Named one of Elle Decor’s Best Coffee Table Books to Gift in 2022A tastemaking couple shares their playbook for creating a home that’s both beautiful and comfortable Chris Mitchell and Pilar Guzmán are design obsessives who both want the same thing: rooms that are spare yet warm, layered yet clean, current yet timeless. Rooms that never forget the real humans—with all their needs, hopes, emotions, aspirations, and even spills—who live in these spaces. Over the course of six ever more ambitious home renovations, they’ve cracked the code on how to achieve this. It’s a simple formula, one that lies in mixing modern design with timeworn materials—in particular, white oak, brass, and bridle leather, all three of which become richer, mellower, and burnished with patina as they age.