The definitive story of the most ambitious and glamorous midcentury modern house in the United States — Sunnylands, the estate of Walter and Lenore Annenberg, in Rancho Mirage, California — now revised and expanded

In Palm Springs, the mecca of midcentury modern architecture, Sunnylands is the undisputed masterpiece. With its celadon green and yellow interior and giddy pink roof, it was a Downton Abbey for the Space Age.

There is no other house like it anywhere. Designed by one of California’s most important architects, A. Quincy Jones, it possesses the only completely preserved interior by Hollywood’s decorator-to-the-stars, William Haines. Completed in 1966, Sunnylands was built by ambassadors Walter and Leonore Annenberg, and became a seat of power where presidents, movie stars, and corporate leaders met, relaxed, and ran the world — with nobody watching.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of Sunnylands to the public, this revised edition adds 32 pages of brand new photography, including: the contemporary visitor center designed by Frederick Fisher & Partners; the mature 15 acres of contemplative gardens by James Burnett; a new LEED Platinum building by o2 Architecture with 17 acres of breathtaking net-zero plantings by CMG Landscape, not open to the public and only accessible within the pages of this book; and public programs and art installations including two for the world-renowned Desert X festival. Lavishly illustrated, this book is a must-have for fans of midcentury design.

About the Authors:

Janice Lyle was the director of the Sunnylands Center & Gardens from 2008 to 2022. Her knowledge of the history of the house and access to the Sunnylands archives is unparalleled. Former executive director of the Palm Springs Art Museum, Lyle has lectured extensively on modern architecture and lived in one of the most famous Palm Springs midcentury houses, Frey II.

Interior designer Michael S. Smith, who was responsible for the 2010 makeover of the Oval Office, designed the interiors of the Sunnylands Center, referencing the aesthetic of the historic house. He lives in Santa Monica and Rancho Mirage.

Interiors photographer Mark Davidson has shot assignments for the Smithsonian, Getty Museum, and Hammer Museum. He lives in Seattle.

A lavish exploration of unmatched savoir-faire, this volume showcases the rooms and creations of the world's most prestigious decorative woodwork firm.

The French woodwork purveyor Féau & Cie has supplied architects, designers, and museums with period panelling since 1875. Featuring documents, drawings, plaster models, panels, and antique boiserie rooms, its archive of 25,000 pieces -- many from the eighteenth century and Art Deco era -- is an unrivalled source of inspiration for re-creating heirloom spaces as well as for constructing spectacular contemporary pieces. Though the house remains best known for its magical historic rooms, it has collaborated with architects and decorators on original projects since its beginnings, and today's design greats -- including Michael S. Smith, Brian J. McCarthy, and Robert Couturier, among others -- regularly call upon the firm for elaborate projects.

In this first book of the firm's work, Féau & Cie reveals a selection of its most exceptional projects, from magnificent historical abodes to daring modern creations, including a palace in Tuscany and residences in Paris, London, New York, Malibu, and Atlanta. Dazzling images of finished interiors are accompanied by details of panels, doors, and decor, while exclusive photographs by lensman Robert Polidori explore the house's Parisian atelier. The unique savoir-faire of joiners, sculptors, gilders, and painter-decorators shines through in this visual celebration of decorative masterpieces, which is bound to delight design masters and art lovers alike.

About the Authors:

Founded in 1875, Féau & Cie is a Paris-based firm specializing in antique wood panelling and reproductions. Olivier Gabet is the director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Robert Polidori is one of the world's most acclaimed photographers of architecture and interiors.

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Пролистать книгу Féau & Cie: The Art of Wood Paneling: Boiseries from the 17th Century to Today на сайте издательства.

Michael S. Smith’s first collection of new interiors work in seven years. Appearing at a seminal point in Michael Smith’s life and career, The Curated House is also his most personal book, tracing the origins and influences of his design philosophy in depth and presenting a substantial offering of new projects.  

In the first section of the book, illustrated with images of Smith’s own dramatic Los Angeles house, his spare desert retreat, and his ornate Manhattan apartment, Smith explores his California roots and explains how they still infuse so much of his work; the importance of California’s own deep traditions; and how his recent work in Spain has influenced him through its architecture, fabrics, and history. Smith reviews the constants of his interiors, what is integral to his style and why, and how they can work for the reader: from the forms that repeat themselves to the layering of fabrics and patterns, the use of subtle colors, and the idea of comfort in every room.

The second part of the book offers case studies of Smith’s most recent interiors work, including a high-style Manhattan pied-à-terre, an airy London townhouse, a Montana mountain retreat, and a sophisticated Malibu beach house. Substantive and arresting, The Curated House will be Smith’s most comprehensive book to date, and essential to those aspiring to his refined, popular style.

About the Author:

Internationally renowned, award-winning decorator Michael S. Smith has been named multiple times to Architectural Digest’s “The AD 100,” and was named Designer of the Year by Elle Decor.  He is the author of four previous books: Elements of Style, Houses, Kitchens and Baths, and Building Beauty. In 2010, Smith was appointed by President Obama to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House.

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Пролистать книгу The Curated House: Creating Style, Beauty, and Balance

In an extraordinary restoration project, Michael S. Smith, interior designer for the Obama White House, recently redecorated the Illinois Governor’s Mansion in collaboration with First Lady MK Pritzker, utilizing the best of Illinois’s long tradition of fine craftsmanship to allow the mansion’s prodigious history, exceptional decorative arts, and superb art to shine.

This visually stunning volume not only celebrates the updating of the Italianate–Greek Revival Illinois Governor’s Mansion in Springfield but also tells the story of the house’s evolution since 1855, of the lives and times of the renowned personages who inhabited it, and of the illustrious visitors, including Abraham Lincoln and FDR. The rooms have been enhanced with sophisticated color palettes, gorgeous fabrics, wallpapers, and bespoke furniture. In celebration of Illinois, one hallway is covered in a striking corn-motif pattern; the Governor’s Dining Room is embellished with a charming folk-style mural; and the chic Chicago Room was created, featuring Frances Elkins’s canopied beds and a Samuel Marx secretary cabinet. This book is ideal for those who love architecture, antiques, and learning about the lives of prominent Americans.

About the Authors:

MK Pritzker has served as Illinois’s first lady since the inauguration of her husband, JB Pritzker, as governor in January 2019. She restored the mansion together with Michael S. Smith into a welcoming home with public spaces that preserve the history and culture of the people of Illinois. Michael S. Smith is considered one of the most original and respected talents in the design industry today. A longtime member of the AD100 and Elle Decor’s A-List, he has authored numerous books.

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Пролистать книгу A House That Made History: The Illinois Governors Mansion, Legacy of an Architectural Treasure на сайте издательства.

The long-awaited insider's look at one of the design milestones of the twenty-first century: Michael S Smith's celebrated decoration of the Obama White House, featuring a foreword by Michelle Obama.

Created for design enthusiasts, political aficionados, and students of Americana, Designing History documents Michael Smith's extraordinary collaboration with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Not since Jacqueline Kennedy's iconic work on the White House has a designer of Michael Smith's stature been commissioned to bring a new design spirit to the mansion. Through extensive photography, behind-the-scenes stories, and rich archival material, the book places the Obama White House within the context of the building's storied past and its evolution over the past two centuries. The book beautifully documents the process of updating the country's most symbolic residence, revealing how Smith's collaboration on the decoration, showcasing of artworks, and style of entertaining reflected the youthful spirit of the First Family and their vision of a more progressive, inclusive American society.

Ultimately, this book will serve as both a historical document and a voyeur's delight, capturing a specific moment in time for the White House, the Obamas, and the American experience.

About the Author:

Internationally renowned decorator Michael S Smith is a longtime member of the AD100 and was named Designer of the Year by Elle Decor. In 2010, Smith was appointed by President Obama to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. Michelle Obama served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Margaret Russell is a design journalist and the former editor in chief of Elle Decor and Architectural Digest.

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Пролистать книгу Designing History: The Extraordinary Art & Style of the Obama White House

The newest book from acclaimed designer Michael S Smith is an in-depth look at how to create the perfect American house.

The newest book from acclaimed designer Michael S Smith is an in-depth look at how to create the perfect American house. Michael S Smith: House and Home is a rare opportunity to experience in great detail the work of this renowned designer. Michael S Smith transformed an ordinary house and its outbuildings into an extraordinary suite of rooms that display the best of this design superstar’s work. As he walks the reader through its myriad rooms and gardens, explaining each decision made, Smith provides a complete, invaluable up-to-date design vocabulary that every homeowner and design aficionado is keen to know, from the initial renovation plans to the finishing details, indoors and out. Interviews with the architect, Oscar Shamamian, the landscape designer, and various craftsmen help Smith guide the reader through the process of creating a house, and in so doing provides a blueprint for anyone building or renovating their dream home. Richly informative, this is a visually stunning, indispensable guide to designing an unforgettable house, one decision at a time.

About the Author:

Designer and author Michael S Smith is considered one of the design industry’s most respected talents, with an international profile of residential and commercial clients. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including multiple times on Architectural Digest’s "AD 100" list. He has also been named "Designer of the Year" by Elle Decor. The author of three previous books, The Elements of Style, Houses, Michael S. Smith Kitchens and Baths, his projects have been featured in many noted publications. In 2010, Smith was appointed by President Obama to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. Christine Pittel is a writer and senior editor at House Beautiful.

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Michael S Smith: House and Home is a rare opportunity to experience in great detail the work of this renowned designer. Michael S Smith transformed an ordinary house and its outbuildings into an extraordinary suite of rooms that display the best of this design superstar’s work. As he walks the reader through its myriad rooms and gardens, explaining each decision made, Smith provides a complete, invaluable up-to-date design vocabulary that every homeowner and design aficionado is keen to know, from the initial renovation plans to the finishing details, indoors and out. Interviews with the architect, Oscar Shamamian, the landscape designer, and various craftsmen help Smith guide the reader through the process of creating a house, and in so doing provides a blueprint for anyone building or renovating their dream home.

Richly informative, this is a visually stunning, indispensable guide to designing an unforgettable house, one decision at a time.

Since he was invited to update the White House’s décor in 2009, Michael S. Smith has been knighted with a rare and coveted interiors title: the President’s Decorator. But the Southern California native has kept busy since his foray in the Oval Office, adorning his own Manhattan condo with French-made panels while also slowly crafting what he calls the perfect American country home. Smith documented the latter in his fourth book, Building Beauty: The Alchemy of Design, a fantastic, step-by-step look inside Smith’s method for combining European classicism with American modernism (released today by Rizzoli). West Coast editor Krista Smith recently caught up with the designer about scavenging limestone from Italy, his love of high-low decorating, and his best memories from the White House. Highlights from their chat:

Krista Smith: So what inspired this book?

Michael S. Smith: When I started working on this house, I just knew that it was going to be a special project. I could tell very early on that everybody who worked on it was very proud of their work and very invested, not just in a business way. It transcended that. Everybody knew what they were working on was going to be really special. From the land, from the quality of the way it was built, from the pursuing of all these materials, like limestone in Italy and tile in Colombia — all this stuff that was being done specially for the house, it was something that should be freeze-framed, so people would understand what it was like to be involved in the process.

I’ve heard it referred to as the perfect American country house. What does that mean to you?

The American version is clearly more simple and reductive. This is a perfect scale, in the sense that it fits into the old Newport or South Hampton or Palm Beach or Montecito model house in terms of scale. There was a desire to keep it much more informal and casual in feeling, almost modern. It captures this idea of this beautiful house that is in itself architecturally so interesting on this physically beautiful piece of land, so you have this great harmony of two things that work really well together.

When people think Michael Smith, they think four books, beautiful antiques, very expensive, rare. But I happen to know that you also have Pottery Barn chairs and a Crate & Barrel sofa.

I think it’s about having a smart editorial eye and understanding what there is out there. There are great things at flea markets; there are great things at Crate & Barrel; there’s great stuff on eBay. CB2, Room & Board, and Anthropologie have made really good design accessible. One of my jobs is to understand when to use something that’s not expensive. In the case of this house, there are some curtain fabrics that are like $20-a-yard fabric, or remnants that I bought at a fabric store in England, Indian fabric that I made into Roman shades in some of the bathrooms. Part of it is to look at things for their inherent beauty and quality and not necessarily be tripped up by their cost, high or low.

You helped decorate the White House — that’s a very special and unique position to be in.  What thing are you most proud of that you were able to bring into that environment?

There are so many interesting craftspeople, artisans, and artists who are now part of the fabric of what the spaces that I worked on are. There are new voices in the building that weren’t there before. In the case of the Oval Office, the craftspeople who made things, or people who contributed their efforts to it. . .  To know what that does to someone who’s a person who makes carpets in Michigan or makes wallpaper in New York state — that actually touches them. They feel that they’re a part of history.

As a designer, you don’t seem very sentimental. You’ve basically swapped house for house. You’re re-doing an existing property in Palm Springs, you had a very old-fashioned home in L.A., and now you’ve migrated into an extremely modern home. And you just finished renovating the apartment in New York City.

I think part of my job is to stay crisper and more focused on somebody else’s taste and focus on their objects, therefore mine have to take a backseat in a weird way. I become very interested in an intellectual idea. My apartment in New York is really French because I wanted to see, technically, what I could have done in terms of having paneling made in France and go through that process and have it be educational. I don’t necessarily always need the physical objects. That being said, I have a real attachment to some things, pieces of art that I love, or things that mean something to me in a certain way. Part of my job is to immerse myself in an idea, whether it comes from the client or myself or the architecture of a space. You can’t do that if you’re carrying around, literally or figuratively, all these other ideas that you can’t let go of.

Jasper is the name of your fabrics-and-furniture line, but it’s also the name of your dog. When is the dog line coming out?

I would love to do a dog line. I have to ask him. He’s very busy

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Пролистать книгу Michael S. Smith: Building Beauty: The Alchemy of Design на сйте издательства.

The newest book from acclaimed designer Michael S Smith showcases his exceptional take on kitchens and baths, the busiest yet most personal rooms in a home. Legendary designer Michael S. Smith has stories to tell about kitchens and bathrooms-those he has designed himself, and those that inspire him. In this fascinating and inspirational book, Smith, who has his own line of kitchen and bath fixtures for Kohler, explains how these rooms define a house.

Kitchens and bathrooms are among the most expensive and labour-intensive rooms to design. But they are also opposites, the most public and private zones of a house. In three in-depth case studies and dozens of supporting examples, Smith discusses his design process for these rooms, from big-picture issues such as the social engineering of the kitchen’s layout to details large and small, including the importance of choosing the right cabinet, which can be a crystallization of the architecture of the house, as well as countertops, fixtures, floors, hardware, and more.

Also including a sampling of dressing rooms and breakfast rooms, along with a comprehensive resource section, this is a uniquely sophisticated take on a subject of perennial interest.     

About the Authors:

 Michael S. Smith, one of Architectural Digest’s 100 Top Designers and the winner of Elle Decor’s Designer of the Year Award in 2003, is regularly featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, and House Beautiful.

Christine Pittel is a senior editor at House Beautiful whose writing has also appeared in the New York Times and House & Garden.

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Пролистать книгу Michael S. Smith Kitchens and Baths на сайте издательства.

Creating your dream house - a prospect as exciting as it is daunting. Michael S Smith, a favorite among celebrity clientele, reveals the method of his design magic. Offering thoughtful ideas and practical advice, the designer walks the reader through his process, from the gathering of resource material (from magazines and iconic films to something as simple as a shell or a swatch of vintage fabric), expertly pairing simpler and grander elements (or inexpensive with more extravagant objects), perfecting the editing process, to knowing when a room is finished.

Detailing the nearly encyclopedic range of styles he culls from to create his signature style, the designer describes recent examples of his work, beginning with a modest and quirkily designed house in Bel Air, Smith redid for himself. Razed, rebuilt, and decorated over the course of five years, the house allowed Smith to experiment and explore ideas freely and the result is a gracious home, as welcoming as it is stylish. In addition to his California residence, twenty other projects are featured, from a New England clapboard to a Malibu villa overlooking the Pacific to a city townhouse. In each, Smith deconstructs the elements which come together to make the ideal home.

About the Author

One of Architectural Digest’s 100 Top Designers and winner of Elle Decor’s Designer of the Year Award in 2003, Michael S. Smith is an internationally respected interior designer. He is the author of Michael Smith’s Elements of Style. Christine Pittel is a senior editor at House Beautiful magazine. Her writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Town & Country, Harper's Bazaar, House & Garden, and many other publications.

Acclaimed designer Michael S Smith has earned a reputation as the thinking celebrity's decorator, with a client list that includes Cindy Crawford, Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Pairing lush interiors with dynamic insider advice, Michael Smith's Elements of Style beautifully captures the essential building blocks of good interior design. Smith covers in depth the most common decorating decisions everyone faces: working with colour, selecting the right paint, choosing window treatments and floor coverings, creating a luxurious bed, and building a furniture collection over time.

Illustrated with stunning colour photography, including a dozen homes presented in-depth to demonstrate how rooms work alone and together, the book also includes practical sidebars on learning how to buy antiques and attend auctions, how to ready your home for sale, and how to create a house that can evolve over time.

This invaluable, idea-filled resource is about polished, fresh design that is both aspirational and attainable.

About the Authors

Michael Smith is one of Architectural Digest's 100 Top Designers and winner of Elle Décor's Designer of the Year award in 2003. His work is regularly featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Town & Country, W, and House Beautiful, among others.

Diane Dorrans Saeks is the bestselling author of fifteen books, including Hollywood Style, and was a founding editor of Metropolitan Home and Garden Design magazines. She is currently Interior Design editor for Paper City and a correspondent for W and WWD. She lives in San Francisco.