Jeffrey Bilhuber

Your book, The Way Home, is filled with gorgeous photographs and the accompanying text is engaging, but this is really more than a decorating book per se. In one photograph, I feel as if I just walked in on somebody who woke up from a nap; you seem to have added romanticism to the realities of daily life. How do you describe it? The book has a windswept, bucolic—almost Proustian—19th-century romance to it. I asked the photographer, William Abranowicz, to imagine that the owners had simply left for a walk and to capture the rooms in that moment. It was the kind of reality check I was looking for. These are just snapshots of the way some of my clients and our friends live, and how they derive their pleasures. My goal was to take those projects to a much more nuanced, emotional level that reflect their daily lives.

The rooms in the book are infused with rich colors and beautiful patterns, including lots of floral designs. How has your relationship with color and pattern changed over the years? I’m not a fan of change. Change for change’s sake has no value. Evolution, however, is wonderful—it’s natural—and that confidence comes through work and experience. I’m fearless in that sense. There’s a lot of emotion in the air right now. In any time of change, we retreat to the comfort of the familiar, and these rooms are very romantic and emotional. I think a lot of people would like to have their confidence restored right now, and the way we do that is to create a sense of comfort and familiarity.

Most of the homes in the book have never been published before, and there are a great mix of styles represented; even the most classic and traditional rooms feel “of the moment.” They’re modern rooms because they reflect the way we live our lives today. The book glorifies this evolutionary process we’re going through right now. Designers can establish the stage and build the components of a home, but we are documenting the personalities of the owners. It’s the opposite of the graphic clarity of shelter magazines, which glories in the art of the purchase. This book glorifies the art of living.

+ Jeffrey Bilhuber is the founder of Bilhuber and Associates, one of the country’s leading design firms. His clients have included Anna Wintour, Iman and Elsa Peretti, among others. He is the author of two previous books, Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Design Basics and Defining Luxury. bilhuber.com