Expressive Modern

Book excerpt: Vivid color, specially commissioned artisanal pieces, and exquisite midcentury furnishings define the work of interior designer Amy Lau. Inspired by her passion for nature and abstract art, she incorporates elements of both into every space while tailoring each experience to the personalities and lifestyles of her clients. Thirteen residential interiors, from glass-walled city apartments to demure Hamptons cottages, are presented in luscious full-color photography; lifely text peppered with design tips captures the designer’s energy and explains her creative process. Prior to opening her firm in 2001, Lau managed the prestigious Lin/Weinberg Gallery in New York City—specialisits in twentieth-century furniture and decorative objects—and her love of this period permeates her work to this day. Her designs are sophisticated yet exuberant and full of impeccably restored original pieces yet entirely livable. Amy Lau’s belief in curating rather than merely decorating spaces results in collections arranged to complement the most unique feature of each individual object, color schemes that relate to a property’s location or enhance a specific view, and in one-of-a-kind textiles designed to subtly mirror a room’s other artwork or furnishings. A final chapter details the artists, movements, places, and visionaries that have had the largest influence on Lau’s development of her own unique style, and encourages all interested in design to create a similar catalog of admired pieces in order to begin refining and defining their own tastes.