Customer Reviews

Color Your Home

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have the Maine Cottage catalog, you will recognize several of the room shots in this book. And since this book is only about 85 tiny pages long, that is several duplicates too many. Also, at least one of the photos is included in the current issue of Cottage Living. I really feel that this is cheating the customer.

On a more positive note, there are some lovely photos to look at for inspiration. And, the reference to Benjamin Moore paints is valuable if you want to duplicate some of the colors in the book. I wonder if Maine Cottage has discontinued selling their own paints?

The text is quite sketchy, with numerous references to being inspired by nature. Although this is somewhat hackneyed advice, maybe it bears repeating. But I think it would have been helpful if there had been more of a discussion of how you pick colors out of an often bleak landscape. For instance, here in New England, there are many months where the dominant colors are grey and brown. How do you use color in decorating to avoid appearing jarring in your natural landscape?

If you want color books with more "meat," try the Susan Sargent books.

While this book is lovely to look at, it is not really that informative about how to use color in home design.

Carol Bass has written an indispensable guide to using color fearlessly when you decorate or design your home. Her advice is practical, the selection of paint chips she shares is vibrant, and Dennis Welsh's photographs illustrate how colors chosen with care can transform any room. Looking for inspiration before you tackle your next decorating project? This is the book to buy.

   Carol Bass, whose furniture designs have flooded the coast of Maine in
recent years, inspires with warmth and enthusiasm, and, along with
spectacular photos of  natural beauty and vignettes of houses, rooms, and
flashes of color along the byways of Maine, she shows how to pull Nature's
beauty into the house, using colors to pep up, stir, delight, thrill, or
even to create serenity.The possibilities inherent on each page make me want
to take up the paintbrush today.

Whatever you need...it's here in nature. Carol writes, "...all you need is a little
courage, some nerve and a love of experimentation."
This is the definitive book on bringing the glories of color 
home and making it all work. It  tops
 my list of gifts for friends.