Blackbarn

This coffee-table tome features striking photography by photographer Eric Laignel, with whom Zeff has collaborated for over 15 years and who also wrote the foreword. There are also personal photographs by Zeff documenting his world travels. In addition, Zeff shares his innovative ways of combining high and low elements, the rare and the utilitarian, and collected objects paired with contemporary art and design. The book provides practical ideas for decorating, planning, storage, maximizing indoor/outdoor living, and how to use humble materials to create unforgettable spaces.

‘Blackbarn’ takes readers on a journey through Zeff’s home and synthesizes the influences in his life that have affected the way he designs. The Approach showcases all the elements that inspire Zeff, from the beach to the dunes to landscapes that lead to the approach of ‘Blackbarn’. Arrival is what you are about to experience from ‘Blackbarn’. Indoor/Outdoor shares how to mix outdoor elements inside the home and how to take the indoors out. Gathering Spaces focuses on the kitchen and dining areas. Collecting shows how a lifetime of travel and collecting influences his interiors. Textures highlights a host of patterns, shadows, and materials found in ‘Blackbarn’. Garden punctuates Zeff’s approach to designing the outdoors, and Sanctuary is all about the home’s intimate nooks and havens.

There is casualness in ‘Blackbarn’ but also a bit of theater. The home is equal parts nature and culture, industrial and artful. For all these reasons, ‘Blackbarn’ is also the purest expression of Zeff’s creative worldview, embodying a lifetime of travel, influences, ideas, and experiences.