Classic Interior Design

Having worked in period interiors for all her successful transatlantic career, Henrietta Spencer-Churchill turns to her key area of expertise: architectural detail and how to incorporate period details into your own home.

This comprehensive guide to the best of three centuries of the most enduring decorating styles explains and illustrates the distinguishing characteristics, from both European and American periods, from the Baroque to the end of the nineteenth century. Henrietta shows how architectural elements of these classic decorating styles can be adapted and used in the home today to produce her trademark understated grandeur.

Divided by period, each section begins with a beautifully illustrated introduction and chronology of interior styles, with a guide to the history, nature, and most enduring aspects of the time. Covering both architectural and furnishing detail, photographs and artworks illustrate the best of period features and schemes from real homes, and Henrietta shows how to use influences from the past to create a period feel. Using beautiful interiors from around the world, the book covers every detail from grand Regency marble columns to lavish Baroque-inspired cushions.

Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill is the elder daughter of the 11th Duke of Marlborough, whose family home is Blenheim Palace. Her interest in interior design began when at the age of 16 she travelled to study fine art and languages in Florence and Paris. Later she returned to England to finish her formal studies at the world-famous Inchbald School of Design.