This article is part of our Design special section about making the environment a creative partner in the design of beautiful homes. Interior design, an art form vulnerable to owners’ changing tastes and the frailties of fabrics and wallpapers, is often appreciated only fleetingly, or in retrospect. Several recent books capture this evanescence in the ghosts of an abandoned crafts community, the inspirations of a 20th-century maverick decorator, the rocking decks of floating homes and the ever-evolving ambience of plant-filled rooms.

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