Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Gardening Guides)

Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Gardening Guides)
Average customer rating:

Gardening

Very helpful handbook

A must have

Great idea book with pictures of shade lovers

Not a good resource for Southern gardeners

Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Gardening Guides)

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Vinyl Bound

General | Flowers | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Shade | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Shrubs | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Taylor's 50 Best Perennials for Shade: Easy Plants for More Beautiful Gardens (Taylor's 50 Best)

Making the Most of Shade: How to Plan, Plant, and Grow a Fabulous Garden that Lightens up the Shadows

Taylor's Guide to Shrubs: How to Select and Grow More than 500 Ornamental and Useful Shrubs for Privacy, Ground Covers, and Specimen Plantings

The Complete Shade Gardener

Taylor's Guide to Perennials

ASIN: 0395651654

Book Description

This comprehensive guide addresses one of the most common problems for gardeners. Shade Gardening has over 250 color photographs of the 350 best trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, bulbs, ground covers, vines, ferns, and grasses for shaded areas. Articles cover the basics of growing plants in the shade as well as such subjects as city gardens, flowers, foliage plants, pests and diseases, and lawns.

Customer Reviews:

Gardening.......2005-08-25

Provides lots of interesting gardening information if you are planting only trees and shrubs. Book does not detail anything for vegetable gardeners. Title should be changed to include the word "Forestry" rather than the broad term 'gardening".

Very helpful handbook.......2005-02-07

This is a great reference for those gardening in shade. It is organized in a logical format and can be easily used. The photos are nice and the information helpful as plants are considered for a shade garden. While it may not be adequate for those gardening in the deep south, it is very well suited to zones 5,6, and 7.

A must have.......2002-06-22

This wonderful little book (thick, but only 4.27" wide) is an absolute necessity for anyone who wishes to do some gardening in a shady area. In fact, this book is really three books rolled into one. The first section looks at shade and shade gardening, it is straightforward and highly informative. The second section is entitled The Color Plates, and gives a long list of shade-loving plants, including a very nice color picture, and a highly informative description. The third section goes hand-in-hand with the second, and gives more in-depth information.

This book is really great, a must have for those of us who wish to do some gardening in a shady area. I highly recommend this book to all gardeners!

Great idea book with pictures of shade lovers.......2001-03-22

The Taylor's Guides are very reliable sources for gardening information and great pictures, and the Shade Gardening Guide is one of the best. Shade gardening is difficult for many reasons. There are not that many very showy flowers for seasons other than Spring, and there are many types of shade. The descriptions are very specific and helpful: light shade, dappled shade, "the more shade, the less moisture is needed," and so on. The soil and shade descriptions for each plant are excellent and detailed.

Although the plants are listed alphabetically for the cultural requirements, the pictures are listed by groups: trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, summer bulbs, ground covers, vines, grasses, and ferns. I would recommend that people using the book for plant selection read the "Encyclopedia of Plants" part as well as the brief but good descriptions with the color pictures.

Keep in mind too that the flowering times are primarily for New England (zone 5). Furthur South you may get earlier and more flowers. For example, Ceratostigma is listed as an Autumn bloomer, while in PA, it blooms from July through October. So you get more than the book suggests. Not bad. Anyone with shade should experiment with the plants in this book. As a gardening professional, I see so many great and underused plants listed and described in this book.

Not a good resource for Southern gardeners.......2000-09-09

Having recently purchased a condo in Houston with a north-facing porch, I eagerly awaited delivery of this book. However, I was quickly disappointed. This book should be titled "Shade Gardening in the North," since virtually all of the plants listed are for Zones 5 and lower...not much help for my Zone 9 garden. It did contain a couple of pages of information for shade gardening in the South (which they consider to be North Carolina!), but I was really looking for specific information on the types of shade plants I could plant here. This would have been a great book if I lived in Ohio, but not so good for us Texans.

Decorating With Color: Inspired Ideas for Your Home

Average customer rating:

Two books in one, neither especially effective
excellent resource for faux!

Decorating With Color: Inspired Ideas for Your Home
Country Homes and Gardens
Manufacturer: North Light Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Decorating | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1558705732

Customer Reviews:

Two books in one, neither especially effective.......2005-03-23

Although it isn't immediately apparent from a flip through the book, Decorating With Color has two sections. The first, on applying color theory, is pretty good, and made me want to learn more. Ah, I thought. Now that I have the basics, the rest of the book will go into the subject in more depth.

But it didn't work that way. Instead of extending the initial overview (which covers the effects of different color palettes on decorating rooms), the second section switches into an introduction to faux finishes and how to apply them. That's very nice, but it it's no longer about decorating with color; it's now about decorating with paint.

More formally, the sections of the book include: A sense of color; the color palette; color effects in your home (which sounds like color theory but the first subhead is "quick paint effects"); color and style (primarily the use of stencils).

I took the book out the library, so I'm happy to have picked up the bit of wisdom this book had to impart. However, I suspect there are much better books out there to serve my initial impulse: to learn how to choose colors for my new home.

excellent resource for faux!.......2003-06-24

I have dozens of books on faux and color theory. This book is the best one. It combines both subjects. It covers the different faux techniques as well as how to apply color. The photos of finished rooms are great, and the photos of each step make learning very easy. Even though I am a professional decorative painter, I still am learning more from this book.

The Healing Home: Creating the Perfect Place to Live with Color, Aroma, Light and Other Natural Resources

Average customer rating:

It made me paint my bedroom blue and buy bathroom candles!
From Natural Nancy
down to earth book
Create a Tranquil Home

The Healing Home: Creating the Perfect Place to Live with Color, Aroma, Light and Other Natural Resources
Suzy Chiazzari
Manufacturer: Trafalgar Square Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Decoration & Ornament | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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General | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Mental & Spiritual Healing | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Color Your Home: More than 65,000 at-a-glance Room Combinations

ASIN: 1570761604

Book Description

When we walk into a room for the first time, we often have an immediate reaction to its atmosphere. The natural energies created by our environment influence how we feel. By enhancing positive elements, such as light, color, and scent, we can create a harmonious sanctuary that encourages health and well-being and all that is best in the human spirit. Environmental designer Suzy Chiazzari draws from a variety of cultures and philosophies to reveal the many ways in which we can improve the vital energy in our home. By using natural materials, full-spectrum lighting, energy-balancing sounds, as well as the healing properties of water, plants, sunlight, scent, color, and placement or feng shui, we can charge our home with an energy that "connects us to the earth, the air, and each other to sustain us in health."

Customer Reviews:

It made me paint my bedroom blue and buy bathroom candles!.......2007-08-26

For me the book was a great discovery with lots of things I did not know about. It inspired me to paint my bedroom deep-blue and my healing room brick orange, just like in the book. Oh, and the bathroom- you've gotta try make yours like that, with candles! I have also used the book at my speeches, and everyone loved looking through it. I would highly recommend it to people who are new to natural healing like myself. The book also inspired me to buy some stones. I would also love to meet the author one day and I would love to have a Japanese version for my customers. I love my home now- thank you!

From Natural Nancy.......2007-05-02

This is a wonderful book as mentioned in the other reviews. Except, I felt they could have written more in depth rather than touching on the surface in many areas. Also I was hoping they would work more with color therapy and have more photo examples. The cover is misleading in that they never show it again or comment on it, also focusing on warm and bright colors almost exclusively, rather than the cooler tones on the cover.

down to earth book.......2001-08-06

I first found this book at the library and just had to buy it. I was learning about feng shui and some of the books just took the concepts way too far. This one is both philosopohical and realistic and it has great tips that help you id some nice decorating approaches. I'm so glad I bought it.

Create a Tranquil Home.......2000-04-08

This book is inspiring. The pictures are beautiful and serve as a motivation to create a haven of healing and peace within the home.

Suzi Chiazzari writes in a clear, personal style and lends credibility to how the home can influence our physical, mental and emotional well-being. The suggestions presented are practical and make sense without confusing "new age" rhetoric.

Topics presented in THE HEALING HOME include the use of color and texture, aroma, the importance of light, how decor can de-stress one's life, and bringing nature into the home.

At Home With Color
Average customer rating:
At Home With Color
Matthew Dennison , and Grainne Dennison
Manufacturer: Ryland Peters & Small
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Decorating | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1845971485

Book Description

We all have favourite colours that make us feel happy, comfortable, and relaxed. When it comes to decorating our home, these are the colours to which we turn. But there is more to successful decorating with colour than navigating our way through paint charts. The appearance of colour alters in changing light, in small or large spaces, in rooms with high and low ceilings, in interiors that are heavily or sparsely furnished. "At Home with Color" by Matthew and Grainne Dennison addresses all these issues and shows you how to achieve a stylish, cohesive look in every area of the home. In contemporary homes living spaces are arranged fluidly: one area flows into another in increasingly informal arrangements. "At Home with Color" reflects this trend, showing you how to use colour throughout your home, in spaces for entertaining or relaxing, in bathrooms, kitchens, and bedrooms.

Average customer rating:

Plenty of lovely decoration ideas for incorporating blue into an overall home scheme

Choosing Blue: Color You Can Live With
Stephanie Hoppen
Manufacturer: Watson-Guptill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0823006697
Release Date: 2006-02-01

Book Description

• Exciting new approach to choosing color for the home

• Book is organized from baby blue to midnight blue—with azure, teal, robin's egg, cobalt, lapis, Ming, and Wedgwood in between

• Packed with stunning full—color photographs

Think of decorating with blue and most people think of blue and white, or maybe a touch of sunflower yellow. It's time to stop thinking small and start thinking big—big like the sky, big like the ocean. This imaginative guide shows readers exactly how to use blue, in all its many shades and tones, to create distinctive, personal palettes for the home without the stress of experimenting. Success is guaranteed every time, whether the interior is traditional, modern, country, or eclectic. Choosing Blue is packed with practical design advice on matching and choosing colors as well as ways to select accents to use with blues for wall coverings, textiles, and accessories. Choosing Blue offers an eye-opening new way to look at color in the home.

Customer Reviews:

Plenty of lovely decoration ideas for incorporating blue into an overall home scheme.......2006-04-04

Choosing Blue: Color You Can Live With discusses how to decorate with blue and complimentary combinations to create distinct home styles without experimenting. Success is guaranteed with an approach which pairs design tips with overall insights on mixing and matching complimentary colors. Organized by shades of blue, Choosing Blue provides color photos throughout and plenty of lovely decoration ideas for incorporating blue into an overall home scheme.

Average customer rating:

Living with Colour
Wim Pauwels
Manufacturer: ACC Us Distibution Book Titles
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 9077213554

Book Description

This book presents ten projects by well-known interior specialists, with color as a uniting them from monochrome white and sandy shades to the most exuberant and daring color combinations, from the monastic simplicity of neutral tones to the most lively and extroverted color schemes.

Express Yourself with Color (Better Homes & Gardens)

Average customer rating:

Not so good.....
Express Yourself with Color
Just Okay
Simple and helpful

Express Yourself with Color (Better Homes & Gardens)
Better Homes and Gardens Books
Manufacturer: Better Homes and Gardens
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Using Color | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Do-It-Yourself | How-to & Home Improvements | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Color Solutions (Better Homes and Gardens Books)
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The New Smart Approach to Home Decorating (New Smart Approach)

ASIN: 0696207753

Book Description

Unique, interactive handbook combines color preference quizzes, inspiring photography, and how-to advice and tips.

Helps readers create fresh, new color schemes based on their existing furnishings.

Teaches reader how to choose background colors that transform existing furnishings into lively new schemes.

Teaches the reader how to create a personal palette, how to use the color wheel for real life situations, and how to work with today's most popular, pretty, and classic palettes.

Offers specific how-to painting projects, plus a bonus tip selection on paint choices, techniques, advice, and insider pro tips.

Customer Reviews:

Not so good............2007-01-12

BH&G apparently just threw this one together....not really sure why.

The only redeeming factor here is the eye candy....no new or good information to speak of.

Color schemes presented were not well executed or demonstrated in my opinion.

I would pass on this one .....

Express Yourself with Color.......2007-01-10

Nice color pictures let you see what the room would look like. If you are a collector of decorating books, purchase the hard cover version - the soft cover won't hold up as well.

Just Okay.......2006-01-13

I'm a big fan of the Better Homes and Gardens books but this one fell short. I thought the photography was either too bright or too dark. Many of the rooms had small pictures so it was difficult to see details. The color combinations were uninspired or unattractive. Many of them caught my eye because the colors were just plain ugly. LOL

The reason I am giving it 3 stars is because of the before and after pictures, which I really like in decorating books and the information in the text is good. There are better books out there, even in the BH&G series.

Simple and helpful.......2000-06-14

Simple is the key. This book provides descriptive suggestions for any color scheme. How to punch up a white room, what colors look great with black and white, or maybe just showing a hint of color in your room. Broken up into many colors and moods and it helps you to create wonderful rooms with more suggestions of colors and accents. Nice 110 page book that fits easily on my shelf...

Painting Faux Finishes With the Color Shaper Wide: A Creative Guide for Faux Finish Painters

Average customer rating:

Great easy-to-create projects, neat effects

Painting Faux Finishes With the Color Shaper Wide: A Creative Guide for Faux Finish Painters
Paula Desimone
Manufacturer: Quarry Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Decorating | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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The Decorative Painter's Color Shaper Book: A Creative Guide for the Decorative Artist
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Recipes For Surfaces, Volume Ii - New And Exciting Ideas For Decorative Paint Finishes

ASIN: 1564966356

Book Description

Create beautiful faux finish effects with the Color Shaper, a new painting tool from Forsline & Starr.

Transform your home with lovely malachite, marble, stone finishes, or with the soft patina of grained wood; or choose a fresh look from a collection of fanciful, new faux patterns. In these pages you will find twelve easy projects, along with a host of colorful, creative variations to add drama to your décor.

--Simple, step-by-step instruction, plus dozens of faux finishes to try on furniture, moldings, floorcloths, shutters, tile, borders, and blinds

--Seventeen faux finish "recipes," to decorate any surface you choose

Customer Reviews:

Great easy-to-create projects, neat effects.......2001-04-30

This is a great book for the decorative artist. The effects you can achieve are both stunning and easy to create. They give a unique look to any project.

The book starts out with an overview of wide color shaper types and basic strokes as well as instructions for preparing and finishing surfaces. Then it shows you how to create faux stone, faux wood, fabric looks and fantasy textures. Some projects include a malachite chest, marble table, blue patterned cupboard, kilim floorcloth, damask roller blind and ceramic tile trivet.

Further pattern recipes are in the back. Some of these include lapis lazuli, woven plaid and wavy cross-band design. The instructions for everything are excellent, demonstrated step-by-step with photos. Most projects use latex paints, glazing liquid and a water-base varnish and include a complete materials list.

My only wish for the book was a suppliers list. Wide color shapers can be difficult to find. Buy this book with the color shaper included if you can.

House Beautiful 750 Decorating & Design Ideas: Express Yourself with Color, Pattern, Light & Style (House Beautiful)
Average customer rating:

Let's get the record straight.

More photos, less type

Beautiful book...

Very Disappointed in House Beautiful

Great photos, lousy advice

House Beautiful 750 Decorating & Design Ideas: Express Yourself with Color, Pattern, Light & Style (House Beautiful)

Manufacturer: Hearst
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Country Living 750 Great Ideas for Decorating on a Budget: Transform Your Home Inside & Out

ASIN: 1588162699

Customer Reviews:

Let's get the record straight........2006-07-21

I'm amazed by the bad reviews this book has gotten. I was absolutely enthralled w/it. Let's get this straight, everyone is looking for something different in a design book. Some ppl want to learn how to design on a budget; some people want some how-to knowledge; some ppl just want to look at pictures and formulate their own ideas about how to decorate and get a spark of creativity, or ideas. I myself was the kind of person who wanted some pictures & differently designed rooms to look at to get some creative ideas. And I was not disappointed. If I was wanting to learn decorating on a budget or JUST how-to stuff, I would have been. It just isn't that kind of book. After all, look at the title. It doesn't promise those things.

The book is a tad misleading because it doesn't really have 750 tips. For example, in the book in the fireplace section it gives tips on how to start a fire. Ok, not only does that have nothing to do w/design or decor, but the book uses several steps breaking down how to start a fire, each listed as one tip. Also it gives you some storage solutions. Great for packrats, but I have closets, clean them out regularly & get rid of stuff I don't use to make room for what I do use. Oh, and also in the home office decor section it gives you several tips when you are just moving into a house & setting up your home office, such as making sure that room is wired so you have enough power & whatnot. Has nothing to do w/decorating, plus is just common sense.

I agree that it has some rooms in the book that I would hate to live in or even stay the night in. :) But isn't this a lesson learned?? You learned what kind of things to avoid when you are decorating. I am sure there are plenty of ppl who like that kind of decor, otherwise it wouldn't be shown. Another reviewer talked about a horrid pink floral room that looked to be straight out the 80's. Some ppl really like that kind of room, esp if they're older & not as hip. It's almost like a "period room."

Wrapping up... the pictures are great, some of the tips are helpful. It would be a great book to pore over w/someone you are moving in w/so you can get an idea of what their taste is compared to yours. That's how I used it, and it was useful. It gave me some great ideas too. I recommend it and I look forward to looking at some other House Beautiful decorating books; this was my first.

More photos, less type.......2005-05-01

The photos lovely, as is the variety of design styles offered.
The small bits of info was rather pointless. Cut the little text bits and add more photos.
This is a nice book to have around and review often; studying the photos gives lots of style ideas, but I think you do need to look it over a number of times.
Mine was a library book, but if I found it on sale, I'd buy it.

Beautiful book..........2005-04-17

I had to double check that I had the same book as some of the other reviewers. In my edition, the photographs are quite lovely, with a couple of exceptions now that I've given it a much closer look. A couple reviewers comment about the overdone style of the rooms, but there are so many rooms, in so many different styles, it is hard to say something like that. There are definitely some floral-frilly rooms, and some rooms that are certainly not for those who harbor disgust for toile (I'm rather indifferent to it) . . . but there are just as many very sophisticated, simple, elegant, subdued rooms pictured as well. Perhaps that is what I like about the book-- there are so many different styles, that almost anyone could find something inspirational in it. French country is overrepresented, I admit, and from someone who is not too excited about shabby chic either, there are too many pictures of that for me. Some photographs reek of nouveau riche. But there are also colonial, modern country, modern eclectic and other styles well represented in some very pretty pictures. I agree strongly with the editorial review's point that someone looking for a "how-to" book will be disappointed. This book is all about the pictures (which I love), with tips spread throughout on sidebars. The entertaining or efficiency tips I could do without ("give old clothes to an organization"), but a lot of the decorating tips are interesting. As a serious Type A personality, I "flag" things of interest in books-- this book has so many flags I had to stop! From lovely little ideas like storing makeup in darling old silver cups to helpful advice like how to choose a frame for a period piece of art, I would describe this book in relation to a decorating "library," as the frosting on the cake . . . beautiful, and full of neat pieces of advice that don't make it into the substantive "how-to" decorating books. This book would not be the basis of your interior decorating library-- but is full of sweet solutions on the back end. **I am editing my review to add that, if I could I would change my review to 2 stars because I've only had the book a short time and the spine is falling apart-- cheap construction for a nice, expensive book that should be coffee table quality!**

Very Disappointed in House Beautiful.......2005-03-22

I am a House Beautiful (HB) magazine subscriber and think Mark Mayfield is an excellent editor of a great mag. This book however was a huge disappointment...the photo quality is really poor throughout the publication, and many of the rooms they depict look like they were taken in the eighties...lots of floral, poufy rooms with poor color quality...House Beautiful is much more modern and hip than the rooms displayed in this book. It was many of the 750 design tips that made me laugh...many of them really corny and obviously simple...that really turned me off. I wish I could get my money back...what a waste....Check out the POTTERY BARN design books...I own them all and thoroughly enjoy the colors, design, furniture position (not all PB furniture either)and narratives...

Great photos, lousy advice.......2004-02-11

This is a gorgeous coffee-table style books overflowing with fabulous photos of interiors. I say interiors rather than homes because it clear that no one could actually survive in any of these ornate, pristine, elegant, and rather stuffy rooms.

The "750 tips" are given in sidebars, and poor production has allowed that some of the tips are not on the same page as the photo to which they refer. This book also contradicts its own advice - frequently - as when it says to "always hang pictures 10" above seating" accompanied by a lovely photo of a sofa that is backed up directly against framed pictures. Or when they advise not using scatter pillows on chairs or stools, yet this is done throughout the text.

750 is a bit of an exageration - they break down "how to build a fire" into many small tips, counting each one.

Overall, a fairly useless book, but the photos are pretty. A nice gift for the billionaire on your list.

Decorating with Color
Average customer rating:

Soothing Simplicity with Style

Very Informative, Better than "Decorating Details"

hnnnnngh... just subscribe to her magazines.

Loved It!

How old is this book anyway?

Decorating with Color
Martha Stewart Living Magazine
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Interior Design | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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The Best of Martha Stewart Living: Decorating With Color

ASIN: 0609809369
Release Date: 2002-03-05

Book Description

Bring the world of color into your home. Decorating with Color, the latest from the editors of Martha Stewart Living , features eleven color palettes inspired by nature and everyday objects. Within each palette, whether honeycomb, sea glass, lustreware, or melon, you will discover how to create comfortable, inviting rooms that shelter and soothe.

Color can be intimidating. Many of us rely on neutrals, unsure of how to combine stronger colors without having them clash. Yet for Martha Stewart, a house is not a home until it is filled with color. In Decorating with Color, Martha and the editors of Martha Stewart Living share the lessons they have learned over years of decorating hundreds of spaces. In some cases, changing the look of a room may be as simple as painting the inside of a kitchen cabinet blue or displaying a collection of sunny yellow pitchers atop a dark chest of drawers. Or you might choose a lively green for the bedroom walls but keep the fabrics and furniture understated. The eleven palettes in this book will help you recognize the colors and textures that add up to beautiful, cohesive rooms. In each chapter, you will find examples of paint chips, fabric swatches, and simple, stylish projects to inspire you whenever you decorate.

Customer Reviews:

Soothing Simplicity with Style.......2006-08-09

Rich, velvety chocolate, beach glass, jonquils, blue skies, cotton candy, silver spoons, lavender sachets and seashells---if these are the images that bring you joy then this is the book you should you shouldn't be without when making your color choices. If you oooh and ahh over Pottery Barn catalogs, then you have pretty good idea already of what to expect from the color choices within this book--serenity.

Previous reviews on this book have taken me by suprise!

If you don't like earth tones and colors picked from nature, then this is absolutely not the book for you. The cover is a CLEAR indicator of what is within so how people purchased this book and found themselves suprised by it's contents is beyond me.

If you desire serene, rich color with monochromatic tones and eye catching contrasts that don't pop your eyeballs then this book is a must have.

Martha only explains the importance of subtle contrast and color placement with regard to depth and space, but the information contained within is crucial to developing a smooth finish and painting with results that rival that of professionalism. This book is so much more than a "look at me and my shocking photographs" that you might find in other books aimed at color.

While Martha has always favored greens and yellows in her work, this book explores use of blues, greys, pinks and even lavender with silver. The results are soothing, restful rooms that tantilize the eyes without tiring them.

It's a smart, easy-to-use design instruction that reads well and produces even better results.

Martha's paint colors are available at Kmart, Sears, Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams and Fine Paints of Europe. This means that if you like the colors within this book, regardless of your budget, you will be sure to find a match at a local paint store near you. That's an added bonus that I've found priceless!

Very Informative, Better than "Decorating Details".......2006-06-30

Martha Stewart's "Decorating with Color" is a wonderful book to help you choose and match colors with the color wheel in mind. I love her overall monochromatic color schemes with an accent color thrown in from the opposite end of the color wheel. I subscribe to her magazines, and while these ideas are featured there as well, it's nice to have them all in one book. I liked this book more than "Decorating Details." Another good decorating book is "Instant Impact" - in my opinion the best of the Trading Spaces books.

hnnnnngh... just subscribe to her magazines........2002-07-04

please, if you regularly buy martha stewart living magazines, DON'T bother buying this book. unless of course you want to see more of the same, but packaged altogether with nice binding and a deceptively original cover. it's not even actually "more" of the same, but actually "the same" -- this is a compilation of reproductions, old stuff that was published over the years. not too fresh, and particularly aggravating to someone who's a subscriber.

Loved It!.......2002-04-19

My husband and I are at the tail end of redecorating our house and this book came out just in time to help me plan the color scheme for our sunroom (I love the celadon color scheme). I only wish I'd had this book before decorating my other rooms. (I keep looking at my white ceilings now and wishing I'd painted them a color!) Anyone who loves the sophisticated understated monotone color schemes that are one of Martha's trademarks will find this "best of" book a useful addition to their decorating collection.

How old is this book anyway?.......2002-03-22

How can a new book look this old? It's the same old sagey, seafoamy greens and pale yellows that Martha has pushed for, like, 20 years now. I like Martha, but I was assuming that her new book would be about new colors that are more on trend than this. I'm disappointed.

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