In review: Love How You Live

With the weather still frustrating us with its intransigence, the increased time spent indoors allows us to reconsider our surroundings. There is comfort in creating a nest, a refuge where we can feel calm and settled, surrounded by objects and furnishings that fill us with joy and remind us of fun times past. Combining colour, pattern and inexpensive accents with high design is something that designer Rodman Primack and his partner Rudy Weissenberg have achieved over the past two decades. Their new book, ‘Love How You Live, Adventures in Interior Design’, showcases homes they have designed for themselves, and for others, spanning Mexico City, Guatemala, and London to New York, California, Kentucky, Hawaii, Cape Cod, and Miami.

The hallmark of a home created by Primack has an exuberance of spirit - a vibrant, intensely personal home imbued with art, pattern, and craftsmanship. Whether it's in a detail that surprises with its originality or in meaningful objects that spin together a narrative of the owner, each home possesses a unique character. There is also an authentic, lived in quality about these homes. They are not designed to be applauded, but instead are functional, meaningful spaces, reflecting the culture and conditions of their locations and the passions of their inhabitants.

The style of their own apartment in Greenwich Village, for example, was aimed at ‘creating a home that would speak in the language of the city it was in: frenetic and confident and brash.’ Metal bookshelves, commissioned to float over the wall without any visible support, act as the focal point to the home, embodying perfectly the dialogue between function and pleasure. Bold art is displayed in unconventional places (like the kitchen), and hierarchies imposed on objects are removed- ceramics picked up at flea markets are placed next to bronze bowls on an experimental carbon fibre coffee table. Full of colour and interest, this home clearly illustrates the eclectic yet considered style of the pair.

Primack and Weissenberg’s international interiors practice is focused on collaborative relationships with architects, artists, and craftspeople from around the world. This beautifully illustrated book also highlights fourteen of these artisans - from a Guatemalan embroiderer to a Mexican tattoo artist, providing an insight into the creative alliances that drive their designs.

Selected as one of the best books of 2024 by the Boston Globe, Domino, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, and Western Living, this book acts as a fascinating window into the creative mindset of the duo, encouraging readers to seek out their own local craftspeople—from farmers’ markets to art fairs—to gain inspiration and find unique accent pieces to give rooms depth, joy, and personality.