Worlds of Wonder by Mario López-Cordero

The first book from Los Angeles–based interior designer Richard Hallberg charts an evocative body of work that spans seaside, mountaintop, country, and urban locales and celebrates the sensual, boundary-defying aesthetic of a true original.

In spaces that forgo easy categorization of traditional or contemporary, Hallberg uses art and objects from every genre and era—eighteenth-century gilt consoles, African baskets, selenite-slab tables—in a seductive interpretation of modernity that embodies the multifaceted, multicultural way we live today.

Wrought by a native Californian with the heart of a classicist, these rooms reserve space for sunlight, foliage, and the sound of trickling water, which make the exalted approachable and revere the perfectly imperfect. Hallberg incorporates the finest natural and artisanal materials—reclaimed wood, hand-troweled plaster, marble, limestone, crisp linen, and sumptuous wool—but understands that the greatest luxury of all is comfort. This volume chronicles the instinctual process of a designer who eschews hard-and-fast rules for the wonder of breaking them, who leaves no stone unturned in his uncompromising search for beauty, and whose lifelong pursuit of the magical, ineffable, and gorgeous has yielded an incomparable oeuvre.

Richard Hallberg is an award-winning Los Angeles–based interior designer and president and design director of two furniture companies, Dennis & Leen and Formations. Mario López-Cordero is a freelance journalist and the former senior editor of Veranda. His work has appeared in Martha Stewart Living, Elle Decor, and House Beautiful. Dara Caponigro has contributed to House Beautiful, Elle Decor, and Domino (where she was a founding editor). She is the creative director of F. Schumacher & Co.

Author Residence: Los Angeles and Montecito, CA