“When I think about what moves me most in my life, it is beauty,” writes California-based interior designer Barbara Barry in her debut book, fittingly titled Barbara Barry: Around Beauty (Rizzoli, $65). In addition to presenting tours of several residences she has decorated, the volume details the things that inspire her: a horn bracelet, a Mexican fig tree in the courtyard of a client’s Los Angeles home, Shaker philosophy—to name just a few.

The Summer Palaces of the Romanovs: Treasures from Tsarskoye Selo (Thames & Hudson, $100) reveals just how good it was to be czar. At this imperial compound the splendor of the buildings’ exteriors is exceeded only by the richly appointed interiors: Even everyday items, such as a mother-of-pearl sewing kit, an amber shaving set, and a silver spoon engraved with images of the Kremlin, are remarkable feats of craft.

The Iconic Interior: Private Spaces of Leading Artists, Architects, and Designers (Abrams, $65) surveys 100 of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most celebrated dwellings. The range is deep and broad, featuring not only sumptuous and stately standards like Coco Chanel’s Paris flat and Jacques Garcia’s Normandy château but also Dieter Rams’s functionalist Frankfurt digs and John Pawson’s understated London home.