Baird Drue

Bringing Paris Home invites the reader to re-create the panache of French interior style in an American setting. Author Penny Drue Baird shares her love and knowledge of French history and decorative arts and describes the design elements essential to an elegant French interior--architectural details, furniture, paint and wall covering, fireplaces, lighting, and tabletop settings. A special chapter on shopping offers tips on finding treasures in the famed Marche aux Puces in Paris. Penny Drue Baird's highly engaging text, filled with reminiscences and anecdotes, brings the charm and pleasure of Paris to life. Lavishly illustrated with Parisian scenes and completed interiors by Baird, Bringing Paris Home is an essential resource for capturing the atmosphere of Paris.

Through her first book, Bringing Paris Home, Penny Drue Baird established herself as an authority on all things French—interior design, flea market and antiques shopping, Parisian life, and stylish entertaining. In The New French Interior, she moves beyond the traditional historic styles to explore the design elements that make up the fresh, clean look—architectural details adapted from art deco, a monochromatic palette based on creams and ivories highlighted with rich browns and blacks, bold forms in furniture and lighting, and restrained tabletop settings. To illustrate the style, Baird draws on ten of her own recent projects, apartment and house installations, and presents French precedents and influences through specially commissioned photography of Parisian interiors. Images of cafes, markets, shops, and street scenes add to the magical Parisian ambiance she creates.