Bohemian Soul - by Valorie Hart (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A celebration of the unique decorative style of New Orleans, featuring the resplendent rooms of seventeen decadent residences rich with patina, family heirlooms, and history.

New Orleans is one of the most distinctive cities in the world, but like most American cities, rapidly developing. Designer and writer Valorie Hart and photographer Sara Essex Bradley have sought out spectacular residences that represent the best of old bohemian New Orleans--domiciles that serve both as inspiration and as an imaginative balm to all that is unappealingly conventional and cookie-cutter in design today. Ranging from a Garden District cottage to a Civil War-era Creole mansion, all the homes feature elements of elegance and eccentricity, old French furniture and vintage finds, colors only produced by local light. The free spirits who own these homes have a lust for all the arts, from music to dance, painting, and fine cuisine. They include an artist in a crumbling garret, an eccentric dreamer, a voodoo queen, moneyed wayfarers, world travelers, a resourceful magpie, bon vivants, gypsies, and old souls--all united in their love of the chipped and tattered, romantic and resplendent.

This book is a valentine to a New Orleans that is disappearing, a last call to remember, appreciate, and repeat and revive its great bohemian soul.

Review Quotes

"New Orleans may just be one of the most unique cities in the world, boasting its own distinct architectural and decorative style that speaks to the bohemian spirit. Designer and writer Valorie Hart and photographer Sara Essex Bradley have teamed up to document historic residences filled with family heirlooms and character, celebrating New Orleans's unique soul." -- VERANDA

"Bohemian Soul: The Vanishing Interiors of New Orleans by Valorie Hart celebrates the unique history and style of the Crescent City. In a world that is increasingly cookie cutter and fast-paced, Bohemian Soul highlights what can be learned when you slow down and appreciate the eccentric." -- AT HOME IN ARKANSAS

"Perhaps no American city has both its history and its funkiness on such lively display as New Orleans--and that's just what we can see in public spaces. Behind the cocktail bars, parade routes, and po'boy shops, New Orleanians' homes are layered with cracking plaster, art, antique porcelain, and stories. A gorgeous new book, Bohemian Soul: The Vanishing Interiors of New Orleans, aims to capture and celebrate that spirited balance of elegant and eccentric--and protect what's left of it in the face of change." -- GARDEN & GUN

About the Author

The author of House Proud, designer Valorie Hart wrote the popular design blog The Visual Vamp.

Sara Essex Bradley has been photographing interiors and architecture for twenty-five years. She was the photographer for House Proud and the author and photographer of Dog Decor.

Patrick Dunne, founder of Lucullus Antiques in New Orleans, has written on style for more than four decades.