The Color Book: 11,264 Color Combinations for Your Home [Spiral-bound]

Jill Blake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Change the color of a room's walls, floor, or ceiling, and the mood changes dramatically. Color can soothe or energize; make a space seem larger or more intimate; and transform ambiance -- all for a fraction of what other renovations cost. Experienced designers know what effect a change in color will have, but for most of us, repainting is something of a gamble. No longer. With The Color Book in hand, anyone can instandy see what a living room will look like with taupe walls, maple floors, and a sage ceiling, for example. More an essential design and decor tool than a book, this innovative guide takes eighty pages and divides them into three sections -- floor, walls, and ceiling -- that can be flipped separately to instantly mix-and-match a vast array of colors. Covering the bathroom, bedroom, living room, and kitchen, The Color Book visually demonstrates more than eleven thousand different color combinations offering near endless inspiration and real help in selecting the perfect color scheme. The accompanying text is an accessible guide to choosing and mixing colors, while an international color key and directory offer additional resources. A unique new way to encourage experimentation and stir the creative senses, this innovative mix-and-match method allows amateur decorators and professionals alike to discover the best colors for every room before they ever walk into a paint store.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the simplest and least expensive ways to dramatically alter a home is through the use of paint and color, and yet by far the largest number of people choose white and off-white paints for the bulk of their painting at home out of fear of making a mistake, opting for mundane and "safe" over dramatic and fun. This practical workbook takes the guesswork out of choosing color combinations for living rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and bedrooms by providing 11,264 (!) color combinations that the reader can examine by flipping over sections of the pages, changing the ceiling, wall, and floor colors in one setting for each kind of room. It is fun and exciting to see how the combinations produce dramatically different feelings for each identical space as you flip through the book, and doing so will inspire the reader to experiment and let the fantasies run wild. Unlike squinting at color swatches and trying to imagine what a room will look like with green walls, mauve floors, and a blue ceiling, all you have to do is arrange the sections of the pages, and there it is right before your eyes! This is a very inventive and very useful workbook that will inspire the timid, formerly "off-white" crowd to go for the bold and eye-catching color combinations they have always dreamed about but were reluctant to make happen. --Mark A. Hetts

From Library Journal

This is a flip book that allows readers to mix and match different color combinations for use in home decorating. Each of three sections (showing a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom) opens with a color key that gives an overview of all the colors shown on the following pages. Each page has a different color for the ceiling, wall, and floor and is physically split into three parts, allowing for myriad color combinations. One problem comes with the inability conveniently to match the colors shown on odd pages with those on even pages, and patrons may be tempted to remove their favorite combinations from the spiral binding. However, this creative work will be useful for amateurs as well as professional interior designers interested in exploring uncommon color combinations. For large design collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 104 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811818721
• ISBN-13: 978-0811818728
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #969,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money, November 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Color Book: 11,264 Color Combinations for Your Home (Spiral-bound)

This was great for a 5 year old playing house but cannot seriously be used for any type of color choosing. If the pages were able to be removed and switched around it might be slightly helpful for comparison but I'd rather spend the money on a fan deck at the paint store or buy a couple quarts of paint and try them on my wall.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book to Help You Choose Hues, March 21, 1998

By 

Linda Johns ([e-mail]) (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Color Book: 11,264 Color Combinations for Your Home (Spiral-bound)

This book can save you hours of frustration, quarts of "test" paint and about 500 trips to the hardware store for paint chips. It's a simple but ingenious solution to testing color schemes: pages are cut into thirds - floor, mid-room and ceiling - so you can flip back and forth to see how a light wood or rose-tinted floor might look next to oxford blue or butter yellow walls. The book gives you a chance to play with living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen schemes, with a total of 11,264 color combinations. Flipping back and forth can be addictive; the resulting combinations surprising. More than half of all wall paint purchases are in white or off-white, simply because people can't make up their minds. Let this book help you safely make colorful decisions to rise above the majority.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A fun toy but not all that useful, August 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Color Book: 11,264 Color Combinations for Your Home (Spiral-bound)

This was fun to play with, but the "rooms" shown are obviously unreal, which reduces the appeal of each. And there isn't any help in figuring out how to use the color variations. I sat here and flipped back and forth, entertained for awhile before I realized that this wasn't really going to help me figure out colors for my house. There's nothing about working with pattern, either. Clever but not worth the money.