Favorite 2014 Design Books : Friends & Design Heroes

This year has produced a bumper crop of stunning new design and style books. Here are some great last minute gifts for the design junkies and style divas on your list. I am proud (and half-bragging) that a few good friend's work deservedly made it to the Top Ten. I think bragging can be forgiven in the spirit of celebrating a friend's talents and accomplishments!

Good friends (and official design heroes) Fritz Karch and Rebecca Robertson just published a stunning book, Collected: Living with the Things You Love, that celebrates many different collector's aesthetics and inspirational displays.

Some highlights from the book below : 

JP & Allison Williams exquisite shelf

Leslie Williamson has delivered a literary one-two punch. Her first book, Handcrafted Modern:At Home with Mid-century Designers set a high standard for the design voyeur's peek inside the century's most iconic designer's homes. Her second book, Modern Originals: At Home with European Midcentury Designers, is the result of her intrepid kick-starter funded trek through Europe to capture the homes of thirteen of the most important mid-twentieth century architects and designers before they disappear. Suffice it to say, it does not disappoint. 

Highlights from Leslie's book: 

Studio Achille Castiglioni

Lino Sabattini

Roland Ranier | Alvar Aalto

Carlo Mollino

A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse

LouLou de La Falaise

Kelly Hoppen 

Malene Birger

Imperfect Home

Hans Blomquist

Terence Conran

My Favorite Things by Maira Kalman

This is a 'beautiful pictorial and narrative exploration of the significance of objects in our lives, drawn from her personal artifacts, recollections, and selections from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.' The fifty pieces curated from the Cooper-Hewitt are now on display and worth a trip uptown to see. For those friends whose shelves are overflowing, you can always get them a membership to the fabulous new Cooper-Hewitt.