Inspiration is everywhere, it’s true, and what better place to look than peering through the rooms of one of the greatest style arbiters of our time? A few months ago, Thames & Hudson released The Private World of Yves St. Laurent & Pierre Bergé. In it is a rare treat - photographer Ivan Terestchenko documents countless rooms and gardens across seven homes that St. Laurent shared with his long time companion. The resulting book is quintessentially YSL: refined, elegant, with ravishing attention to detail and dare we say it, hints of quirkiness.

The book is hugely inspiring and sure to become a collector’s item, so snatch it up now and take notes... We love the old fashioned telephone propped on a nobly side table in one of Bergé’s bathrooms. And the gorgeous Greek tiles that border the ceiling of YSL’s serenely pretty space – we’re envisioning chic topiaries filling those corner cachepots. It’s all very highbrow indeed, but they let their hair down in Morocco; where another bathroom features playful colored glass windows in eye-popping stains.

In a move that shocked many, Bergé put most of their belongings up for auction after St. Laurent’s 2008 death. The resulting Christie’s sale, at the Grand Palais in Paris, garnered record-breaking results. For a peak inside the jaw-dropping figures, check out the July issue of American Architectural Digest.

Photographs © Ivan Terestchenko