House Beautiful Colors for Your Home: 300 Designer Favorites
- ISBN13: 9781588167392
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
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 … More >>
#1 by Jackie Chakhtoura on February 4, 2010 - 9:31 pm
I tried to obtain this title from a local bookstore but they didn’t have in stock. Turned to Amazon.com and ordered one, but was later notified that the item was damaged, unavailable, my order had been cancelled. Returned to the local bookseller, placed an order with them. Called them on occasion to ensure they still had my order… was told the book was indeed on order but had not yet arrived. Finally, after several long months, rec’d phone call from local book store to say the book was there, I could pick it up!!!!
Apparently the 1st printing was a botch. The cover was upside down and backwards (?). I was disappointed that it took so long to finally obtain this book (it was to have been a gift for a loved one). But I was very pleased that NOBODY would sell me a botched book: the online order had been politely cancelled without me having to hassle with someone over an upside-down-and-backward-cover; the local brick-and-mortar bookshop did actually manage to keep my order on their files for the duration and did eventually produce the book that I had ordered.
In the end this is an instance of a local bookstore coming out ahead of Amazon. I do want my local bookstore to remain successful, to stay in business, to do their utmost best to locate and procure the books I want. I’ll continue patronizing that store as long as they continue providing such excellent service!
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Design Challenged on February 5, 2010 - 12:11 am
I found the color chips in the book do not match the color chips produced by the manufacturers. I chose colors for my kitchen, family, dining, bedroom, hallway, and half bath. About 50 colors in all, many were Benjamin Moore colors. Only 5 came close to the chip printed in the book. Whether the problem was with the printer or the editor of the color names the result was the same. I had to use fan decks to choose colors all over again.
The book provides one picture using only one of the five or so colors suggested on every two pages. If the goal is to help readers visualize what a room could look like with a more adventurous use of color, providing one picture and four color chips does little more than a book of color chips.
The compact size of the book is not a plus.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by Kristen on February 5, 2010 - 1:09 am
I absolutely love this book and have made far fewer color mistakes with its help! It has paid for itself many times over. I agree with the other reviewers who said that the chips in the book weren’t a reliable guide, however, that’s true with the chips from the paint store as well.
I think the designers descriptions are a much more reliable guide. They often make comments such as:
“Works in any light”
“Brings light into dark rooms”
“My favorite ‘go to’ neutral”
“Has red undertones”
“Has green undertones”
House beautiful also has a great color tool on their website. Don’t worry if it takes several tries to get the right color. Designers do the same thing! Don’t give up until it feels just right to YOU!
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by Robyn on February 5, 2010 - 1:44 am
I love HB and this book is exactly what I expected it to be. A compilation of the magazine feature of favorite colors. The book is a smaller size and contains page after page of paint swatches with the designer’s description of the color. If you spend the time to read all the descriptions, be prepared to read the word “depth” a lot!
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by GirlyGirl on February 5, 2010 - 2:00 am
Choosing paint colors can be overwhelming and can feel like a full time job, so I LOVE this book because it has really helped me narrow down the field. I had ideas of what shade I wanted but just needed help sifting through the hundreds of shades available, this book has been really helpful in doing this. For example, I knew I wanted to paint my room a pale bluish-grey, and this book helped me determine which actual shade would be the best. I feel like I can trust that the decorators and designers have experience with which paint colors really seem to work the best and stand the test of time. I would not use the swatches printed on the pages of this book exclusively though- I don’t believe it is intended to replace the real paint swatches you get from the paint store. You really need to go out and get the actual swatch of what you see in the book because it will look slightly different in paint than how it’s printed on the page of a book. The book is more of a means to an end rather than trying to be the actual paint fan deck, if you know what I mean. It gives you ideas and the names of the colors, and then it’s your job to go out, get the swatches, and paint swatches on your wall before committing to buying gallons of paint.
Rating: 5 / 5