I've had a few people ask me to recommend a good design book for the non-professional and I never had a good suggestion until I came across
Jeffrey Bilhuber's Design Basics. It's well written and gives great advice on how the design process works whether you're working with a professional or doing it yourself. And as you can see by the examples here, Bilhuber knows of what he speaks. Oh, and he's Anna Wintour's interior designer. She wrote the foreword to his book and you know if she stands behind someone, they've got to be good! He also has a new book coming out this October,
Defining Luxury: The Qualities of Life at Home. I know I for one can't wait!
"Jeffrey's totally American with a candor and lively spirit embraces whatever he does in a very attractive way." - Albert Hadley
" Jeffrey's great at taking one's own taste and making it better." - Anna Wintour
"Jeffrey Bilhuber's interiors have the all-American elegance of a latter day Billy Baldwin." - Hamish Bowles
"He has a sensitivity, trying to get a sense of clients of what they really like and how they live, and a sense of proportion and comfort." - Elsa Peretti
"I feel that I have lived here forever and that we've done it ourselves. That's due to Jeffrey's gift for listening and taking everything and everyone, in." - Mariska Hargitay
"Bilhuber has the ability to make complicated things seem simple and to translate difficult ideas with clarity and wit." - Miguel Flores-Vianna
"Bilhuber works a polished American style that makes traditionalism look like the next great trend." - Sarah Medford
"She wanted something with a modern sensibility but didn't want to turn her back on the past." - Jeffrey Bilhuber
"I just feel so lucky." - Andrea Stark
When the Design Director of Bilhuber and Associates, Kevin Isbell, asked me to be his plus one to the book launch party for Defining Luxury:The Qualities of Life at Home, I didn't have to think twice! Jeffrey Bilhuber is already a design legend and his new book is beyond gorgeous! The photographs by Trel Brock pop off the page! I never realized that Jeffrey Bilhuber used so much color so that was a welcome treat! It was fun meeting Trel and hearing the stories of how Jeffrey and his team would work all week and travel to the shoots every weekend! A lot of hard work went into this book and I can guarantee you will enjoy it! 
Jeffrey Bilhuber defining luxury at Bergdorf Goodman 
