Product Description

The colour scheme is often the first thing people notice when they walk into a room, so your choice of shades is the most important decision you will make when decorating your home. Getting it wrong can leave a room looking bland and insipid or overpowering and garish; getting it right is both exciting and rewarding. Here, leading authority on interior design, Caroline Clifton-Mogg, guides you expertly through every aspect of using colour in the home, from choosing the right scheme for the right room to adding the perfect finishing touches. The first hurdle is finding inspiration, so advice is offered on applying the lessons of nature, art, and history to your home. Caroline then explores colour in depth, delving into the nuances of the interior decorator's palette. All colours have hidden subtleties and resonances--think of the rich brown of tanned leather, the gray-blue of a frozen pond, the faded purple of old velvet--and, depending on how they are used, they can make or break a room's design. No colour works in isolation, and successful colour combination is the only way to achieve a winning design scheme. "The Color Design Source Book" shows a wide range of classic and unusual looks--sometimes subtle and sophisticated, sometimes bold and humorous, but always stylish and inspirational. The book also offers advice on using colours to create the atmosphere you want or to affect the shape or size of a room. A frosty living room becomes a haven of comfort; an oppressive hallway, a welcoming entrance; and a dreary kitchen becomes the heart of the home. Finally, the mysteries of professional colour finishes are unraveled, from selecting the right paints for the job to applying decorative finishes or even using textiles to cover your walls. So, whether you are planning a whole new look or simply enhancing an existing scheme with a fresh splash of colour, "The Color Design Source Book" shows how to make colours really work for you in every room of your home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #667363 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 191 pages

About the Author
Caroline Clifton-Mogg is an experienced journalist and author. She contributes to such magazines and newspapers as House & Garden, Country Life, The Financial Times, and You magazine, writing about interior design, gardens, and other subjects. She is a contributing editor to both Harpers & Queen and Christie's magazine and her books include The Interior Design File, Curtains: A Design Source Book (both published by Ryland Peters & Small), and Decorating with Antiques (Bulfinch).

Alan Williams is a photographer specializing in interiors and architecture. His clients include contemporary American and British architects and English Heritage, and his work has appeared in numerous publications, including Abitare, Blueprint, and The Independent Magazine.

Customer Reviews

Not just for the pictures
The designs of many of the rooms have a modern British feel, and I'm not in love with them (they remind me of the Terrance Conran books). BUT...the prose in this book is outstanding, and the author has a grasp of the use of cool and warm colors, and what colors tend to look best with others. This is probably the most "entertaining" read you are going to find out of a color design book (most color books are pretty bad). You'll refer to this often.

Oh What a Little Paint Can Do-Do-Do!!!
Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson "Back to Literature" columnist for MyShelf

One of the most stylish publishers that exhibits at Book Expo America each year is Ryland Peters and Small of London and New York. The Color Design Source Book by Caroline Clifton-Mogg is one of their smartest presentations.

Much more than a how-to book, this is very nearly a piece for the coffee table. The size is impressive, the colors more than catching, the paper quality so luxurious a browser notices the "click, snap" sound of the pages as they turn. Mostly, though, it is the content that keeps a reader between the covers. Clifton-Mogg covers color, pure and simply. She explains what it is, gives something of its history and is off and running with the different color group, nicely arranged so that a researcher can find what she wants and a browser just can't wait to go from one luscious assembly of colors to another.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel THIS IS THE PLACE has won eight awards. Her book of creative nonfiction, HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED, has won three. Her newest effort, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T is released in September.