Book excerpt: Architect Bobby McAlpine and interior design partner Susan Ferrier share their poetic approach to creating beautiful interiors in this follow-up to the best-selling The Home Within Us. In their newest book, the famed design team discusses the principles that guide their extraordinary work and share ideas for creating atmospheric environments. The book profiles a selection of houses that resonate with the firm's nuanced and sensual aesthetic. Combining painterly hues, diverse textures, and rich patinas, these interiors include a mix of antiques and contemporary furnishings. Throughout, we are shown the methods that these masters have honed to produce striking, inspiring spaces. In one featured residence, dark and light tones play off each other, with shimmering accents of silver, gold, and glass. Another house epitomizes the power of white's purity to refresh the eye. The cool blue of water and shades of the forest floor make up the naturalistic palette of a third dwelling. In all, modern-day upholstered pieces combine with fine and rustic antiques to furnish rooms that are welcoming.