The French Connection Book

In The French Connection, best-selling author and interior designer Betty Lou Phillips offers a fresh approach on distinctive, pleasing interiors that are at once a bit English, a dash Swedish, a trace Italian-and, mais oui!-a bit French.

The author of seven best-selling books on French design, including Villa Decor, Unmistakably French, and Secrets of French Design, Phillips now shatters the notion that a room must have elements from one culture only and instead assembles a veritable bazaar of choices that showcase the best from a wide world of countries and cultures.

For a generation or more, the assumption was that it was best to stick with one furniture style and period. Phillips encourages a move beyond that notion, to push the borders of design, creating pleasing and livable interiors that cull the best design elements and styles from Europe, Eastern Europe, and even the Far East. She shows how to achieve a truly artful mix of comfort and chic.

The French Connection effortlessly mixes and mingles in a way that is far from stylistically limiting-sometimes satisfying our cravings close to home, other times taking far-flung journeys to places that ultimately revolutionize our thinking.

"Purists, rejoice . . . Phillips explains French styling in the context of French history."

-USA Today

Betty Lou Phillips is the author of the award-winning Villa Decor: Decidedly French and Italian Style, plus Secrets of French Design, Unmistakably French, French Influences, French by Design, and Provencal Interiors: French Country Style in America. A professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers, her work has appeared in magazines and newspapers throughout the country, including Southern Accents, Traditional Home, Decor, Better Homes and Gardens Decorating, Bedroom & Bath, Window & Wall, Paint Decor, and more. Additionally, she has appeared on the "Christopher Lowell Show" and the "Oprah Winfrey Show." She lives in Dallas, Texas.