The Color Design Source Book: Using Fabrics, Paints & Accessories for Successful Decorating

Rating:
Summary: Oh What a Little Paint Can Do-Do-Do!!!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not just for the pictures
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not just for the pictures
Review: 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.