Country and Modern: Contemporary Interiors for Rural Settings - Decoration Book

Country and Modern: Contemporary Interiors for Rural Settings by Dinah Hall, 1998 Hardcover, English, 160 pages, 22x28 cm. Published at the end of the 1990s, Country and Modern captures a moment when rural interiors were beginning to shed the nostalgia and decorative excess traditionally associated with “country style.” Dinah Hall proposes something much quieter: old houses and rural settings inhabited by modern furniture, clean lines and an almost austere sense of space. What makes the book particularly compelling now is the tension in its interiors, worn fireplaces beside minimal upholstery, rustic kitchens with graphic tiled floors, contemporary architecture opening directly onto woodland, and modernist chairs placed within centuries-old stone rooms. Rather than romanticising the countryside, Hall looks at how a house can belong to its landscape without pretending to belong to another century. A beautiful late-90s document of restrained country living, and a surprisingly current reference for the kind of interiors where age, imperfection and modern design are allowed to sit comfortably together.