vegetable gardens; in 1979, inspired by the waistcoat of this great man, with its orderly line of buttons down the front, Versailles-born fashion designer agnès b. re-imagined the garment in cotton fleece, and the iconic snap cardigan was born. A soft and easy-going garment, the snap cardigan immediately took off, becoming a soaring success and conquering the world.

$25.00