---
product_id: 5379411
title: "An Affair with a House: A rare inside look at a top decorator's approach to the pleasures and challenges of creating a beautiful, comfortable country home"
price: "21543 kr"
currency: ISK
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.is/products/5379411-an-affair-with-a-house-a-rare-inside-look-at
store_origin: IS
region: Iceland
---

# Authentic 18th-century home restoration Rare insider design insights Stunning high-quality photography An Affair with a House: A rare inside look at a top decorator's approach to the pleasures and challenges of creating a beautiful, comfortable country home

**Price:** 21543 kr
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 🏡 Dive into timeless elegance with Bunny Williams’ ultimate country home love story!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** An Affair with a House: A rare inside look at a top decorator's approach to the pleasures and challenges of creating a beautiful, comfortable country home
- **How much does it cost?** 21543 kr with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.is](https://www.desertcart.is/products/5379411-an-affair-with-a-house-a-rare-inside-look-at)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Visual Masterpiece:** Glossy, large-format pages showcase breathtaking room and garden photography that doubles as fine art.
- • **Insider Design Wisdom:** Gain exclusive access to Bunny Williams’ expert tips on decorating, antiques, and blending styles for timeless elegance.
- • **Lifestyle Inspiration:** More than a design book—discover recipes, garden tips, and real-life stories that bring the country home to life.
- • **Collector’s Condition:** NewMint condition with guaranteed same-day dispatch and hassle-free returns—perfect for discerning book lovers.
- • **Authentic Restoration Journey:** Follow a 28-year passionate renovation of a historic New England manor, blending heritage with modern comfort.

## Overview

An Affair with a House offers an intimate, richly illustrated journey through the 28-year restoration of an 18th-century New England manor by renowned decorator Bunny Williams. Combining expert design advice, personal anecdotes, and stunning photography, this large-format book is a must-have for lovers of classic interiors, antiques, and authentic country living.

## Description

This classic book is a rare inside look at a top decorator’s retreat and explains how she approached the joys, pleasures, challenges, obstacles, and day-to-day realities of creating a beautiful, comfortable country home. Beloved decorator Bunny Williams describes in detail how she and her husband, antiques dealer John Rosselli, rescued, nurtured, renovated, and decorated their well-worn 18th-century house, giving it new life as they restored each room, resurrected the abandoned gardens, and filled this weekend home with family and friends. Through photographs, anecdotes, how-tos, and recipes, Williams provides a rare inside look at a top decorator’s retreat and explains how she approached the joys, pleasures, challenges, obstacles, and day-to-day realities of creating a beautiful, comfortable country home. An Affair with a House provides a wealth of advice on interior decor and such topics as mixing design styles, but it also addresses such practical matters as stocking the pantry and outfitting the linen closet. Beautiful photographs of the house, the gardens, and the property’s rustic structures provide an intimate glimpse of the couple’s lifestyle and illustrate a way of life we can all appreciate and learn from. This book takes readers on a journey as world-renowned interior designer Bunny Williams describes her a passionate love affair with an 18th-century New England manor house. From the moment she walked up the driveway and her palms began to perspire, Williams knew she wanted the affair to last forever. Also available from Bunny Williams: A House by the Sea Bunny Williams on Garden Style

Review: This book is the most beautiful one I have ever bought - The reviews all ready written describe the book perfectly. I have around fifteen hundred books as I am a lover of them. This book is the most beautiful one I have ever bought. It is worth far more than the price.. The house that is the subject of the book and was restored by Bunny Williams and her husband was built in 1840, a time period when architects loved beautiful homes and not what is built today. The photography of the rooms, porches, decorative items and paintings is superb. Every page is glossy and of extremely high quality paper. I could never own a home of such incredible beauty but, it brings joy to my heart to turn the pages and admire this very old one restored to more than its original state. The Manor House as they call it, the old carriage house where the original owner pulled in the horses and carriage have all been restored and the barn turned into living quarters. Bunny searched ways to match original paint scraped from places. The magnificence of the buildings is never reproduced today. I get enjoyment looking at the pictures of the incredibly beautiful gigantic windows (this is a large size book, not a regular hardcover size). Not only have they brought beauty to each room from the furnishings for which they searched over years but, they painted inside and out and restored courtyards. I have turned these pages dozens of times. I am so appreciative that Bunny Williams admired beauty to a degree that she and her husband would spend 28 years creating a "paradiso". All the ugliness in the world today of fashion, language, music and architecture, the tearing down of old buildings of stunning architecture from a different age and replacing them with "pop art" type of designs is heartbreaking. So it is sheer joy to hold this book in my hands as a treasure. Thank you Bunny Williams for working on this book so we can be thrilled with your love of beauty that is rare these days. Thank you to John your husband whom you say is an antiques dealer for finding (I am assuming) so many of the antiques that grace the home.
Review: Many Dimensions of Excellence - "I am not sure if I believe in destiny, but I do know that after years of looking for a house, my palms began to perspire as I turned onto a tree-lined driveway in a small New England village." This is the beginning of a beautiful tale that grows in the telling, as Bunny Williams invites the reader into a creative journey that is uncommonly rich, deep, and satisfying. The author has in fact woven a number of story lines together into a seamless fabric of exceptional beauty. Each chapter begins with a piece of the actual love story - the room by room accounting of how Williams transformed a dilapidated 18th century manor house and the property on which it stands into a masterpiece of surpassing elegance and style. This is followed by a photographic exploration of each area in which every image is a composition that would stand on its own as fine art. Captions to the illustrations are instructive and helpful without deconstructing the harmony of the spaces that Williams has created. And, interspersed throughout it all, are practical tips and advice on a variety of subjects such as hunting for antiques, arranging flowers, and even setting up for a picnic. Totally absent is the self absorbed, prissy, and obsessive tone that often attaches itself to the work of great decorators. Instead, this is an intimate celebration of life complete with dogs, chickens, vegetables, flowers, and a very beloved husband. Williams makes the point that a zest for living and a keen understanding of human behavior underscore every successful design. This book is beautifully conceived, beautifully written, beautifully illustrated, and beautifully executed in every aspect. I give it my highest recommendation.

## Features

- New
- Mint Condition
- Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
- Guaranteed packaging
- No quibbles returns

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #214,621 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #45 in House & Hotel Photography #90 in Lifestyle Photography #478 in Photograpy Equipment & Techniques |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 386 Reviews |

## Images

![An Affair with a House: A rare inside look at a top decorator's approach to the pleasures and challenges of creating a beautiful, comfortable country home - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1nn9m9n3SL.jpg)

## Available Options

This product comes in different **Media Format** options.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book is the most beautiful one I have ever bought
*by J***N on August 2, 2017*

The reviews all ready written describe the book perfectly. I have around fifteen hundred books as I am a lover of them. This book is the most beautiful one I have ever bought. It is worth far more than the price.. The house that is the subject of the book and was restored by Bunny Williams and her husband was built in 1840, a time period when architects loved beautiful homes and not what is built today. The photography of the rooms, porches, decorative items and paintings is superb. Every page is glossy and of extremely high quality paper. I could never own a home of such incredible beauty but, it brings joy to my heart to turn the pages and admire this very old one restored to more than its original state. The Manor House as they call it, the old carriage house where the original owner pulled in the horses and carriage have all been restored and the barn turned into living quarters. Bunny searched ways to match original paint scraped from places. The magnificence of the buildings is never reproduced today. I get enjoyment looking at the pictures of the incredibly beautiful gigantic windows (this is a large size book, not a regular hardcover size). Not only have they brought beauty to each room from the furnishings for which they searched over years but, they painted inside and out and restored courtyards. I have turned these pages dozens of times. I am so appreciative that Bunny Williams admired beauty to a degree that she and her husband would spend 28 years creating a "paradiso". All the ugliness in the world today of fashion, language, music and architecture, the tearing down of old buildings of stunning architecture from a different age and replacing them with "pop art" type of designs is heartbreaking. So it is sheer joy to hold this book in my hands as a treasure. Thank you Bunny Williams for working on this book so we can be thrilled with your love of beauty that is rare these days. Thank you to John your husband whom you say is an antiques dealer for finding (I am assuming) so many of the antiques that grace the home.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Many Dimensions of Excellence
*by A***K on January 1, 2006*

"I am not sure if I believe in destiny, but I do know that after years of looking for a house, my palms began to perspire as I turned onto a tree-lined driveway in a small New England village." This is the beginning of a beautiful tale that grows in the telling, as Bunny Williams invites the reader into a creative journey that is uncommonly rich, deep, and satisfying. The author has in fact woven a number of story lines together into a seamless fabric of exceptional beauty. Each chapter begins with a piece of the actual love story - the room by room accounting of how Williams transformed a dilapidated 18th century manor house and the property on which it stands into a masterpiece of surpassing elegance and style. This is followed by a photographic exploration of each area in which every image is a composition that would stand on its own as fine art. Captions to the illustrations are instructive and helpful without deconstructing the harmony of the spaces that Williams has created. And, interspersed throughout it all, are practical tips and advice on a variety of subjects such as hunting for antiques, arranging flowers, and even setting up for a picnic. Totally absent is the self absorbed, prissy, and obsessive tone that often attaches itself to the work of great decorators. Instead, this is an intimate celebration of life complete with dogs, chickens, vegetables, flowers, and a very beloved husband. Williams makes the point that a zest for living and a keen understanding of human behavior underscore every successful design. This book is beautifully conceived, beautifully written, beautifully illustrated, and beautifully executed in every aspect. I give it my highest recommendation.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Love this book so much 🥺
*by A***A on October 28, 2021*

I've spent the past two evening reading this book cover to cover and looking at the gorgeous images. Multiple times have said OMG aloud. This house(s), the property, and the lifestyle encapsulated in this book are just incredible. It was so very inspiring to read Bunny's multi-decade journey restoring this old house into an unbelievably beautiful home. No detail is left unconsidered. As a very detail-oriented person who has been very blessed this past year to acquire an 1890s row home both big on character and big on projects (projects, so many projects...), I've recently felt a bit overwhelmed about what we've taken on. This book has re-energized me. Also, she offers plenty of inspired ideas for things one can only hope to acquire. Her taste is really so beautiful; nothing like the generic, modern design style so popular today. I love this book very much.

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*Product available on Desertcart Iceland*
*Store origin: IS*
*Last updated: 2026-09-08*