Return to Pretty: Giving New Life to Traditional Style

by Caitlin Wilson

Interior and product designer Caitlin Wilson’s Return to Pretty inspires home stylists with how to make a home not just look beautiful but also feel lovely, classic, happy, and comfortable.

Caitlin Wilson led the charge on “Grandmillennial” style long before it became a hashtag. Her new take on classic, traditional style focuses on warmth, floral prints, and old-fashioned elegance. In Return to Pretty , Wilson shares her design process and her ideas on how to make a home not just look beautiful, but also feel lovely, classic, happy, and comfortable.

This is also the story of how Wilson’s own personal style has evolved to create the foundation for her design philosophy, her family home, and her eponymous décor brand and design studio. With an emphasis on fashion and family, and centered around the importance of home, her approach to creating pretty spaces is all about being effortless and refined, while designing rooms that are easy to maintain with a sense of luxurious livability.

Featuring stunning photographs, a pastel color palette, vivid prints, and easy-to-follow design tips, Wilson’s twists on tradition will inspire readers to create a style that’s beautiful and sophisticated.

Genres: Nonfiction, Coffee Table Books

256 pages, Hardcover

Published April 18, 2023

Reviews

[Rachel B · Rating 1 out of 5]

The style here is very much 80's pastel florals, which I didn't like then and don't like now.

This is really more of a catalog than a design book, as all the rooms are decorated with the author's branded furnishings, and they all look exactly alike. The spaces themselves are not styled or designed well. They have zero depth or personality.

Weirdly, there are many photographs of the author in fancy outfits included. She seems a bit self-obsessed. I didn't fully read the text of the book, but when I did inadvertently look at it here and there, the author was going on and on about her brand, which she named after herself, and it reads very awkwardly.

[Strakr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift and wasn't familiar with Caitlin Wilson's work before reading. It's all the same color palette and the entire book reads like an ad for her shop. So many better design books out there for those who like a variety of colors.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very pretty designs, though 99 percent of the decor shown is pink, blue, or pink and blue.

Like ... That's literally all.

Also, some of the designs are impractical. For example, why would you place three fragile lamps on dressers in a young child's room? Those are ripe for getting knocked over and smashed.

[David R Zenz and Julie Zenz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another lovely book

Oh so many pretty things. The book is full of eye candy...let's face it, it's nice to look at beautiful pictures. The text was interesting as well. I love blue and there was lots of blue as well. Buy the book and enjoy!

[Leeayn Chapman · Rating 1 out of 5]

So very disappointed. I thought this would be a book of beautiful rooms, but it reminded me of country club living in the 70s and 80s. I hated that look then and I sure hate it now. Just showing off her own brand.

[Kati Polodna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent a glorious rainy morning devoting the eye candy inside this design book.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty grownup picture book. So many throw pillows!!

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really pretty book. Lots of pastels and traditional style.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute but repetitive.