Soul of the Home Designing with Antiques

Past meets present in Soul of the Home, a stylish guide to decorating modern homes with heirlooms and antiques.

“With light and airy interiors filled with patina, history, and one-of-a-kind furnishings, this New Orleans designer and antiques dealer reveals that anything old can feel new again.” —Southern Home

Tara Shaw is a respected supplier of French and European antiques for a host of AD100 and Elle Decor A-listers, including Bobby McAlpine, Mary McDonald, and Bunny Williams. In her first book, she helps readers understand how to select the best antiques and how to use them in a variety of decor schemes. Soul of the Home presents never-before-published spaces from Shaw’s portfolio and reveals her favorite antique-hunting spots throughout Europe. Chapters include:

• The Importance of Antiques
• Starting an Antiques Collection
• Cultivating a Home with Heart
• Lake House Living
• Let Architecture Lead the Way
• Bringing the Outside In
• Antiques in a Modern World
• Guerilla Antiquing
• And more!

Shaw writes in her introduction, “Throughout my life, books have been indispensable teaching tools, spiritual guides, and invaluable methods of escape. There are stacks of them in nearly every room in my house, and without them, I’d never have been able to tell Louis XIII from Louis XIV, much less build an entire career on the love of antiques. My hope is that this volume is one such tool for you.”

Anecdotes from years of treasure hunting are accompanied by color images of rare and precious finds, with text that decodes just how to choose the right pieces and display them in a contemporary interior. Readers will be able to look at each space and take away ideas they can apply to their own homes, to create personalized rooms full of provenance and beauty.

Tara Shaw’s design principles stem from 20 years of success as an antiques wholesaler. In addition to her thriving import business, she has a custom furniture line, Maison, and a licensed product line with Restoration Hardware. She lives in New Orleans.