Rooms With A History

British designer Ashley Hicks has created a mix of manifesto, souvenir album, and confession in this collection of noteworthy rooms--featuring his own one-of-a-kind interiors along with rooms that have inspired him.

The book's twelve chapters reveal Hicks's creative process, how he approaches different themes in his own interiors, furniture designs, and works of art, and how these themes can be applied to the works of others. Such subjects as flowers, color, layers, form, pattern, and memory are presented in the context of actual projects. Historical and recent interiors are discussed for their decorative value - including the Pantheon in Rome, Emperor Maximilian's tomb in Innsbruck, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, and the Petit Trianon at Versailles.