Curate My Journey
Stack of large neutral art books on a travertine coffee table beside a linen sofa in golden hour light

Collection No. 04

Coffee Table Books

Four publishing houses, and the volumes we leave open — read as furniture, as much as they are read as books.

Our Philosophy

A room without books is a room that has not yet decided what it thinks.

We choose books the way we choose furniture: for weight, for material, for the way they hold light on a winter afternoon. A good volume changes the temperature of a room before anyone has opened it.

What follows is not a reading list. It is an arrangement — four publishing houses, the titles we return to, and the surfaces where each of them belongs.

The Library

Four houses of publishing

Each with its own temperament, and its own place in the rooms of a house. Arranged the way we would arrange them at home.

  • Large cream linen-bound art book lying open on a travertine console beside a brass candlestick

    Volume No. 01

    Assouline

    Paris, since 1994

    Assouline understood before anyone else that a book could be a piece of furniture without ceasing to be a book. The Travel Series volumes are bound in linen, weighted like small monuments, and printed with the patience of a house that still corrects colour by eye. Opened, they smell faintly of paper and glue; closed, they hold a room together.

    Maison Voyage Recommends

    Capri Dolce Vita

    Begin with Capri Dolce Vita. It is not a guide and makes no attempt to be one — only a long, sunlit argument that some places were photographed better in 1962 than they will ever be again. We keep ours open at the harbour spread from May until September.

    Where It Belongs In Your Home
    On a travertine coffee table, alone, with nothing stacked on top of it. Assouline volumes need the space a sculpture needs.
    Related Volumes
    • Aman
    • Ibiza Bohemia
    • The Impossible Collection of Wine
  • Two plain white oversized art books stacked on a pale oak shelf beside a matte ceramic vase

    Volume No. 02

    Phaidon

    London, since 1923

    Where Assouline is romantic, Phaidon is exacting. Plain covers, generous margins, typography that never raises its voice — the design of a publisher that trusts the work to carry itself. Their architecture and food monographs are the ones that stay useful long after the coffee table has been rearranged twice.

    Maison Voyage Recommends

    The Stone Houses of Puglia

    For us it is always the architecture list. Phaidon's studies of vernacular Mediterranean building — lime, stone, shade, water — have influenced how we look at hotels more than any hotel ever has.

    Where It Belongs In Your Home
    On an open oak shelf in the study or hallway, spines out, arranged by height rather than subject. These are books meant to be pulled down.
    Related Volumes
    • The Art Museum
    • Vitamin D
    • Living in Nature
  • Very large heavy art volume lying flat on a linen ottoman in a sunlit living room with reading glasses beside it

    Volume No. 03

    Taschen

    Cologne, since 1980

    Taschen is the house of the grand gesture: volumes so large they require two hands and a cleared surface, printed at a scale that returns photography to something close to its original ambition. There is generosity in the format — nothing is cropped for convenience, and nothing apologises for taking up room.

    Maison Voyage Recommends

    Great Escapes Mediterranean

    Great Escapes Mediterranean has planned more of our summers than any booking site. It is unashamedly seductive and occasionally out of date, which we consider a feature — a good travel book should be slightly behind the world.

    Where It Belongs In Your Home
    Flat on a linen ottoman or the lower tier of a console, where it can be opened while seated. Never upright: the spine will not forgive you.
    Related Volumes
    • Great Escapes Italy
    • Living in Morocco
    • Cabins
  • Three softly coloured hardcover design books leaning against a plaster wall shelf beside a ceramic cup

    Volume No. 04

    Gestalten

    Berlin, since 1995

    The most contemporary of the four, and the most curious. Gestalten publishes the books that describe how people are actually living now — remote houses, slow travel, small studios, the quiet economies of craft. Muted cloth covers, restrained palettes, and an editorial eye that prefers a working kitchen to a styled one.

    Maison Voyage Recommends

    The Slow Road North

    We return to their landscape and cabin titles in winter, when the Mediterranean lists feel unkind. There is something honest about a house photographed in bad weather.

    Where It Belongs In Your Home
    Leaning against a plaster wall on a bedroom shelf or bedside table — these are the ones you read for twenty minutes before sleep.
    Related Volumes
    • Hide and Seek
    • The Monocle Book of Homes
    • Do Nothing

An Invitation

Continue the Journey

One letter each month: a place worth the detour, an object worth keeping, a page worth reading slowly. Nothing more.