Cover Stories for Spring

Support your local creatives—and your coffee table. Three talents from our larger design community have new books out, and they’re all worth the shelf space.

A Moment in Time: Designing a Country Garden

by Kathryn Herman

A Moment in Time: Designing a Country Garden is both a design guide and a personal record of a landscape shaped over decades. Written by Connecticut-based landscape architect Kathryn Herman, the book offers a four-season exploration of her own twenty-acre home garden at the historic Pepperidge Farm estate in Fairfield, where she has quietly refined the land for more than thirty years.

Long admired for gardens that balance contemporary restraint with the softness of classic English landscapes, Herman uses her home as a case study in patience, structure and seasonal thinking. Organized as a tour through a series of garden “rooms,” the book breaks down her design process with essays that address form, color, ornament, layering and historical context, alongside practical guidance on creating meadows, orchards, perennial
gardens, pool landscapes and productive spaces that welcome wildlife.

What sets the book apart is its attention to experience. Herman emphasizes how sound, scent, texture and movement shape the way a garden is felt, not just seen—from rustling leaves and moving water to fragrant shrubs and tactile plantings that change throughout the year. She invites readers to a deeply personal look at how a garden evolves over time. (February; $60)

Summer by the Sea: Cottages from Watch Hill to Little Compton

by Thomas A. Kligerman
Photos by Read McKendree

The enduring appeal of the Rhode Island coast—and the houses that define it—takes center stage in summer by the sea: cottages from watch hill to little compton. Architect Thomas A. Kligerman takes readers on an intimate tour of sixteen seaside homes stretching from Westerly to the Massachusetts border, blending architectural analysis with personal reflection and regional history.

Organized by town, the book moves through Watch Hill, Weekapaug, Block Island, Jamestown, Middletown and Little Compton, among others, featuring a mix of 19th-century shingle-style landmarks and vernacular cottages shaped by generations of use. While the houses vary in scale and style, they share a common sensibility—unpretentious, practical and deeply connected to their setting—expressed through weathered cedar shingles, time-worn floors and generous porches oriented toward sea breezes and long summer days.

Horshoe crabs line the beam in this bungalow. Photo by Read McKendree

Kligerman weaves his own experiences into the narrative, including the design of his Weekapaug home, grounding the book in lived knowledge. Essays explore the region’s architectural evolution, climate and landscape, tracing influences from Indigenous building traditions to contemporary coastal practice.

Photographs by Read McKendree anchor the book visually, capturing interiors layered with personal history and exteriors that frame meadows, ponds and the Atlantic beyond. Together, text and imagery offer a thoughtful portrait of New England’s coastal architecture—and the idea of summer living as both tradition and aspiration.
(March; $64.95)

The Art of the Clash: A Manifesto Against Mundane Design

by Sophie von Oertzen Williamson

In The Art of the Clash, New Canaan-based designer Sophie von Oertzen champions bold individuality in the spaces we inhabit. The book explores how the intentional tension among colors, textures and styles can produce interiors that feel both visually dynamic and genuinely welcoming. With a focus on the art of layering, von Oertzen demonstrates that a well-executed “clash” is not chaos but a deliberate design strategy that brings personality and warmth to a home.

Her signature approach balances boldness with refinement, drawing on travel, historical references and natural inspiration to create spaces that feel collected rather than decorated. Chapters explore the intersection of interiors, art and entertaining, offering practical guidance for designers seeking daring ideas, hosts looking to elevate gatherings and homeowners eager to express their personal style with confidence. (April; $45)