House of Thurn und Taxis

AD is celebrating end of the year with a look back at 2015's best design. You'll find our favorite products, including appliances , lighting , books , technology , and more. We’ve also rounded-up hotels , restaurants , and shops with standout decor, from London to New York.

Ever since 1615, when the Bavarian aristocrat Lamoral von Taxis became the Holy Roman Empire’s hereditary postmaster general, his family has been living extra large. Take a gander at Schloss St. Emmeram, the German clan’s behemoth country estate, in the book House of Thurn und Taxis (Rizzoli, $85). Stunningly captured by photographer Todd Eberle, it’s a 500-room wonderland of elegance and eccentricity (pictured above are its east-wing staterooms), where Baroque excess meets oompah Victoriana meets Jeff Koons sculptures.

Longue Vue House and Gardens: The Architecture, Interiors, and Gardens of New Orleans’ Most Celebrated Estate

Built by architects William and Geoffrey Platt in 1942 for philanthropists Edgar and Edith Stern, Longue Vue is an iconic New Orleans estate that remains an important part of the city’s heritage today as a house museum. Longue Vue House and Gardens: The Architecture, Interiors, and Gardens of New Orleans’ Most Celebrated Estate (Skira Rizzoli, $65) explores the history of this magnificent Classical Revival mansion and eight-acre estate. Stunning photographs of the interiors and gardens are supplemented with architectural and landscape drawings.

Mark Hampton on Decorating

In 1989 designer Mark Hampton published Mark Hampton on Decorating , an expanded collection of his insightful and entertaining columns for House & Garden . The book quickly became the design bible for established decorators and amateurs alike, and now a new generation can enjoy the classic guide with a reprint edition released by Potter Style ($30). Hampton’s original text and illustrations are perfectly preserved, and the volume is enhanced by tributes from Architectural Digest editor in chief Margaret Russell and Hampton’s daughter, Alexa, an accomplished designer and author in her own right.

The Inn at Little Washington: A Magnificent Obsession

World-class cuisine and sumptuous accommodations have been attracting statesmen and celebrities alike to the Inn at Little Washington, a restaurant and hotel in rural Virginia, for nearly 40 years. Chef and co-owner Patrick O’Connell has chronicled his kitchen magic in two previous cookbooks, and now, with The Inn at Little Washington: A Magnificent Obsession (Rizzoli, $50), he delves into the institution’s richly layered European-influenced interiors.

40 Years of Fabulous: The Kips Bay Decorator Show House

A fashion designer turned president of the Scalamandré fabric house turned globe-trotting author and bon vivant, Steven Stolman certainly knows chic. So who better to chronicle the history of the Kips Bay Decorator Show House, the undisputed queen of its glamorous world. Titled 40 Years of Fabulous: The Kips Bay Decorator Show House (Gibbs Smith, $75), Stolman’s book is a 280-page eye-candy survey of artful if temporary spaces rendered by more than140 masters of the house.

Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks

Despite being in a seemingly constant state of construction, New York City has managed to keep a great deal of its architectural history intact. This is in large part due to the New York City Landmarks Law put in place on April 19, 1965, after the destruction of one of Manhattan’s most architecturally significant structures—Pennsylvania Station. In honor of the anniversary of the legislation, the Museum of the City of New York celebrated with an exhibition and accompanying book, Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks (The Monacelli Press, $50), which trace the origins of the Landmarks Law and chronicles its early successes and present-day challenges.

The Seguine House

New York City isn’t the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of a plantation, but on the city’s Staten Island exists one so charming and beloved it is the subject of a recent book: The Seguine House (Rizzoli New York, $50). Author Christina Mantz outlines former owner George Burke’s renovations and efforts to preserve the home’s history and maintain its elegance, paying tribute to a time when “gracious living and fine manners were of paramount importance.”

Henry Howard: Louisiana’s Architect

Postcard images of New Orleans often feature the work of 19th-­century architect Henry Howard. Although he practiced there for more than 40 years, beginning in 1837, and crafted some of the city’s most memorable homes, churches, and commercial buildings, he has faded into obscurity. The monograph Henry Howard: Louisiana’s Architect (Princeton Architectural Press, $60) seeks to bring him back to the fore with a mix of sketches, archival photographs, and current images of his projects, transporting readers to a world of neoclassical mansions with columned galleries overlooking oaks dripping with Spanish moss.

Geoffrey Bennison: Master Decorator

Over the course of his illustrious 20-year career, the British interior designer Geoffrey Bennison conjured romantic, often theatrical rooms for a rarefied clientele that included Rothschilds and royals, earning him an enduring reputation as one of the greatest talents of his time. For all his accolades, though, Bennison had never been the subject of a monograph—until now. Written by Gillian Newberry, the head of Bennison Fabrics, the splendid book Geoffrey Bennison: Master Decorator (Rizzoli, $60) shines an overdue spotlight on the man and his influential projects.

Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World

Written by Jennifer Goff, the curator of Eileen Gray’s work at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World (Irish Academic Press, $60) delves into the designer’s complex and stormy relationships with Jean Badovici and Le Corbusier as well as her affairs with women, and also chronicles her early years as a student and artist. Eileen Gray is an entertaining and revealing book that should at long last paint the brilliant designer out of the margins and into the limelight where she so clearly belongs.

Jean Prouvé Architecture

Long before there were ModPods and tiny houses, there was Jean Prouvé—the innovative French architect and self-taught engineer, furniture designer and teacher, social justice activist and municipal leader. Prouvé’s greatest devotee these days is likely to be French gallerist Patrick Seguin, who has amassed the world’s largest collection of the designer’s modular buildings. Seguin celebrates Prouvé’s genius in Jean Prouvé Architecture (Galerie Patrick Seguin, $225), a limited-edition box set of five monographs, each on a specific building.