Reading Room

Becoming Animal by David Abram

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram

The sensing body is like an open circuit that completes itself only in things, in others, in the surrounding earth. –David Abram

The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors by Michel Eugene Chevreul

Color and the Human Response by Faber Birren

Interaction of Color by Josef Albers

Color is the most relative medium in art. –Josef Albers

Enlightened by Design by Helen Berliner

Space Matters by Kathleen Cox

We can legitimately consider our home, however small or modest, as a castle where we are in charge. We decide how to furnish the rooms, who comes inside, who breaks bread with us, and who can share an evening or spend a weekend or a month with us. –Kathleen Cox

Color by Victoria Finlay

Ayurveda and the Mind by David Frawley

The first level of nourishment for the mind comes through the food we take in…The second level...comes through the impressions and experiences we take in through the senses. Through the senses we take in impressions from the external world: the colors, shapes, and sounds around us, which constitute the subtle elements. –David Frawley

Color Palettes by Suzanne Butterfield

House Thinking by Winifred Gallagher

Burdened with increasingly complex social roles, we need places that support rather than fragment our lives, places that balance the hard, standardized, and cost-efficient with the natural, personal, and healthful. -Winifred Gallagher

Healing Spaces by Esther M. Sternberg

The Power of Place by Winifred Gallagher

Apartment Therapy by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan

In visiting students' homes, I came to recognize two common problems. The biggest one was overstimulation. -Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan

Color: A Workshop for Artists and Designers by David Hornung

Wabi-Sabi by Leonard Koren

The Japanese didn't particularly trust nature, but they learned from it. Three of the most obvious lessons gleaned from the millennia of contact with nature (and leavened with Taoist thought) were incorporated into the wisdom of wabi-sabi: All things are impermanent. All things are imperfect. All things are incomplete. -Leonard Koren

House as a Mirror of Self by Clare Cooper Marcus

Style Statement by Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte

There is no right or wrong way to be yourself. The basis of authenticity is acceptance. -Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte

The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten

Phenomenology of Perception by M. Merleau-Ponty

Man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself. –M. Merleau-Ponty

Domino: The Book of Decorating edited by Deborah Needleman, Sara Ruffin Costello, and Dara Caponigro

Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue

Could it be possible that a landscape might have a deep friendship with you? That it could sense your presence and feel the care you extend towards it? Perhaps your favourite place feels proud of you. –John O’Donohue

Belonging Here by Judith Blackstone

Awe by Paul Pearsall

English Decoration by Ben Pentreath

But the English, while they may be happy for a bit of help picking the curtains or wallpaper, are innately suspicious of 'Interior Decoration.' ... English decoration is about finding your own voice, discovering your own confidence, and not merely about meekly receiving the taste of others. –Ben Pentreath

The Five Wisdom Energies by Irini Rockwell

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron