For Nicole Hollis, a home with empty walls is not a home at all.
The San Francisco–based interior designer, who founded her namesake firm in 2002, has been outfitting elevated residences for the past two decades, a practice that earned her the Designer of the Year award from the American Society of Interior Designers in 2023. At the heart of her bold interiors is an impeccable eye for art.
In her new Rizzoli tome Artistry of Home, Hollis reveals the inner workings of her deep ties with artists and craftspeople—and offers insight into the fruits of their interwoven labor. Following a heartfelt foreword from designer David Wiseman, Hollis tours readers through 11 hallmark residences dotted across Hawaii, California, and New York, and features commentary from many of the creatives whose work she’s incorporated into these stunning spaces.
The volume opens with a family home in Silicon Valley. “I don’t believe in designing homes for young families where the sentiment is ‘don’t touch,’” she writes. “This is a home—not a museum.” Yet to leaf through the book is to observe Hollis’s enduring respect for those who create—and her deft ability to build a room around artwork. Yoshitomo Nara’s Three Sisters, 2008, hangs opposite a sleek gray dining table and white chandelier, the painting’s apple green background filling the room with a playful irreverence.
One of Yayoi Kusama’s polished bronze pumpkins is installed in an all-white foyer, its sloping staircase drawing the eye toward the sculpture. The French artist Ingrid Donat, who completely designed the dining room of a Presidio Heights Tudor, recognizes what collaborating with Hollis does to a space. It becomes, she writes, “a place where art is in dialogue, whether it is with individuals, artistic and craft disciplines, shapes, materials, or influences—a place where art celebrates life.”
With essays from Mauro Mori, Studio Job, Pae White, Jeff Zimmerman, and more, Artistry of Home is Hollis’s offering to those who love art, design, and the alchemical experience that unfolds when they intersect.
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