The Best of Martha Stewart Living: Decorating With Color

Rich, velvety chocolate, beach glass, jonquils, blue skies, cotton candy, silver spoons, lavender sachets and seashells---if these are the images that bring you joy then this is the book you should you shouldn't be without when making your color choices. If you oooh and ahh over Pottery Barn catalogs, then you have pretty good idea already of what to expect from the color choices within this book--serenity. Previous reviews on this book have taken me by suprise! If you don't like earth tones and colors picked from nature, then this is absolutely not the book for you. The cover is a CLEAR indicator of what is within so how people purchased this book and found themselves suprised by it's contents is beyond me. If you desire serene, rich color with monochromatic tones and eye catching contrasts that don't pop your eyeballs then this book is a must have. Martha only explains the importance of subtle contrast and color placement with regard to depth and space, but the information contained within is crucial to developing a smooth finish and painting with results that rival that of professionalism. This book is so much more than a "look at me and my shocking photographs" that you might find in other books aimed at color. While Martha has always favored greens and yellows in her work, this book explores use of blues, greys, pinks and even lavender with silver. The results are soothing, restful rooms that tantilize the eyes without tiring them. It's a smart, easy-to-use design instruction that reads well and produces even better results. Martha's paint colors are available at Kmart, Sears, Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams and Fine Paints of Europe. This means that if you like the colors within this book, regardless of your budget, you will be sure to find a match at a local paint store near you. That's an added bonus that I've found priceless!

Martha Stewart's "Decorating with Color" is a wonderful book to help you choose and match colors with the color wheel in mind. I love her overall monochromatic color schemes with an accent color thrown in from the opposite end of the color wheel. I subscribe to her magazines, and while these ideas are featured there as well, it's nice to have them all in one book. I liked this book more than "Decorating Details." Another good decorating book is "Instant Impact" - in my opinion the best of the Trading Spaces books.

If you like Martha's style, and I do, then you will love this book. The photography is gorgeous. This book explains in detail how Martha and her staff of designers put a room together in terms of color. She only uses one color palette per room, which explains why her decor always has the same look, no matter what the style of furniture. This will be a favorite of mine for a long, long time.

My husband and I are at the tail end of redecorating our house and this book came out just in time to help me plan the color scheme for our sunroom (I love the celadon color scheme). I only wish I'd had this book before decorating my other rooms. (I keep looking at my white ceilings now and wishing I'd painted them a color!) Anyone who loves the sophisticated understated monotone color schemes that are one of Martha's trademarks will find this "best of" book a useful addition to their decorating collection.

This book contains a great collection of palettes. They are all pale monotone color schemes, so if that is your taste this book can provide a lot of ideas and inspiration. It includes eleven palettes: off-white, blue, golden brown, lilac, citrus, "spice", blue-green, yellow, celadon, gray, pink. Some cautions: the book does not really cover how to put a scheme together, it is short on specifics and thus is not a great first time how-to book. It does not cover bold or multi-colored schemes. With only eleven schemes, if you you don't care for at least a couple of them the book won't be very useful. But if you already know the basics of choosing a color for a room and you have admired the pale sophisticated work that has been profiled in Martha Stewart Living magazine over the years this is a nice compilation. I really like the book and would definitely recommend its addition to your decorating library.