The New Color Book: 45,000 Color Combinations for Your Home [Spiral-bound]

Chronicle Books Staff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

With almost 200,000 copies sold, The Color Book has proven itself the must-have color manual for the home decorator. Now completely revised and updated, and featuring all-new colors in fresh and contemporary palettes, this new edition invigorates the best-selling classic. Professional designers and decorators know what effect a change in color will have, but for many of us, choosing paint still feels like a bit of a gamble. We may love that deep rose color on the paint chip, but what will it actually look like on the wall, against oak flooring and a cream ceiling? With The New Color Book, anyone can instantly see what colors will work, and what colors won't. Ninety-six pages, each cut horizontally into three sections -- floor, walls, and ceiling -- can be flipped separately to instantly mix-and-match a vast array of colors. Covering the bathroom, bedroom, living room, and kitchen, The New Color Book visually demonstrates 45,000 different color combinations, offering near endless inspiration and tangible assistance in selecting the perfect color scheme for every room. The accompanying text presents an accessible guide to choosing and mixing colors, while a color key and practical directory offer additional resources. Decorators will like using the unique mix-and-match method to help clients make smart choices, while the do-it-yourself crowd can use it to identify the best color combinations for every room, without resorting to the expense and frustration of trial and error.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 96 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811839893
• ISBN-13: 978-0811839891
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 9.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #881,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, February 28, 2005

By 

AK Woman (Anchorage, AK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Color Book: 45,000 Color Combinations for Your Home (Spiral-bound)

I really expected more versatility out of this book with the title. I suggest reviewing it in person before purchase, to see if this is what you're looking for. The color combinations I found to be very muted.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How color affects space and existing conditions!, May 13, 2005

By 

Sunshine "Dayna" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Color Book: 45,000 Color Combinations for Your Home (Spiral-bound)

I love how this book shows how different colors can change a layout without having to change major items (i.e. your furniture). They say paint is the cheapest way to change a room and this book shows how. It definantely pays for itself, trust me. I had a darker colored room and flipped through this book and saw all the possibilities for making it a warmer more spacious place. I chose an orange-peach color (close to one of the colors I saw in the book) and I got a whole new room! It feels much more like home. I'm so glad I found this book, otherwise I may have never been bold enough to paint it that color. Excellent buy, well worth the price, it's a steal!!!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to flip through, but not very useful, March 8, 2007

By 

H. Welsh (United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Color Book: 45,000 Color Combinations for Your Home (Spiral-bound)

This is a fun book. Kind of like the flip books where you make funny cartoon characters. But this is colors for walls, ceilings, and floors.
It's neat to see how different a room (same furniture) looks with pink walls and yellow ceiling as opposed to blue walls, green ceiling.

But while it's kind of neat to play with, I don't see how it is very useful. There are sections for living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. Each section has two different rooms - one more country-style decorated, the other a little more modern.

The furniture pieces in the living rooms and bedrooms are very neutral. Both bedrooms and both living rooms however feature light colored furniture, I would have prefered one option to show darker woods since that is mainly what I have in my house.

The floor color choices are not that great either. Not enough neutrals for the floor choices, since most people would be working with what they already have on the floor, and using this mainly to choose a wall color.

One of the bathrooms features a grayish-green counter and tilework. One kitchen has white cabinets, one kitchen has yellow cabinets. Those colors really affect how you see the other colors in the room. Great if you have that color already in your house and are trying to work around it, but not so great if you are trying to actually choose colors for your house.

So if you can get a used copy for not much, it is fun to look through. Not worth full price, unless you have a houseful of very light colored furniture or are completely starting from scratch.