Book excerpt: Following an unimaginable year, esteemed designer Victoria Hagan shares her vision for the meaning and significance of home through important and beautiful new projects for homeowners. As an acclaimed interior designer and member of the AD100 and the Interior Design Hall of Fame, Victoria Hagan had achieved the highest pinnacle of success in her field. But when 2020 arrived, she found herself, like all of us, at home, seeing her life and her space with fresh eyes. The result is this book—a creative manifesto and a life-affirming look at the nature of home, and how it connects and calms us, comforts and nourishes us. Serenely paced to give the images room to breathe, the layout has the rigorous simplicity that is so important to Victoria's work Beautifully designed with a luxurious oversize package that includes gatefolds, Live Now celebrates the quiet and extraordinary beauty of the everyday. Open windows beckon, through which we glimpse the ocean, its hues echoed in the interior palette. A chair for reading waits on a patio, overlooking an expanse of hills. Fresh corn and strawberries from the farmers’ market tumble over a kitchen table. The 12 dwellings featured in Live Now may range in style, but all share the soothing, light-filled palette, serenity of mood, and aesthetic rigor for which Hagan is renowned, as well as a deep connection to their surroundings, from Sonoma to Palm Beach, Manhattan to Martha’s Vineyard.