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House Beautiful Colors for Your Home: 300 Designer Favorites
What transforms a room from monotone to magical? Color! So, if you’re nervous about splashing that white with bright, this conveniently portable primer based on House Beautiful ’s most popular column will help. With special insider advice from top designers, plus a directory of actual paint swatches , this book is the most comprehensive and appealing color resource available today. All the colors are searchable by shade and by room, and every paint is accompanied by its manufacturer, name, and number, so you can match what you want right from the book. The guide’s unique format makes everything easy.
Noted designers with long and distinguished careers offer suggestions for every room and mood. They provide advice on which shades to start with and which to experiment with, the classic palettes they keep coming back to, and how the right colors can simply make us feel good. Gorgeous room shots—such as Paula Perlini’s delphinium blue bedroom and Amanda Keyser’s merlot red walls—are accompanied by the exact brands of paint and their swatches, so you can examine the colors closely.An invaluable guide to color, this book will help you pick the right paints that will add beauty and style to your home.
Noted designers with long and distinguished careers offer suggestions for every room and mood. They provide advice on which shades to start with and which to experiment with, the classic palettes they keep coming back to, and how the right colors can simply make us feel good. Gorgeous room shots—such as Paula Perlini’s delphinium blue bedroom and Amanda Keyser’s merlot red walls—are accompanied by the exact brands of paint and their swatches, so you can examine the colors closely.An invaluable guide to color, this book will help you pick the right paints that will add beauty and style to your home.
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 21, 2009
I was excited about this book. I just bought my first home and it needs a lot of painting; I love color but don't trust my instincts for what will look good on a wall. The concept of the book is great, but I found it a little frustrating. Most of the colors are shown only in small squares, which gives a reader very little sense of what they will look like in rooms (the colors that are shown in rooms tend to look quite different from their chips, which leads me to believe this is an important distinction). Additionally annoying is the fact that most of the colors I liked are no longer produced by the paint companies listed. The book was published in 2008, so after only a year it's already not as useful as it should be. It's a good starting point and a great idea, but would work better on the Web, where discontinued colors could be removed and new colors added as necessary. Bottom line: glad I borrowed this from the library instead of shelling out money for it.
August 25, 2009
This is a pleasant little book full of 300+ paint swatches. Each swatch is accompanied by a (usually) insipid comment from a designer who has used it. Every other page shows a room decorated in a selected color (which it would be nice to have more of, because it introduces lighting conditions, furniture, trim, etc.). The book finishes with a room-by-room color index and a shade-by-shade index. A caveat is that color reproductions of paint and swatches are notoriously difficult to get right; the swatch they show for Benjamin Moore November Rain, which I used in my living room, is not even close to being accurate. Way, way off. The Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue, however, a very popular color, looks pretty on target.
August 5, 2018
This book caught my eye on a coffee shop book exchange shelf while waiting for my order. I'm fascinated by color and how even varying shades of the same hue can carry different messages and evoke varying moods.
This book did not disappoint. It was a quick read, but full of fascinating perspectives on selecting paint colors for specific rooms of the house based on use, lighting, style, era, size, and taste. I loved the plethora of insights from people who design interior spaces for a living, because they always qualify their opinions with explanations. It's never just, "I'm a designer and I say this looks good, so do it." It's always, "I like to do this because I feel it..." or "I tend to choose that because it makes me think of..." It's never presumptuous enough to assume that the readers have the same tastes or opinions.
One aspect I really liked was the section on accenting with something OTHER than walls, floor, and ceiling. It was fun to get color selections and recommendations for chairs, mirrors, bed frames, doors, and other articles around the room that are typically ignored in favor of slapping large sections of color on the walls.
I also appreciated the three versions of index in the back: One by room, one by shade, one by color name. It made brainstorming for my own home after reading through the book much easier.
However, if I were to find one fault with the book, it would be that many of the designers are a bit pretentious, casually tossing around phrases such as, "my favorite patisserie in Paris," "memories of Sicily," "outside my home in France," "the view I had from my mountain chalet in Argentina," and "when I was in Andrew Lloyd Weber's music room," as well as several mentions of "what I did with (insert celebrity name here)'s space was..." It got a bit eye-roll worthy as I felt many of the designers were trying to prove their merit by name-dropping and showing off instead of just sharing their experience and perspectives from years of designing and observing.
Overall, an enjoyable, colorful book with a few things that made me laugh, a few surprises, and many many inspirations.
This book did not disappoint. It was a quick read, but full of fascinating perspectives on selecting paint colors for specific rooms of the house based on use, lighting, style, era, size, and taste. I loved the plethora of insights from people who design interior spaces for a living, because they always qualify their opinions with explanations. It's never just, "I'm a designer and I say this looks good, so do it." It's always, "I like to do this because I feel it..." or "I tend to choose that because it makes me think of..." It's never presumptuous enough to assume that the readers have the same tastes or opinions.
One aspect I really liked was the section on accenting with something OTHER than walls, floor, and ceiling. It was fun to get color selections and recommendations for chairs, mirrors, bed frames, doors, and other articles around the room that are typically ignored in favor of slapping large sections of color on the walls.
I also appreciated the three versions of index in the back: One by room, one by shade, one by color name. It made brainstorming for my own home after reading through the book much easier.
However, if I were to find one fault with the book, it would be that many of the designers are a bit pretentious, casually tossing around phrases such as, "my favorite patisserie in Paris," "memories of Sicily," "outside my home in France," "the view I had from my mountain chalet in Argentina," and "when I was in Andrew Lloyd Weber's music room," as well as several mentions of "what I did with (insert celebrity name here)'s space was..." It got a bit eye-roll worthy as I felt many of the designers were trying to prove their merit by name-dropping and showing off instead of just sharing their experience and perspectives from years of designing and observing.
Overall, an enjoyable, colorful book with a few things that made me laugh, a few surprises, and many many inspirations.
September 14, 2022
Oh boy. I was hoping this would discuss what to consider when choosing colors for a space, what to generally look for in a color/color combo, how to get color on your walls without the color being overbearing/overpowering, types of colors well suited to different overall aesthetic goals, etc.
It does not. It is just a swatch book. And since I got it as an e-book from the library, not the most helpful swatch book at that. The descriptions of each paint featured absolutely reek of pretension, are florid, and (with a few exceptions here and there to note color pairings) are broadly useless. Pictures of full spaces painted in a given recommended color or color combo -- which are way more useful and inspiring than just the swatch of color itself -- are infrequent. And, especially since there's no discussion of the price or general merits aside from color tone of the different brands of paints included, it's not even a particularly useable review of the paints in question.
Can be helpful to see a broad range of what's out there/what's possible for interior home design, but like, it's basically as helpful as standing at a hardware store in the swatch section, so I consider flipping through it largely a waste of time.
It does not. It is just a swatch book. And since I got it as an e-book from the library, not the most helpful swatch book at that. The descriptions of each paint featured absolutely reek of pretension, are florid, and (with a few exceptions here and there to note color pairings) are broadly useless. Pictures of full spaces painted in a given recommended color or color combo -- which are way more useful and inspiring than just the swatch of color itself -- are infrequent. And, especially since there's no discussion of the price or general merits aside from color tone of the different brands of paints included, it's not even a particularly useable review of the paints in question.
Can be helpful to see a broad range of what's out there/what's possible for interior home design, but like, it's basically as helpful as standing at a hardware store in the swatch section, so I consider flipping through it largely a waste of time.
March 18, 2022
Designers give their input on colors, why they choose them, how they add to the feel of a room, etc.. The colors are labeled with the exact names and brand so you can find it in the stores. It gives you a different way of looking at choosing colors. The designer input is really different. I wish there were more pictures to go along with the stories though.
December 16, 2019
Aids in helping to choose colors of paint for your home.
February 25, 2011
You may be saying to yourself, Why would I read a book that's just a bunch of swatches? Or at least, that is what I said when I picked it up. But there are some good snippets of advice from designers that go along with the colours.
This is a good book for a couple to sit down with when planning the colour scheme of their house. You can read along, point, argue and agree over the hundreds of choices. It's also a good way to narrow down what you like (or hate).
This is a good book for a couple to sit down with when planning the colour scheme of their house. You can read along, point, argue and agree over the hundreds of choices. It's also a good way to narrow down what you like (or hate).
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November 3, 2008I love learning about color. Based on a regular column in the magazine, this book pulls together paint color choices from designers, decorators and color experts, and features them with brief explanations of why they love the color and in what rooms and for what moods they think it works. It's helping me to better understand how color works.
April 10, 2009
This is the book I've been waiting for my whole life! It's a compilation of color suggestions from designers about what colors worked for them, with explanations of how they look in a room. If you are looking to paint a room in your house, this will narrow down your choices to some tried and true shades and lessen your chances of making a big mistake. Now I want to repaint every room in my house!
September 12, 2009
1"x1" tiles of color flood the book to help you get a feel for color and what might work in your own home. Useful color index in the back of the book shows colors by shade. Lovely photos give you an idea of how the color can work in a designscape. Still trying to pick a color for my rooms. Wish there was more help about how to combine colors in rooms too.
May 1, 2014
this book is full of photos and hand selected paint/color choices - from designers i respect. full of photographs and the REASONS that the designers paired particular tints, hues together. And in particular i like that it gives their recommendations for rooms: bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms AND there are also their favorite greens, greys, blues, etc. I love that.
August 17, 2014
This book was equally great as it was a disappointment. The paint swatches were inconsistent -- some looked like the swatches from the paint store, and others were completely off base. My suggestion: write down the colors you think you like, then grab a bunch of the brand's official swatches from the store to assess whether you actually like the color.
August 14, 2008
the most inexpensive way to uplift/facelift any space. A $30 gallon of paint is your best friend. This books helps you look at what will work for you. Break out of that box and do something inventive.
January 5, 2009
Great book for choosing colors by mood as opposed to palates. (Did I spell that right?) Extremely well organized. I liked that it was in a small book format but wish it was just a tad larger to make the photos more helpful.
April 7, 2011
A little book just full of great ideas and insights, lovely unusual ways of using color in ways I wouldn't have thought of for effects that are very satisfying. Plus, the designer quotes about the colors they select is delightful and just a pleasure to read. So much personality and style!
October 16, 2015
Cute little book with lots of pretty color ideas for painting various rooms in your home. I liked that the colors came from designers who have used them in interior decorating and the book is focused on colors. Got some good ideas.
January 26, 2015
The colors are great, and I got a few ideas from this book, but I really would have liked to see more photos of them in actual houses.
January 23, 2024
[coffee table book] good inspiration when you're looking to decorate
April 18, 2016
Okay book about paint colors.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews