Must-Read Interior Design Ebooks for Aspiring and DIY Designers

Whether you’re a long-time homeowner or paying monthly rent, there’s something inherently satisfying about changing the look and layout of your home’s spaces as a means of personal and creative expression. A new book by Joscelin Mackey suggests that our surroundings significantly impact our mental and emotional well-being, focusing on the intricate relationship between neuroscience and interior design.

In Designing for the Senses: A Neuroscientific Exploration of Interiors, Mackey aims to redefine how we think about interior design by offering a holistic exploration of the power our environments have on our minds and lives. This ranges from the colors on our walls to the sounds that fill our spaces. Moreover, Mackey emphasizes the importance of elements such as color, lighting, texture, sound, acoustics, and furniture, particularly in how they can affect individuals with neurological disorders such as autism, Alzheimer’s disease, sleep issues, and ADHD.

Today, Designing for the Senses joins a long list of interior design books designed to help students, aspiring professionals, and DIY enthusiasts learn crucial principles of the field. Fortunately, with so many resources available, you don’t need formal education in interior design to experiment and find the right look for your home.

Resources like books, ebooks, podcasts, and other online content compile valuable insights from industry veterans and professionals to help make interior design concepts and philosophies more accessible. Everand’s ebook library offers a fantastic library for on-the-go reading and learning, especially if you lack the space for physical books. Everand also has a Home & Garden category with many interior design titles, such as Barclay Butera’s The New Traditional or Erin Gates’s Elements of Style, which provide design inspiration as well as practical advice for creating a home that suits your lifestyle.

Whether you’re a beginner eager to explore the field or a professional interior designer seeking to refine your skills, there’s no better opportunity than diving into the minds and insights of established industry names. Below are four must-read interior design ebooks for aspiring and DIY designers:

Written and structured for students and beginners, Interior Design: A Comprehensive Introduction Guide by Adil Masood Qazi serves as a convenient handbook for understanding the basics of the field. The book’s easy-to-understand chapters cover various elements and principles of interior design, including styles, special considerations, professional practices, digital tools, and sustainability concepts, making it an ideal resource for starting your interior design journey.

Penned by luxury interior designer Barclay Butera, The New Traditional takes readers on a journey through 15 homes, showcasing the resurgence of traditional style through heritage pieces and distinctive furnishings. More importantly, Butera emphasizes the power of “living in a beautiful environment” and blending luxury with daily living. In an interview about Butera’s design firm, the prolific interior designer shared insights into how, despite the availability of digital tools and software, true interior design remains rooted in taste and human, emotional connection.

From rising-star interior designer Erin Gates, Elements of Style is a fully illustrated book sharing honest advice, inspiration, ideas, and lessons learned about designing homes that reflect your personality and style. Throughout the book, Gates highlights the use of interior design as an outlet for personal expression and an exercise in self-discovery. The casual read makes it a good jumping-off point for beginners and aspiring designers without formal prior knowledge.

Written by Dr. Sally Augustin, Designology: How to Find Your PlaceType and Align Your Life with Design covers Augustin’s concept of “PlaceType”—eight distinct patterns of human psychology that encode our response to surroundings. Formatted like the 1970s book Color Me Beautiful by Carole Jackson, Designology equips readers with the tools needed to help them understand themselves and reorganize their environments to support their goals. In her Psychology Today article, Augustin reiterates this point by suggesting that hospitable interiors and back garden spaces have as much capacity to help you mentally refresh as natural environments like the woods and the sea.

Ultimately, these ebooks are a great way to expose yourself to key interior design principles and elements. Whether you’re aiming for a luxurious, high-concept design or a functional, lifestyle-oriented layout, taking the time to understand yourself and these design concepts can help set you up for success.

If you found this post helpful, check out our article “Six Tips to Maximize Your Home’s Indoor Entertaining Spaces,” featuring advice on integrating smart technologies and experimenting with open layouts.