John Saladino's powerful new book, Villa, is nothing less than a master class in interior and garden design by one of the world's most distinguished architectural designers.

It focuses on the stone ruin in the California hills looking over the Pacific that he has painstakingly refashioned as his dream house. It shows how his principles and passions guided him through the five-year process of reconstruction, restoration and decoration of the house and its gardens.

With the aid of groundplans, drawings, photographs of the house in the 1920s, as it looked when he first bought it and during reconstruction, the author traces the architectural work involved.

Then, in a superbly illustrated tour of the house and grounds, he proves that he practices what he has preached for more than thirty years. He juxtaposes light and dark, old and new, classical and modern, monumental and miniscule, hard and soft, to create the serenely timeless interiors and gardens that are his hallmark.

Included with the book is a DVD tour of the house and garden, with a commentary by the author.

Reviews.

The infrared photos Mr Saladino includes among the colour ones are ghostly and lovely, and Mr Saladino's interiors are as painterly as ever. - New York Times

The volume - "lavish" is an insufficient adjective - ought to inspire anyone planning a move, but, we warn you, it sets the bar very high. - Times

Part of the pleasure of Villa is the detail - every photograph is carefully captioned giving an idea or a lesson, from a master craftesman. - Daily Telegraph

- The first book by distinguished designer John Saladino
- Inspiration for home and garden design
- Contains 200 full-color photographs, and a special gatefold feature
- An invaluable reference book, superbly designed and produced

In this volume, US design guru John Saladino reveals the secrets that made him one of the world's most respected interior designers. He reveals the inspiration behind his design philosophy with its mastery of colour, light and scale. Showing how lessons from the classical world can be implemented in contemporary design, he talks through the design principles that guide him and explains how he applies these principles to settings as well as suggesting solutions for your own home. Chapter by chapter he moves from discussing essential considerations such as light and colour to the more ambitious skills of mastering scale, illusion and exaggeration.

John Saladino is a graduate of Notre Dame and the Yale School of Art and Architecture. He worked in Rome with the architect Piero Sartogo before returning to New York where he opened his own architectural and interior design practice over 35 years ago. It is now known as The Saladino Group Inc. In 1986 he started his own furniture company. He has won numerous interior design and furniture awards (including the prestigious Daphne Award) and he is on the Board of Directors of the John Soane Museum in London. His interiors regularly appear in international magazines including House Beautiful, House and Garden, the New York Times Magazine, Architectural Digest, Vogue Decoration and the World of Interiors.