Reddit mentions: The best interior design books

Wow so many possibilities...part of me wants to convert like an old church or something but...A TREEHOUSE. Outer walls of glass, but like that kinda glass you can see out of but other people can't see in. I want lots of light to keep plants. Then more wall space inside so I can display big paintings and things. Ummm. Some kind of body of water nearby that I can swim in. Freshwater, but then this treehouse would also be near the ocean.

One of the rooms would definitely be just full of pillows w/ a large TV. Another room that's just a library. A painting/ceramics studio. (This tree would have to be effing huge.)

Even though an all-glass house sounds modern the decor is definitely more vintagey. But not too elaborate. That like post-modern twist on vintage. I can't explain. This book explains my aesthetic LOL. I also love natural wood.

Ugh god that link you posted originally is beautiful. I LOVE looking into people's homes. Like when I'm in the city I'll sneak a peak through someone's loft window. So fascinating. And look at those fun home improvement books with pictures of beautiful and funky themed rooms.

Aw, I am so sorry. I hope your day gets better and that you have a nice, fresh start tomorrow. My suggestion is that you spend the rest of the day relaxing and just doing whatever you want. Read a book you've been saving, take a bath, get comfy in bed, watch your favorite movie...you catch my drift! =)

Today has been a generally awesome day for me. I went to my summer session university course, which was pretty smooth and easy. I have friends in that class so it was actually fun. Then I came over to my boyfriend's house and we've been playing ping pong, Awesomenauts, and Injustice with a friend. So far, my favorite has been ping pong, because I finally beat my rival opponent! ;D I've been working really hard to improve at ping pong over the last two months, and even though it seems silly, I'm really happy I beat my rival!!

If I win, I would be so happy to receive this cool gun holster thing (for my Halloween costume this year! =D) or this nice book. I really hope you feel better. <3 Thank you for hosting this contest- you're awesome! Keep your head up, buddy. =)

(Well, look at me, getting wordy, too... ) For just starting out, I think you're coming along just fine. The pieces you bought obviously satisfy you, and that's what's important. And it makes for a great mancave, as I see it. I totally kooked out over the brushed chrome and squared edges of your receiver--without being able to read the pic, I knew that was a Marantz, a most supreme '70s symbol all by itself. So you missed a technical mark a few times--mixing styles is a very cheeky/quirky/cool thing to do until you score all those perfect pieces you're looking for.

I can tell you're looking for the right lines, but without having lived through the different eras, you're unstuck in time. That precious dinette shows you're aiming at the '50s--but there were many different design movements at work then, some of them still holdovers from the ruffled, homey look of the '30s. The Mid-Century Modern aesthetic itself is a very particular thing, and to confuse matters, its elements were later swiped and incorporated into successive styles without regard to the MCM design principles. So it's easy to be misled when you glimpse an echo of something that evokes an MCM line or uses a distinctive material or some other deceptive marker.

For the most part, MCM designs have a sort of organic, fluid grace to them--even designs that are very solid and geometric seem to have a light, weightless quality. It managed to hold its own during the '60s, but when filtered through a '70s dynamic, the future-forward parabolas and horizontal lines of MCM designs became blockish, angular, and clunky, then everything made in that decade all collapsed into a massive, dark Mediterranean rumpus room with a puke-green shag rug... Let's just say mistakes were made.

If you want to acquire an expert eye like lobster_johnson, do some research into the history of MCM design. Get a sense of the the basic structural lines used in the furniture design of Charles and Ray Eames (inside poop that took me too long to catch on to: Ray was Charles's wife, and it's pronounced "Ames" wink), and then study their architectural designs, because those are the intended backdrops for their Mid-Century Modern furnishings. The Eameses and other Modernist architects created open spaces that require furnishing that is both dramatic yet understated, spare and minimal with those predominant horizontal lines. Visualizing a piece fitting in one of these houses by Richard Neutra, for instance, could be a good mental exercise to help you weed out the anachronisms from the real deal. A mancave in one of those houses would look like astronauts hung out in it.

You're lucky to have a lot of resources to guide you. Back in the pre-internet late '80s when I first got into it, I had Cara Greenberg's MID-CENTURY MODERN. It's more of a coffee-table book (haha!) with really nice visuals and a general but very informative overview of different designers, but it taught me what to look for. But lucky you can sniff around online, and googling any new names and design movements you find along the way will yield more info. And /r/Mid_Century is a unique resource that's also interactive--you already know that if you're smart enough to ask questions, you'll get a world of answers.

And keep in mind your collection won't always be confined to only one room. Who knows? You may decide to gain the skill sets to recreate some of the classic MCM designs yourself, by carpentry or through some medium like 3-D printing.

you have a good start and it's always fun to sketch by hand and figure out how space works.

I know a lot of people here have said to pick up computer programs but I would start with learning how to scale and proportion first and the best way to do that is by hand. The computer is an amazing tool and can help tremendously but there is no replacement for hand sketching.

Check out some books by Francis DK Ching, they are a really good resource. Specifically Form, Space, and Order and since you seem to like laying out space also look at Interior Design Illustrated.

These aren't the end all be all resources but they are great for getting started and also show what a really well done sketch looks like.

Good luck and keep posting those sketches!

There are two primary ways of doing it: cast in place, and molded. For a desktop you probably want to make a mold and drop the top onto the desk. If the existing surface has weird crap all over it, (like a messed up wood surface,) you might cast in place instead of seating on top of it. In any case, you have to be careful doing anything less than about 1.5" thick. I use rebar in the concrete, but in thin pieces you have to use hardware cloth (metal,) chicken wire, or expanded metal mesh. I use "remesh," a very widely spaced, square mesh.

To make a mold, you'd use melamine (plastic) coated MDF board. You need to work on a flat, level surface that you can bang on. You need black silicone caulk to seal the seams of the mold.

The process is a fair amount to explain in a reddit comment; I highly recommend the book by Fu-Tung Cheng as well as his video. (I can send you a DVD if you want.)

In a mold, the bottom is the top, so you could round the corners by putting a heavy bead of silicone caulk and smoodging it (technical term) into a nice, rounded profile. If pouring the top in-place, you could pull the side pieces off early (before the cement is fully hard) and pull something like a plastic bag down the edge, rounding it over.

There are many points to cover in the process of pouring concrete, but one that's often overlooked is your floor. Some large, 2" thick counter tops my gf & I made weighed about 450 lbs when finished. Make sure your floor can handle that. (and your desk!)

So... Mold: melamine board on the bottom, melamine strips for the sides, held with screws (pre-drill holes!) or corner brackets. The bottom (against the melamine) will be your top. Silicone seal all seams, or water seeps out. That's bad. Concrete needs moisture to cure, and your corners will be all dry and crumbly. Pour in place: Like a mold using your desk as the bottom. The top surface will be your top, so you can trowel or diamond-sand as you like.

Either way, you should also agitate the wet concrete. It settles it and causes air bubbles to rise to the surface. That can be as simple as banging on it with a hammer/mallet or lifting the whole work surface with a lever & dropping it back down. (Must have a solid floor for the lever approach.)

I recommend using Quickrete 5000 high early strength. Cures faster than regular concrete. Cures to full hardness in 28 days, usable in ~2 days.

So... I've probably raised more questions for you than I've answered. One good thing to do is to buy a bag or two (it's cheap--~$5/bag) and do some small practice molds. Even in buckets. Get the feel for troweling and sanding.

I also recommend Cheng's concrete sealer. It isn't cheap, but it's worth it. I use inexpensive Quickrete pigments for color.

I'm happy to answer questions, and seriously, if you want the Cheng DVD, just PM me an address. It's full of great info.

WHAT?!

Is this for real?!

I haven't figured out yet how to tell who gave me these flattering awards. But when I do, I'm going to thank you shamelessly... extravagantly... to the point of embarrassment!

And thanks to everyone who gave me a uv! It's really gratifying to get a tangible response that tells you that you help flip on that mental lightswitch belonging to something that feels good to their brain. It is a pay-forward - someone else opened my eyes to the neuro side of art, design, and architecture. Now I dig it so much that it feels like a win to share it, and know that the share makes the recipient happy. I'll stop now before I gush.

Here are my best answers to the questions y'all asked.

u/dumpy_potato, asking for resources about this. YES! It's actually been kind of having a moment for a few years. You can find articles in all the places where neuroscientists, and neuropsychologists are likely to talk about designers; which are the same places where designer would never in a hundred years see them. Ain't science great like that?!

At the bottom of this comment, u/magneto_ms, I'm sharing some links to excellent books and articles on the fundamental principles of neuro-visual yada yada, and the way the brain instinctively responds to the sight of various lines, shapes, depictions of depty/height/mass, particular specific objects or things that resemble them, color combinations and contrasts, etc. (Spoiler alert: The instinctive brain really really responds to babies, faces, and genitalia including boobies. After that comes water, then food.)

Killer examples of designs that epitomize these principles - ones that make my eyes pop, and my brain feel good - is the work of Alexa Hamilton. For example, this cover on her book, The Language of Interior Design. Is that not an eye magnet?! Read her brilliant intro, about how good design makes they viewer's eye travel a particular path around the room. (I'm not a fan of her traditional, ornate style. But her composition is bomb.)

The Neuroscience of Design, Psychology Today

Design on the brain: Combining neuroscience and architecture

Evidence Based Design: When Neuroscience, Psychology, and Interior Design Meet

The Integration of Interior Design and Neuroscience: Towards a Methodology to Apply Neuroscience in Interior Spaces (pdf)

This one particularly rocks!
Picture This: How Pictures Work

Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design

I hope some of these deliver on what you're looking for. HMU anytime if I can offer more.

Emily Henderson blogs about design. Her photos are gorgeous, plenty of backlog, and she's very descriptive and generous with talking about WHY and HOW she makes the design decisions she does. She's got 1 book out (Styled: Secrets for Arranging Rooms, from Tabletops to Bookshelves https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804186278/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_BslBCb624AN26) and another forthcoming. Also, if you can find episodes of her show Secrets from a Stylist, it's a gem of exactly the sort I think you're seeking.

Someone mentioned The Great Interior Design Challenge on Netflix. One of the hosts, Sophie Robinson, also co-hosts a podcast called The Great Indoors which I've recently found and love. I think they have an episode about interior design books they're digging. Color theory features highly.

Now defunct podcast (they're still blogging however) Chris Loves Julia has a wealth of good discussion, as well as the ever-entertaining Young House Love Has A Podcast. Both of these couples talk us through their own home renovations; the ups, the downs, the decisions, and the lessons learned along the way. I know you specifically asked for books, but...Style Matters is yet another podcast I enjoy. Look for the episode with one of my favorite home design bloggers, Ashley Goldman of The Gold Hive--and then check out her blog for more informative and beautiful goodness!

So as promised here are the majority of materials/tools I used to make the counters. I used the stain instead of actually coloring the concrete as I was worried about getting inconsistent coloring since I was doing multiple batches.
Now, my mistake I made which turned ok after the fact was that the concrete became too dense for the stain to penetrate. Despite using the sawzall to try and vibrate the air bubbles out from the bottom of the concrete but I was not able to get all of them out so there was pin holes on some of the counters. So I made a slurry as recommended and filled in all the holes and then sanded the high spots down. So when I stained the counters the areas that had been filled with slurry took to the stain very well but the actual concrete only became a darker grey. I communicated with a staff from ConcreteSolutions and they were very helpful in trying to get the stain to penetrate the concrete. I stained it probably 3 times and then just left it as it was and now I really love how it turned out despite not being as planned. Its almost like a black and grey leopard spot on most of the counters, the island area was the last poured and had hardly any air bubbles so its more solid color…
I let them sit and harden at least a week before I flipped them over and started sanding away. I did not want a exposed aggregate look so I had to be careful about sanding too much…
The stain and sealer work great and like the other user said, liquid just sits on an it and doesn’t not penetrate.
If you have any questions ask away- I had lots of friendly people help me on other forums and was very thankful for their help….

Chengs Book
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1561584843/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_3p_dp_1

Sealer
http://concretecountertopsolutions.com/products/sealers-and-polish/z-siacryl-14-sealer/

Polish
http://concretecountertopsolutions.com/products/sealers-and-polish/z-counter-shine-polish/

Dye/Stain
http://concretecountertopsolutions.com/products/stains-and-integral-colors/z-aqua-tint-dye/

Nylon Fibers
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000COCDCM

SUPERPLASTICIZER
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/161011304020

Diamond polishing pads
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AB1UMOW

Variable speed polisher
http://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/polishers/7-in-10-amp-variable-speed-polisher-60626.html

Okay, I'm not going into architecture really but I would like to have some advice. I'm in illustration and I'm looking on learning how to design and get the fundamentals of architecture. I'm pretty decent at perspective (I'm in technical illustration) and I mainly want to learn the thought process. Some books mentioned in this thread are pretty interesting and I'm contemplating on maybe buying one or 2. Although before I do I was wondering if anyone can enlighten me on these books I've found on my own but unsure about the quality:

http://www.amazon.com/City-Shaped-Patterns-Meanings-Through/dp/0821220160/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373412339&sr=1-1&keywords=The+City+Shaped%3A+Urban+Patterns+and+Meanings+Through+History

^ This books seems really promising, but of course the price puts me off a little (I plan on buying more than one book) anyone have this book? Seems really great for inspiration and learning how cities develop.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Architecture-Francis-D-Ching/dp/1118142063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373412493&sr=1-1&keywords=Introduction+to+Architecture

^ again another promising book but the price Q.Q Same issue as the other book above. Feedback is appreciated.

http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Graphics-Francis-D-Ching/dp/0470399112/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373412567&sr=1-1&keywords=Architectural+Graphics

http://www.amazon.ca/Interior-Design-Illustrated-Francis-Ching/dp/1118090713/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=9P9QTDTSZXLG&coliid=I248RXWWVDQ6NZ

I'm basically looking at Ching's books. Last one is a .ca amazon.

People of the Book is almost pornography for bibliophiles. This book had me seriously considering going back to school to learn about document preservation.

I went through a period of wanting to read a lot of books about books about a year ago. I think I even have an old submission in r/books on the same subject. Here are a bunch of books I still have on my amazon wishlist that date to around that time. This will be a shotgun blast of suggestions, and some may be only tangentially related, but I figure more is better. If I can think of even more than this, I'll edit later:

The Man who Loved Books Too Much

Books that Changed the World

The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages

How to Read and Why

The New Lifetime Reading Plan

Classics for Pleasure

An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the World of Books

The Library at Night

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Time Was Soft There

I have even more around here somewhere...

Edit: Ok, found a couple more....

Among the Gently Mad: Strategies and Perspectives for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century

At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries

Candida Hofer

Libraries in the Ancient World

The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read

A Short History of the Printed Word

Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption

Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work

The Book on the Bookshelf

A History of Illuminated Manuscripts

Bookmaking: Editing, Design, Production

Library: An Unquiet History

Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms

A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books

A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

And yet I still can't find the one I'm thinking of. Will get back to you...

Fuck yeah, I found it!

That last is more about the woman who own the store than about books, but it's awash in anecdotes about writers and stories we all know and love. Check it out.

Oh man I preach Emily Henderson’s book all over the place but I think it could be really helpful for you. It’s very approachable and helps you identify what you like and how to execute it, and I’ve found it to be one of the best design books out there.

I’d also recommend getting on Pinterest and making different boards for different rooms, and starting to pin things you like. You’ll see some patterns start to emerge, and it’s a great resource IMO.

In the meantime, I’d say have them paint everything a light grey or beige just so you get used to living in the space and get to know your own sense of style and what you want. When you’re more aware of what you’d like your space to look like and what you like, then you can repaint. Paint is cheap so it’s not a big loss.

Congratulations on your first house! How exciting!

For a general introduction to both armour and weapons that is widely available (IE in public libaries or for not much used on Amazon), Edge and Paddock's Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight is mostly pretty good. It has nice illustrations, and while the scholarship isn't cutting edge now they do a lot to summarize 500+ years of both armour and weapons history. Arguable some of their contextualization needs some tweaking as military historians continue to fight over whether the Infantry Revolution of the 14th century even existed, but as far as the 'what' of medieval armour and weapons, the book is solid, and unmatched for breadth - most others focus on either armour or weapons.

However, for armour, there's are better and more focused books:

• Blair, Claude European armour, circa 1066 to circa 1700 London: Batsford, 1958. The best overview of European armour from 1066-1700, with a particular emphasis on the development of plate armour. It is primarily a descriptive history of armour's form. This books is 60 years old but it is still the standard introductory text, for a reason.
  
  
• Williams, Alan The knight and the blast furnace : a history of the metallurgy of armour in the Middle Ages & the early modern period Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2003. A detailed metallurgical analysis of hundreds of surviving pieces of plate armour. It also includes historical sketches of the armour industry in different cities, accounts of medieval and early modern steelmaking and a final chapter evaluating the effectiveness of armour. Keep in mind this is going to be really expensive to buy, but you can get it in interlibrary loan at most good academic libaries.
  
  For studying the people who made armour, "Armourers" by Matthais Pfaffenbichler is a great resource on the armour industry that you can get pretty cheap used online.
  
  For weapons, I prefer Oakshott's Records of the Medieval Sword to The Achaeology of Weapons since it is more focused on his strengths - sword shapes and description, but of course being sword-centric it is pretty narrowly focused.
  
  

Consider "Homework" by Jeswold -- This book is old now, but we used it when we designed and planned our home in 1997, acting as our own contractors -- it's a book about learning about what you want, where you want, subcontractors, permits and such: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0898157447/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1409285357&sr=8-1#

There are others like it too -- I'd suggest books on home building, being your own contractor and stuff like that -- books you can get through quickly and have a good structure, vs wandering around online.

We have a well-built home that is enjoyable 15 years later as it was the day we moved in - because we made 100% of the choices and money saved went into products and structure. Three kids have grown up here, and we've adapted rooms over the years, it has been very low maintenance, and I've enjoyed learning to become a handyman myself.

Another book I like is Sarah Susanka's The Not So Big House: A blueprint for the way we really live -- http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1600851509/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1409285822&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40 -- it's about always choosing quality over size, and she basically defines the new American home.

Feel free to ask me if you have specific questions...

The slab on the left in the picture was left in the shop by the previous occupants. I'm interning here this summer and was told I can do whatever I want with this, but I'm interested in figuring out what it is. It doesn't smell or taste like anything I've used, partly because it's really dry and doesn't smell like much at all at this point.

Apparently my boss was told it might be poplar by someone who left it, but it doesn't look or feel like poplar at all and I've never seen poplar that wide. It's much darker and not quite as woolly as any poplar I've used, so... any other ideas? It's possible it came from anywhere, but we're in mid-atlantic United States if that makes a difference in swaying your input.

We consulted the wood bible to no avail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

edit: I won't be able to get more pictures until next week, so if I need some closer-ups or anything to help, I'll reconsult next Wednesday or Thursday.

I think this book on interior design could be cool, or even this book, which details the history of makeup. I'm sure she'd love that one.

I think having an interest in makeup is fine, and as long as she feels confident and isn't hurting anyone, I don't think you need to worry :)

Since she's studying interior design, I'm sure she needs a portfolio. She might really like a nice portfolio book for showing off her work.

ProfRobBob Youtube - This sir has great videos. His playlists are in order and very useful for Calculus. Loved his pre calculus playlist.

Patrick JMT - I could not have passed Calculus 2 without this guy. For the most part, his Calculus section is in order on his website.

KhanAcademy - Nice courses with problems available for you. Really easy to use and navigate. I worked through Algebra and only watched his videos on Trigonometry and Calculus.

Hope you get back on track buddy. Don't give up.


I self taught myself Algebra through Precalculus, here are books I used:

1. Practical Algebra - This helped when doing KhanAcademy Algebra course
   
   
2. Precalculus Demystified - Easy to understand w/o having any knowledge of precalculus.
   
   
3. Precalculus by Larson - The demystified book above helped form a foundation that allowed me to understand this book fairly well
   
   
4. Calculus for Dummies by PatrickJMT - This goes great for soliving problems in PatrickJMT's 1000 problem book.
   

1. Check out this link for some career ideas -- http://www.disd.edu/careers-interior-design.php
   
   
2. Search google for design firms in your area
   
   
3. Send out email inquiring about internships
   
   
4. Learn how to network. If you're not on the phone all the time, you're doing it wrong.
   
   
5. Get business cards and hand them out to everyone you meet
   
   
6. Read this book and this book for inspiration
   
   
   
   Build your email around this:
   
   >I'm currently a junior at a college that doesn't offer any classes in interior design and only recently had an epiphany that design is what I truly love. I'm currently following a route that's not really design or artsy (I'm taking media production) but I'm happy that I realized this now before it was really too late.
   
   PASSION -- use this word a lot, and mean it. You've got to be passionate about design, it's not a 9-5 job
   
   Don't mention middle school or high school.

Is this the book you’re referring to?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501327526
I saw many books under the name “Munsell” and wanted to be sure.

> I personally hardly ever use straight black onto my palette I usually mix it.

Gamblin’s founder expressed the same and made a “Chromatic Black,” which is a mixture of Quinacridone Red and Phthalo Emerald. I haven’t used it yet but I picked up a tube recently.

> But I have a friend who mixes 1-10 value scale on his palette when painting to get very scientific on what shade and tint for each one of his mixtures he wants.

Woah. Is that where the book comes in? How does one go about doing that?

As for the pigments, I just recently bought a ton of Gamblin colors, but my starter set is Utrecht. I plan to go all Gamblin, but don’t want to waste the many multiple Utrecht tubes I was gifted.
Except for the Utrecht starter tubes which I have to go home to account for, I have:

• Gamblin Radiant pigments (all eight)
  
• Gamblin metallic pigments (four)
  
• Radiant White
  
• Zinc White (Titanium White with Utrecht)
  
• Cool White
  
• Warm White
  
• Chromatic Black
  
• Payne Grey (which is a black, I understand?)
  
• Portland Grey Light
  
• Portland Grey Medium
  
• Cobalt Green
  
• Cadmium Green
  
• Viridian
  
• Cobalt Violet
  
  I read about differences with Titanium White and Zinc White, and even a Titanium Zinc White, so I hoped to know more from experience about mixing with the two.

I would not want to live there. Big open spaces like that look gorgeous but actually tend to make me (and most people) uncomfortable. As an example, when you go to a restaurant would you rather sit out in the middle of the floor at a table or in a booth? I have some friends who live in big McMansions where everything is oversized - huge doors, high ceilings, etc. They're impressive but they're not all that comfortable.

I'm not the only one saying this. I think Christopher Alexander talked about it in A Pattern Language and I know Susan Susanka talks about it in The Not So Big House.

A cathedral would be great for entertaining and partying (in fact isn't the limelight in NYC in an old church) but the scale is all wrong for a home.

Interaction Design

• About Face 3 by Alan Cooper
  
• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
  
• Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell
  
• Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
  
• Making Things Talk: (2011) (2007) by Tom Igoe
  
  Interior Design
  
  
• The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton and Ogden, Jr. Codman
  
• Domino: The Book of Decorating by Deborah Needleman
  
• Design*Sponge at Home: A Guide to Inspiring Homes by Grace Bonney
  
• The Vintage/Modern Home by Katherine Sorrell
  
• The Fundamentals of Interior Design by Simon Dodsworth
  
  Landscape Architecture
  
  
• Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards by Leonard J. Hopper
  
• Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
  
• Landscape Graphics by Grant W. Reid
  
• Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg
  
  Lighting Design
  
  
• Stage Lighting Design by Richard Pilbrow
  
• The Architecture of Natural Light by Henry Plummer
  
• Painting With Light by John Alton
  
• Made of Light by Anthony Tischhauser
  
• Color, Environment and Human Response by Frank H. Mahnke & Rudolf H. Mahnke
  
  Product Design
  
  
• Sketching: Drawing Techniques from Product Designers by Koos Eissen
  
• Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek
  
• The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
  
• Mythologies by Roland Barthes
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
  Product Design
  
  
• In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara
  
• The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore
  
• Universal Methods of Design by Bruce Hanington & Bella Martin
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
• Mental Models by Indi Young
  
  Sound Design
  
  
• Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein
  
• Designing Sound by Andy Farnell
  
• Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen by Michel Chion
  
• The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers
  
• Sound Theory Sound Practice by Rick Altman
  
  Urban Design
  
  
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
  * Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
  
• The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler
  
• The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch
  
  Web Design
  
  
• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  
• HTML & CSS: Design and Build Web Sites by Jon Duckett
  
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird
  
• Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS by Ben Frain
  
• Hardboiled Web Design by Andy Clarke
  

• This book exists!
  
  
• Hanging File Organizer to create more desk space
  
• A hook for your headphones. You might be able to fine some other really cute hooks to hang up your jacket and purse as well.
  
• I used this for my jackets
  
• So you can get a window!.
  *I really like the wallpaper idea. You could do either a darker color around the middle are and then a brighter color on that top piece...or vice versa.
  
• You could hang up picture frames and get a few plants to add a splash of color!
  
  Pimp my cube

Here's a little list of best-sellers on Amazon and a few from this thread:

• Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals
  
• Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
  
• The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition
  
• How to Draw: drawing and sketching objects and environments from your imagination
  
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
  
• The Non-Designer's Design Book (3rd Edition)
  
• Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design
  
• Envisioning Information
  
• Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition
  
• Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice
  
• Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
  
• Design Basics (with CourseMate Printed Access Card)
  
• Graphic Design: The New Basics
  
• Style & Simplicity: An A to Z Guide to Living a More Beautiful Life
  
• The Color Scheme Bible: Inspirational Palettes for Designing Home Interiors
  
• The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)
  
• Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming
  
• The Art of Looking Sideways
  

Publishers like Schiffer and Taschen are pretty good places to start. Many "1950's furniture" books can be quite repetitive and tend to focus on well known makers and designers. I would suggest getting a classic such as this, and move on to more specialized areas, such as catalogs.

Websites such as this, or this are helpful and fun. Sites such as this, show restored furniture, allowing you to see the potential in vintage pieces.

I thought this was pretty cute for on your desk!

This would be fun for hanging pictures!

And this probably has more creative ideas than I do! :D

Pimp my cube !

are you talking about placing the granite in a mold and then pouring concrete to fill up the rest of the mold?

if that's the case, i would place the granite in the mold so that the polished side is exposed when the counter top is taken out of the mold.
http://www.toolocity.com/5-jx-shine-wet-diamond-polishing-pads.aspx
click that link and you will find the pads you will need to polish the counter top. read the description "For granite and concrete."

for tops poured upside down in molds, i line the molds with a smooth formica type product and normally start polishing with a 400 grit pad. this will initially dull the polished granite but as you increase the grit, you will eventually get it close to back to the smoothness it is now.

I have done concrete counters and finished them at 3000 grit. it's glassy smooth but not as shiny as polished granite which i believe is finished all the way up to 8500 grit. i have 6000 and 8500 pads but have never used them. you could in theory just polish the whole top to 8500. the problem there is going to be that the concrete will not have enough 'tooth' to accept a topical protectant but their are solutions that soak in to protect. i have never used a protectant, i just keep them coated with mineral oil and let the chips fall. i like the patina. just be careful not to get lemon or lime juice on the concrete. fugly white stains that take forever to leach out. wine is somewhat of a problem but leaches out fairly quickly.

read up on the polishing process. it's messy as hell as you have to keep the pads wet. if what i have interpreted your project to be, it's totally doable and i think it would be an interesting outcome. whatever you do, pour a practice piece first and get the polishing process down before you start on a counter top sized piece. good luck.

http://www.amazon.com/Concrete-Countertops-Fu-Tung-Cheng/dp/1561584843

get ahold of that book somehow and it will answer a lot of your questions.

I'm a big fan of Not so Big House by Sarah Susanka. The book doesn't really contain actionable information -- it's more about presenting and promoting her thesis that we should spend our housing budgets on well designed, well built homes with smaller footprints rather than using the same budget to build a larger house with worse design or materials.

I personally think you should use an architect if you have the budget. The knowledge they can bring to the process isn't really something a layperson can replicate well. If you do want to try designing your own, A Pattern Language would be an interesting read. It can provide some useful rules of thumb regarding specific design elements that you might not otherwise consider.

Also you should familiarize yourself with passive solar building design. If you consider the concepts when developing a design and choosing a site you'll be able to leverage them for cheaper heating/cooling at little or no additional design cost. Building a well-insulated structure (a big part of passive solar design) also makes for a more comfortable home in terms of thermal regulation, noise management, air quality management, etc.

The Silver Bible is a good place to start, you will use this book more times than you can count in school and professionally.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071346163/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486475773&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=time+saver+standards+for+interior+design+and+space+planning&dpPl=1&dpID=51VYzAQ-amL&ref=plSrch

Explore the possibilities of the profession, also look for your local trade group and join as a student. The connections you make in school and during this time will help you out later, don't depend on your school to do all the work when it comes to job placement--you will have a bad time if you do.

This is the best resource I have found for looking up trade groups for ID/IA: http://www.ifiworld.org/#Member_Directory

It looks like Design Institute of Australia would be your best resource for professional/ student development.
http://www.design.org.au

I was in a second hand book store and found a book called The not so big house. It changed the way I looked at houses. I had been living in a 700 square foot house for a few years with my SO, a dog and a cat and it was working fine. Now I love small space living. When I envision my future house, I imagine a small house in walking distance to the main street of my neighborhood.

Plus it's fun to think of ways to use every inch efficiently.

Design of the 20th Century (Taschen)
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/design/all/45407/facts.design_of_the_20th_century.htm

Mid Century Ads (Taschen)
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/popculture/all/04461/facts.mid_century_ads.htm

Mid-Century Modern: Interiors, Furniture, Design Details
http://www.amazon.com/Mid-Century-Modern-Interiors-Furniture-Details/dp/1840914068/

A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman
http://www.amazon.com/Constructed-View-Architectural-Photography-Shulman/dp/0847817776/

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Acoustics-Modernism-Julius-Shulman/dp/B00366BBU8/

Tiki Pop: America Imagines Its Own Polynesian Paradise (Taschen)
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/popculture/all/02897/facts.tiki_pop_america_imagines_its_own_polynesian_paradise.htm

Eames: The Architect and The Painter
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972646/

And, believe it or not, Playboy issues are an excellent way to delve into design and culture of the 50s, 60s and 70s. From 1953 - 1979, Playboy published features and profiles on some of the most esteemed architects and designers of the 20th century.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671824/how-playboy-magazine-helped-make-eames-and-mies-famous

An exhibit in the Netherlands in 2013 recognized their contribution to the popularity of modern architecture and design.

http://www.archdaily.com/276467/playboy-architecture-1953-1979/

http://www.bureau-europa.nl/en/manifestations/playboy_architecture_1953_1979/

Here's a scan of my copy of the issue with the famous feature with Eames, Risom, Saarinen, Nelson, Bertoia and Wormley:

http://imgur.com/a/9759s#0

http://www.amazon.com/The-Color-Scheme-Bible-Inspirational/dp/1770850937

This book is extremely useful in interior design and in many other facets of life. It helps explain why certain colors compliment each other and certain ones clash. I used to use it when I was beading to create color schemes for pieces I was designing.

Lol, sorry for the unsolicited infodump! I mean, I could see that you were writing "realistic" in scare-quotes and said it might be "almost" viable, so I didn't really think you believed munitions armor was like tinfoil, I just kind of got carried away in correcting any misconceptions that any third party reading this might have. I swear, I'm such a hopeless windbag that it's harder for me to write 200 words than 10,000. XP

As for my sources, I was an intern in the department of arms and armor at a major museum for two years, and in addition to looking at all the stuff on display I have read some good material in books and online. I also learned a smidgen of armor-making while I was in college.

If you haven't seen it already, a very good introduction to medieval armor in general is Mike Loades' [Weapons that Made Britain] (https://youtu.be/7qHpoeYyfl0) episode on armor. I recommend Tobias Capwell, who's written [Masterpieces of Arms and Armour in the Wallace Collection] (https://www.amazon.com/Masterpieces-European-Armour-Wallace-Collection/dp/0900785861) and [Armour of the English Knight, 1400-1450] (http://www.wallacecollection.org/shop/books/specialist-books/armour-of-the-english-knight-1400-1450-by-tobias-capwell). You can see him in some TV programs such as [Metalworks: The Knight's Tale] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYd9_vUn7-E), and this recording of his lecture "[Building Medieval Plate Armour: An Operator's Guide] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COAIQPsgZWY)".

Getting into the more detailed stuff, Dr. Alan Williams is the leading expert on the metallurgy and hardening of European arms and Armor; he's written some books including [The Knight and the Blast Furnace] (https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Blast-Furnace-History-Metallurgy/dp/9004124985), and he often appears in other stuff such as the TV documentary [Secrets of the Viking Sword] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTlmrAh1oHI). [Knyght Errant] (https://www.youtube.com/user/neosonic66) is the YouTube channel of Ian LaSpina, who does very detail-oriented videos about the construction and ergonomics of late medieval armor. This French video, "[Le combat en armure au XVe siècle] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hlIUrd7d1Q)", is kind of a demo reel of techniques for fighting in armor. More detailed videos about fighting in armor come from "[Pursing the Knightly Arts] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw7PPvXKlz0)" and Dierk Hagedorn's [Hammaborg class] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S_Q3CGqZmg) on the subject. If you wanna see how reproduction armor is made, check out [Eric Dubé] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gvuo5Xmcp0) and [Jeffrey Wasson] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgzQiO9liNw) on TouTube. Check out Matt Easton's [Scholagladiatoria] (https://www.youtube.com/user/scholagladiatoria) videos too.

There's a few books you can get to start things out. If you go through them and it doesn't diminish your passion but increases it, they'll set you on course to get started on your own. They also are worth reading if you've already begun.

• The Soul of a Tree - A Woodworker's Reflections by George Nakashima
  
  
• Good Clean Fun - Misadventures in Sawdust at the Offerman Woodshop by Nick Offerman
  
  
• The Art of Japanese Joinery by Kiyose Seike
  
  
• Illustrated Cabinetmaking - How to Design and Construct Furniture that Works by Bill Hylton
  
  
• Hand Tools - Their Ways and Workings by Aldren A. Watson
  
  
• The Real Wood Bible - The Complete Illustrated Guide to Choosing and Using 100 Decorative Woods by Nick Gibbs
  
  
• Woodworking - The Right Technique by Bob Moran
  
  
• Woodworking 101 - Skill Building Projects that Teach the Basics by Aimé Fraser, Matthew Teague, and Joe Hurst-Wajszczuk
  
  Source here for this list of books with additional ones (that I haven't personally seen or read).
  
  Edit:
  Apologies if these are in the sidebar. I'm on mobile and can't view it.

It's not JUST a science! It's also a religion!

I have an old "wood bible" - a giant binder filled with thin sheets of wood attached to a backer card with description. It's used to help selecting woods for various projects. I got it at a used bookstore a while back and it's just rather fabulous.

Sort of like this one, but with real wood samples. I mean, I have this one as well, but the REAL wood bible is really cool

A classmate did his class project on almost the same thing as you. He focused on healing spaces, and compared and contrasted old style hospitals from the 50s and 60s to newer ones like the Mayo Clinic. It's a bit less "mind control" but there's tons of design theory and colory theory that kinda explore making people feel certain emotions I guess you could call it.

A few books he used: Architecture of Happiness

Healing Spaces

Some others I found that might be helpful: Environmental Psychology for Design

Design Details for Health

Check the library at your local state university if the regular library doesn't have them, or (like some others in my class for their project) contact the Architecture dept of that Uni and go from there.

It depends on what you consider cheap. Used options for all of these are available at very reasonable prices, though I don't personally think that the new prices are super high, though I do know of the more expensive books you've probably seen like the Wegner book for closer to a hundred.
http://www.amazon.com/Danish-Modern-Andrew-Hollingsworth/dp/1586858114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450038421&sr=8-1&keywords=danish+modern

http://www.amazon.com/Eames-Gloria-Koenig/dp/3836560216/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1450038421&sr=8-3&keywords=danish+modern

http://www.amazon.com/Mid-Century-Modern-Interiors-Furniture-Details/dp/1840914068/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1450038421&sr=8-4&keywords=danish+modern

http://www.amazon.com/Danish-Modern-Beyond-Scandinavian-Heywood-wakefield/dp/0764322168/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1450038421&sr=8-7&keywords=danish+modern

This is the one I would get:

http://www.amazon.com/Scandinavian-Modern-Magnus-England/dp/1849754349/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1450038421&sr=8-5&keywords=danish+modern

This is what I recommend to people wanting to learn more about color. Great resource.

I really enjoyed Sarah Susanka's The Not-So-Big House which has a lot of good examples.

Also, the Small Cool 2010 Contest. I think these are mostly apartments, but I'm sure a lot of the same principles apply.

[Here] (http://www.amazon.com/Original-Flip-It-FI001/dp/B007OM862Q/ref=pd_sim_e_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=0V91PRR2FMSSTQ17N8MF) is a nice little way of letting your coworkers know where you are

and

[Here] (http://www.amazon.com/Cube-Chic-Kelly-Moore/dp/1594741050/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1398890199&sr=8-7&keywords=office+cubicle+accessories) is a cute little book on cubicle decor!

Pimp my cube

I really like this book http://www.amazon.ca/Domino-Decorating-room---room-creating/dp/1416575464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413311164&sr=8-1&keywords=domino+book.

And then yes, I would pick up any decorating magazines at the store as they always have tips and rules, etc. (Once you've been buying them long enough, you see that they repeat themselves.)

Then beyond that, I just love looking through a professional decorator's book (ie: http://www.amazon.ca/Mary-McDonald-Interiors-Allure-Style/dp/0847833933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413311318&sr=8-1&keywords=mary+mcdonald) There's usually not a lot of info, but if you study the rooms, you can sort of learn what to do and what not to do.

Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0517884755/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_7vnDCb91D00JG

The creation of the name “Mid Century Modern” is credited to this book.

“Precalculus demystified” gives a pretty solid overview of the most common/applicable parts of precalculus. There are a lot of problems with step by step solutions so that you can check yourself at any point. If you’re looking for a proper math textbook, I have a few in mind, but they generally aren’t self-contained (i.e. you would have to purchase a separate solutions manual). For the GMAT this would probably suffice.

https://www.amazon.com/Pre-calculus-Demystified-Second-Rhonda-Huettenmueller/dp/0071778497

Yes, there are industry standards that architects use, which vary depending on the type of space that we are designing for. Time-Saver Standards for Interior Design and Space Planning

I'm doing the same thing and a combination of Pre-calculus Demystified and PatrickJMT videos has been serving me well

Crouch's book is more popular than specialist history. £60 is at the lower end of the academic price bracket, when the specialism is immense and audience is tiny the price rises sharply.

books that have helped me( i keep them as reference)

https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Algebra-Barbara-Lee-Bleau/dp/0764120085/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1500377758&sr=8-2&keywords=forgotten+algebra

https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Calculus-Barbara-Bleau-Ph-D/dp/0764119982/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500379330&sr=8-1&keywords=forgotten+calculus

https://www.amazon.com/Pre-calculus-Demystified-Second-Rhonda-Huettenmueller/dp/0071778497/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500379354&sr=8-1&keywords=precalculus+demystified

https://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Intuitive-Physical-Approach-Mathematics-ebook/dp/B00CB2MK6C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1500379374&sr=8-3&keywords=calculus


https://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Idiots-Guides-Michael-Kelley-ebook/dp/B01E6H5C5A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1500379523&sr=8-2&keywords=calculus+idiots+guide

Mid-Century Modern: Interiors, Furniture, Design Details

Amazon link

Here's a few:

Mid-Century Modern: Interiors, Furniture, Design Details (Conran Octopus Interiors)

Making Midcentury Modern

Mid-Century Modern Furniture: Shop Drawings & Techniques for Making 29 Projects

Handcrafted Modern: At Home with Mid-century Designers

This is a [helpful book](The Real Wood Bible: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Choosing and Using 100 Decorative Woods https://www.amazon.com/dp/1770850139/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_3rNMybXHMXNTA)

Hot damn, his website is just like the Vickers. Obsolete, functional, and bulletproof.

That's not a bad idea...I shall have to do so when I've got a few hundo for a reference book. Though, with out of print stuff it's not getting any cheaper...


Case in point: The Knight and the Blast Furnace, there was no way I was paying $500 for a copy. It is one of the gold-standard reference texts for the development, methodology, and metallurgy behind medieval maille and plate. Really wanted to have it back when I was making elbow cops and assembling vambraces for a guy that sold armor to SCA and ARMA dorks. Was unable to locate it and had to go without. Recently found a pdf, it's such a good read.

http://lennonconson.blogspot.com/

The above link is a reading list I made for adults to rigorously learn mathematics from the beginning.

If your goal is to just learn it fast.
Do these two books.

Schaums-Outline-Elementary-Mathematics-Outlines

Pre-calculus-Demystified

You should be able to test into calc 1.

I was reading my Uncles copy of a wood book over Christmas. I was extremely surprised to see on each wood's page, there was a box in the lower corner that listed the hazards associated with each wood. An alarming number of them said nasal cancer! This was news to me. I'll never turn another piece without at least a facemask or respirator on.
edit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1770850139?keywords=all%20about%20wood&qid=1452183595&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
i think it was that book