Caitlin Flemming & Julie Goebel Channel Their Mutual Impulse for Escapade + Instinct for Chic Global Style into a Tastemaker’s Exploration of Destination Design
If “home” means one rich in the remnants and feeling of faraway places, and should these places include Marrakesh, Paris, and Portugal, then perhaps the answer is obvious.
Particularly for this pair, whose family’s move from Washington D.C. to Mexico City more than two decades ago launched their shared romance for the color and experiences of other cultures, evidenced by a heavily stamped passport, nose for decorative treasures and the good sense to collect all their understanding into one beautifully produced new book: Travel Home: Design With a Global Spirit (Abrams).
Judge this book by its cover and find envy for the easy bohemian elegance of a warm and textured interior with roots…where? Mexico? The Mediterranean? The setting teases a curated beauty with a truly worldly vibe, a style sprung from the sophisticated instinct of a look that transcends time and trend to be at home anywhere and, it turns out, just about everywhere.
The discoveries within, meanwhile, reveal themselves like the charming shops dotting a secret cobblestoned street of an ancient city, with each merchant a delightful surprise, provoking an enduring wonder no matter where one chooses to roam. (Peruse a few pages and watch the wish-list grow.)
The presentation of the book, while lovely, is not just for presentation’s sake: visuals support a rigorous consideration of place-oriented style with details of how to adapt it to one’s personal environment, chiefly via interior explorations of the homes of global design gurus in the categories of Textiles & Textures (John Robshaw, Carolina Irving) Art & Ephemera (Kendall Conrad, Vicente Wolf); Zen Simplicity (Caroline Diani); Natural Elements (Jenni Kayne); Found Objects (Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent); and Mixing Styles (Justina Blakeney).
Combined with the travel reflections of these tastemakers and others, as well as home-décor details from sourcing and displaying art, to integrating nature, to styling a bookcase, the result is like a Paris flea market or Moroccan souk—a treasure trove of inspiration
As a guide on this tour, readers have a real Virgil in its San Francisco-based authors: Caitlin Flemming is an interior designer and stylist with her own practice, and Julie Goebel a design writer. Their love for the world’s aesthetic splendor, its art, architecture and artisanship, give this book what the best travel and finest spaces both require—heart and soul. In this they have produced the ultimate souvenir of the season.
Photographs: Courtesy of Abrams Books
