9 unique coffee table books, to love…
…& adorn your home
It’s funny, there was a time when the black Tom Ford book was prevalent everywhere. I’m going to be honest, when I would come across people who openly displayed this in their home…I would cringe a little.
Fast forward some time ahead, and now Assouline’s travel collection has replaced Tom Ford as the hallmark of a stylish and affluent home. I love Assouline (gorgeous candles to suit) however, the issue still remains; popular coffee table books reflect you can afford to keep up with trends with little to no insight into what’s good taste.
The truth is, it takes a life well lived to build a home that has the perfect balance between style and substance. And contrary to some misconceptions, ‘a life well lived’ doesn’t require excessive capital. Capital can help, but ultimately it’s about actively pursuing, investing and celebrating in things that excite you.
Whilst it’s said people buy things and build homes according to how they want to be perceived, book collections alike, I most certainly have read all my coffee table books and buy things according to who I am and what I love. If I’ve bought it, it's not (just) because it looks good, it’s because I have some genuine affinity towards the subject matter.
So, in no particular order, here are 9 of my favourite unique coffee table books, which look beautiful but also have a story to tell…
De Gournay: Hand-Painted Interiors
This book is a manifesto for craftsmanship in a world increasingly obsessed with speed. De Gournay’s work demonstrates how surface, colour, and hand-applied detail can transform a space emotionally. More than inspiration, it is a lesson in patience and in valuing the human hand where automation would be easier.
Marchesi 1824
Pâtisserie Marchesi 1824 is an institution that has stood the test of time by balancing heritage with reinvention. The book reflects this ethos precisely; measured, elegant, and disciplined. Every page reinforces the idea that luxury, at its highest level, is all in the craft and detail.
This book rewards a deep sense of appreciation: how taste is standardised, preserved, and transmitted across centuries without dilution. It speaks to readers who understand that longevity is rarely accidental and that excellence sustained over time requires almost monastic attention to detail.
Marella Agnelli: The Last Swan
Marella Agnelli represents a disappearing archetype; a woman whose influence flowed through taste, discretion and impeccable judgement. The book traces how she shaped environments, relationships and cultural institutions.
What makes this volume compelling is its demonstration of feminine authority that does not harden. Style and beauty are means of shaping worlds.
Displayed thoughtfully, this book shows true influence often lies in what is curated, protected and passed on rather than publicly claimed.
Mama Milano
Mamma Milano operates as a cultural map for those who understand that creativity is shaped by environment and exposure. Rather than offering recommendations in the conventional sense, it traces how Milanese culture disciplines taste: through architecture, studios, conversations and the confidence of people who take their craft seriously.
It treats the city as a mirror for self-development, suggesting that creative authority is built through sustained immersion in places that reward patience and discernment.
In a home, it belongs to readers who value cities as teachers and who understand that creative maturity is as much about subtraction as it is about expression.
Ardmore & Others: The Story of Fée Halsted
Ardmore & Others traces the work of Fée Halsted and the Ardmore Ceramic Art collective, where storytelling, mythology and technical mastery are inseparable. The objects themselves are exuberant, layered and unapologetic, but what makes the work stand out is authorship.
Every piece operates as a vessel for memory: Zulu cosmology, personal histories, colonial fracture and imaginative reclamation.
This book teaches that true cultural authority does not require minimalism. Ardmore’s work demonstrates how tradition can be honoured without fossilisation, and how creativity rooted in lineage can remain radically alive.
In a curated home, it suggests a reader who understands that some of the most enduring forms of luxury are those that refuse to flatten complexity for palatability.
Passion by Design: The Art and Times of Tamara de Lempicka
One of my favourite artists, Passion by Design traces how Tamara de Lempicka constructed a visual language that fused Art Deco precision with unapologetic sensuality, placing feminine autonomy at the centre of the modern aesthetic.
Her women are sculptural, self-possessed and impermeable to the viewer’s gaze. Desire is present, but never dominant. The book reveals how style, when treated as strategy, becomes a mechanism of power and a way of shaping perception without explanation.
In a curated home, this book implies an understanding of modern femininity that does not apologise. It belongs to readers who recognise that influence can be exercised visually and on one’s own terms.
Leïla Menchari: Queen of Enchantment
Hermès are renowned for their craftsmanship, not just in their physical goods, but more and more so in the way they create their world and invite people to engage with it.
Here, Leïla Menchari constructed dream worlds with absolute precision.
Queen of Enchantment traces how she transformed Hermès’ windows into cultural events; immersive and theatrical, long before ‘experience’ became a marketing cliché.
Menchari’s work is distinguished by how every scene is meticulously composed, drawing from fantasy, travel, craftsmanship and storytelling traditions rooted far beyond Paris. Enchantment here is an instrument, one that slows the passer-by, suspends time, and ignites desire.
In a curated home, this volume reflects reverence for creative authorship at the highest level.
Liberty. The History.
Liberty: A History traces how a single house shaped a visual language without ever becoming static. Drawing from the company’s archives, it reveals how Liberty balanced continuity with reinvention, preserving its identity while remaining culturally alive across generations.
The patterns, prints and interiors are recognisable not because they repeat, but because they adhere to a consistent worldview: one that values craft, global influence and aesthetic independence over prevailing fashion cycles.
In a curated home, this book conveys respect for heritage and belongs to those who know cultural houses are defined by the clarity with which they know who they themselves are.
Erté
This might be had to get hold of, and more so if you’re looking for an original; a testament to how high taste and a beautiful home is not dependent on newness.
Erté was a Russian-born artist and designer whose work became synonymous with Art Deco, shaping early 20th-century fashion, theatre, illustration and visual culture.
His designs celebrate glamour, but they are underpinned by geometry and symmetry. Fantasy is present and uses Art Deco as a language, one that fused modernity, myth and craftsmanship.
Erté constructed worlds; his figures are elongated, stylised, and symbolic, less portraits than ideals. The result is work that feels timeless precisely because it refuses the ordinary.
In a curated home, this volume reflects an appreciation for elegance that is deliberate and a sense of knowing about the artists who shaped the visual language of culture.
Publishers to fall in love with…
They say publishing is dying. But… in a digital world, having something to hold and behold has become the ultimate luxury. And… I absolutely *love* a book and magazine (hence this post about coffee table books). As such, despite pushing ahead in an increasingly digital world there are more and more publishers elevating books aesthetically, be it through content or design.
Here are a few which are publishing beautiful books, for you and I to curate a beautiful bookshelf…
An edited perspective…
