Customer Reviews

House Beautiful Colors for Your Home: 300 Designer Favorites

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is Susan Hershman, author of the book, 'House Colors: Exterior Color by Style of Architecture'. My book deals with how to choose exterior color for the home. This book's subject matter deals with the interior room . This subject matter was going to be my next book. It was written before I got a chance to do it. My point is that readers are always asking me to write a book on interior color or ask for a recommendation for one. This book is my recommendation.

The paint colors were chosen by talented designers and are their favorite colors. Their word on color is the bottom line because they have experienced color professionally and know what works and doesn't work. Designers always end up with a list of their favorite colors and it is a list that many designers hold close to their chest and don't share. Not here. This is an priceless resource.

That being said, always check your colors before you paint your room. The nature of the printing process is that it's not always accurate, some colors are particularly off. It's not the fault of the author at all. Just use common sense when selecting colors from this book. That means that you must always test your colors on your walls in your room. Paint a large area, at least 4'x4' or even larger and paint it on all four walls. Look at the color in the day time, mid day and under artificial lighting sources at night. It will look different for each situation. Take the time to test before you go out and buy gallons of paint, it will pay off financially and more importantly, in the color result. Trust me, I've done this a million times.

One more thought about the book. As much as I love it, and I do, I wish that there were more examples of the colors in photographs. People have a hard time visualizing. Even if the color is a little bit off, it does show alot more than a color swatch. Still, bravo to the editors of House Beautiful. Well done and thanks a lot for all of those people out there who struggle to get great color for their interiors!

I love the color pages that appear every month in House Beautiful. This book contains much of that information in one handy location. The book is divided by rooms as well as color families and color inspirations. There is also a very good index. I am a Realtor and often help my customers with color selection. This book provides some great visuals plus the name of the paint color and manufacturer. The photos of the rooms also can give you some excelling decorating ideas.

I'm absolutely stunned by how inaccurate the colors are in the book as compared to the actual color chips. I have both BM and C2 fan decks and almost every color is significantly off. I'm almost tempted to write to House Beautiful. Something very wrong must have happened between authoring and editing the book. For example, on one of the pages there is a green wall and the book refers to the color as "Saddle Soap" BM 2110-30. However, Saddle Soap BM 2210-30 is completely brown. Brown as brown can be, not green as pictured. I'm really bummed because at first this book seemed fantastic. But after really looking - this book is not at all helpful.

loved this book, found the colors I wanted without having to go to various stores. Was able to see which colors matched each other and what matched my colors at home. large selection of Benjamin Moore colors.

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!

Even the verbal descriptions don't quite match up with the way that many colors appear in the book. I understand that there's a chance of this happening with a book, so I turned to my local Sherwin Williams store and purchased two color decks. Many, many of the colors in this book come from Sherwin Williams, but not a single one of the colors I like is in the color deck anymore. How helpful is that? :(

I have never written a review but felt I had to this time. I really had my hopes up about this book and am sorely disappointed
I absolutely agree with the post titled "repainting again" I bought the book because I love the House Beautiful color feature. The color representation is so far off in this book I can't believe it, and this supposed to be a book about color!
I have a room with woodwork painted "String" by farrow and Ball...The color chip in this book is nothing like it at all...I hope no one actually buys paint based on this book!!

I know that people in the field have written in about how you can't trust chips and I am well aware of that, but this book doesn't even come within the ballpark on many of these colors. The magazine represents the same colors quite nicely on the printed page..so it CAN be done.

A friend of mine showed me this book and I was fascinated; designers talk about their favorite colors and why they like them. It has all sorts of interesting colors and ideas for the use of color. I liked it so much I bought one for myself and another friend who was struggling to find colors for some rooms. Everyone who has seen it loves it. They cut the colors several different ways: by room, but shade and in the main text of the book. Lots of beautiful pictures of rooms using multiple colors.

The only reason it is not five stars is that some of the colors swatches shown in the book are incorrect. I know this because I had already painted my bedroom Benjamin Moore's Seafoam Blue and it is decidedly NOT the color of the swatch in the book. I think there are a few others like that, since the pictures don't always match the swatches. I think all the pics are correct (the picture of Seafoam Blue is correct) and just the swatches aren't quite right at times.

That being said, this is a great book for anyone considering painting a room in their home.

I love color. I am inspired by color. I love House Beautiful magazine, but this book is nothing like the magazine. I liked looking at different color chips in the book, but that's about it.

Pictures of rooms were few and far between, mostly pictures of color chips. All the rooms illustrated are very traditional looking, no modern looking rooms at all.

Also I was particularly interested in suggestions on how to combine colors. I have an open floor plan and would love to use paint as a visual (but harmonious) separator. There was nothing in the book to address color schemes.

Hugely disappointing. The only reason I gave the book 2 stars instead of 1 is the "by room" color inspirations.

Great book with beautiful colors and suggestion on how to use. Well worth the money.