A great new book hit the shelves this week – Kyle Schuneman’s The First Apartment: Cool Design For Small Spaces. Kyle has crossed the country helping folks who have spread their wings and flown the coop feather their first nests, or some such mixed bunch of metaphors that mean making their first apartments livable AND cool. This guy is full of clever tricks for all sorts of spaces and personality types, and he’s really good at explaining D.I.Y. projects – he’s included  projects that range from super-easy to more advanced, so there’s something for everyone.

In the somewhat more advanced D.I.Y. arena, he created an argyle wall for his chapter for the preppy. I suggest mastering a horizontal or vertical striped wall first, which is also covered in the book.

I don’t know about you, but I’m loving the weather this spring; while I dread the hot and sticky and brutal Atlanta summers, I do look forward to watching my herbs sprout from seeds and eating farm-fresh veggies. One now-classic favorite of mine is Edible Estates, which will have you looking at your yard with loads of new ideas.

I also look forward to fleeing north and hitting the New England coast as an escape. Even if you don’t have a dreamy beach house to decorate, it’s time to switch out that dark heavy quilt and throw pillows for some lighter textures and colors. Take some California seaside inspiration from Interior designer Tim Clarke’s recent release, Coastal Modern, is one of my favorite new books on the market. He presents a spare and uncluttered aesthetic that’s still warm and inviting.

Going across to the opposite coast, one of my new favorite coffee table books is Yankee Modern: The Houses of Estes/Twombly. These architects have such a great way of capturing the spirit of the vernacular architecture in a contemporary way when they are designing these beautiful homes.

Well, Sal may have been unjustly fired from Sterling Cooper (I wish he’d some back!), but the actor who played him, Bryan Batt, is not only running his chic New Orleans home boutique, but also wrote this fabulous book, Big Easy Style. It’s full of great style and wit, as Batt has a discerning eye and a killer sense of humor.

What’s on your coffee table at the moment? Please share your favorite design tomes in the comments section.

Have you been meaning to catch up on your design reading but just haven’t had the time? The lucky thing is, now you can figure out which books from 2011 lived up to the hype and which ones you should take a pass on. As for the best design books of 2011, here are ten that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend from interior designers, shop owners, magazine editors, bloggers and trendsetters, in no particular order.

1. Decorate by Holly Becker: The top blogger, along with co-author Joanna Copestick, has come up with 1,000 design ideas. That’s right, 1,000, for every room in your home.

2. Black and White (and a bit in between) by Celerie Kemble: Kemble breaks out of her Palm Beach roots here. She has collected the most stylish uses of black and white rooms around. She’s one of my favorite design writers – insightful, intelligent and she doesn’t take it all too seriously.

3. The Perfectly Imperfect Home by Deborah Needleman: The founding editor of Dominio and current editor of the Wall Street Journal’s magazine has compiled a charming tome of design advice, accompanied by wonderful illustrations by Virginia Johnson.

4. Undecorate by Christiane Lemieux: While it’s not the opposite of Decorate, this book is about loosening up and the beauty of casual comfort. By the way, Christiane is the founder of DwellStudio.

5. Katie Ridder Rooms by Heather Smith MacIsaac: I love that Ridder has her own distinct style that really cannot be categorized. It’s fresh and feel-good.

6. Big Easy Style by Bryan Batt: This is a more personal pick, because I love this actor, who played Sal on Mad Men, and I love almost everything about New Orleans, a city that’s unique and special in so many ways, including its architecture.

7. The Happy Home Project by Jean Nayar: I love not only that this book provides a guideline for making your home healthier and thus your life happier, but also that Nayar digs deep into everything she’s doing, whether it’s learning about how to be greener or how to achieve Wabi-sabi.

8. Patina Style by Brooke and Steve Gianetti: Perhaps you recognize Brooke from her popular blog, Velvet and Linen. It’s so much fun to finally have her and her husband Steve’s style all wrapped up in a beautiful hardcover book!

9. Alexander Girard by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee: I’m so glad that Todd Oldham has gotten into books. This book as well as his giant Charley Harper book that came out a few years ago are must-haves for graphic design aficionados.

10. Summers in France by Kathryn M. Ireland: Kathryn Ireland is one of those people you wish you were friends with.  With this book, you get to take a vicarious visit to her beautiful home in France and pretend you are friends with her.

What were some of your favorite reads in 2011? Please share with us in the comments section. I’ll be sharing whatever I pick up in 2012 as I go along this year. Happy Reading!

1. A “cocktail dogtrot?” Yes Please! The work of Lake Flato Architects over at Garden and Gun will give your eyes a wonderful break from whatever spreadsheet or TPS report you are working on.

PHOTO CREDIT: Misty Keasler for Garden and Gun

2. Thank you to Ms Sally from Curbed for posting the link on Facebook to a post on a blog about the awesome ironic PSA ads from the College for Creative Studies. What a tangled interweb we weave, that was a mouthful. Just check out the full post here.

3. I’m super excited that Archidose creator John Hill released his book this week – it makes me want to go to NYC pronto. While I wait, I’ll be getting to know all of the new buildings via his Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture. Order it at any of your favorite book retailers. It highlights the most important projects from the first decade of this millenium, filling a hole that exists in the NYC architecture guidebooks.

4. Got about 2 and a half minutes? Check out this inspiring video from one of our newest vendors, Defy Bags. I love the way they mix old materials with new designs and that each bag is unique.

Check out all the Defy Bags and snatch up your favorite before it’s gone.

5. I’d like to give a shout out to Lucas over at Taste Terminal for including the Urbancase Emergency Cocktail Station in his 2011 Gift Guide for the Drinker!

Check out the rest of his picks here.

Learn more about Urbancase and how it came to be here.

Order one for the drinker in your life here

As summer nears its end, I’m wondering, which design books are you reading? I’ve had a few out all summer; a few that watching Million Dollar Decorators on Bravo inspired me to buy, a few I picked up at the Borders going out of business sale, and a few that just sort of came across my desktop and I impulse-bought, so I thought I’d share. We’d love to know which design tomes are inspiring you this summer; please share them with us in the comments section!

Here are the eight that I’ve had out for easy reference this summer.

Mary McDonald Interiors: The Allure of Style:  I absolutely loved Mary’s personality on the show, though they were not able to show very many of her big projects. You’ll need this book to check them out.

Summers in France: I absolutely fell in love with Kathryn Ireland on the show as well, wishing she was someone I had a weekly margarita date with. Her personality shows through in this fantastic book, where she shares her farmhouse in the French countryside. She also includes information about how to be a good guest (bring something back from the market when you go, rent your own car, don’t ask to borrow Kathryn’s laptop, and don’t throw cigarette butts in potted plants).

Bunny Williams’ Scrapbook for Living: I admit, I just judged this one by the cover, the fact that it involved Ms. Williams, and the fact that it was deeply discounted in the almost-wiped out design section at my neighborhood soon-to-be-empty Borders store.

Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design: Founder of DwellStudio, Christiane Lemieux, has been a friend of this site for a long time, and it’s been a ball to watch her success. Here, she explains her approach to design (there is no specific approach) and features all kinds of comfortable and stylish spaces that break all the usual rules.

Decorate: 1,000 Professional Design Ideas for Every Room in Your Home: We’ve also been following blogger Holly Becker since the very early days of her now extremely popular design blog, Decor8. It’s so much fun to hold a copy of her baby, this book, in your hands and wonder “how the hell did she come up with A THOUSAND ideas?!??!!” It’s also funny to have a book called “Decorate” right next to one called “Undecorate.”

The Happy Home Project: A Practical Guide to Adding Style and Substance to Your Home: I LOVE this book. It is one that truly inspires, not just through it’s beautiful images, but through the direct instructions and advice given by Jean Nayar. She also lives by example, having delved into all of the topics she discusses like the journalist she is, and applying their lessons to her own life.

50 Bauhaus Icons You Should Know: OK, another Borders bargain. I’m taking their word for it. One Bauhaus icon I’d like to forget? Those awful sweatbox Gropius dorms at Harvard. The worst! By the way, I just did a summer program at Harvard, I’m not trying to front like I am a Harvard grad. If you really must know, I applied there for grad school and was rejected. But I digress. This is just a good book to have to round out the serious design shelf.

The New Traditional: This book came out several years ago, but I am cheap and didn’t wind up getting it until I could score a used copy at a good price. It’s a nice one to have around because Darryl Carter’s work is a very good lesson in curating and editing. It makes me look at traditional items with fresh eyes.

Which design books are capturing your attention and inspiring you this summer? Please let us know in the comments section!