You want your home to be beautiful, functional, and a reflection of who you are. Add the challenge of working with a small space, and the task of choosing the right colors and styles seems daunting. Where do you start? Color in Small Spaces: Palettes and Styles to Fit Your Home unlocks the mysteries of how to use color to bring life to small spaces. You will explore the origin and history of color, and learn about our psychological and physiological responses to color and light. This easy-to-use guide puts expert understanding and techniques used by professionals at your fingertips.
MAXIMIZE SMALL SPACES WITH COLOR
Small spaces can be one of the most rewarding arenas for the effective use of color, as interior designers Brenda Grant-Hays and Kimberly Mikula show you in this colorful and useful reference. Packed with inspirational ideas and photos, this book makes it simple to— * Use the color wheel to create perfect color schemes and combinations * Create the mood you want with skillful choices of shades and hues * Establish a theme for a space that suits your personality or lifestyle * Alter perceptions of dimension, size, and shape * Delineate areas, spaces, and settings * Get the best from both natural and artificial light * Understand the practical considerations for choosing palettes, finish materials, and styles * Bring beauty, light, and fabulous color to every room you have, from bathroom to office, kitchen to bedroom
Date Published 2/24/2003
Ratings
Rated By: Brenda Broder
From: Portland, Maine
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Comments: dare to color outside of the lines! I loved this book of color ideas. Not only are there great photographs that are achievable styles, but being of the not so brave of heart it opened me up to the use of color and texture to style my home in an affordable mannor. I am not afraid to try out some of the ideas presented by Brenda and Kimberly. There is truly something for everyone's taste. Easy to read and comprehensive, this book can also be used as a coffee table type book. I keep it a copy in my salon for clients to read and they love it too!!
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
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Comments: A Must for City-Dwellers with a Sense of Style As a resident of Manhattan--the world's capital of small living spaces--I have to say that just browsing this book for a half hour has given me a few dozen ideas for how to make my studio look less like a college dorm room and more like the backdrop for a Vanity Fair photo-shoot that I wish it were. A quick browse of this book will give you numerous fresh ideas, but this is no quick reference guide, nor is it some Martha Stewart/Macgyver-esque smattering of ways to turn your used band-aid wrappers into paint stencils. Color In Small Spaces is researched and written in so thorough a manner as to make a perfect classroom text for students of interior design, in addition to the spacially clueless like me. Highly recommended for anyone who would like to learn how to make a cramped and muted floor-and-wallspace sing.
Rated By: "evier"
From: Yarmouth, Maine
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Comments: Color affects how you feel Color is a powerful way to set a mood, shift an outlook and transform a space. When thinking about colors in a living environment, it's important to decide what atmosphere--what feeling--you'd like to enhance or amplify through colors in that room. The special challenges of a small space can make those decisions even more complicated. Color in Small Spaces : Palettes and Styles to Fit Your Home offers clear guidlines to help master the dizzying world of color! Whether you enjoy subtle and classic or rich and juicy, this book can help you to "color your life beautiful!"
Rated By: C. Craig
From: Palm Harbor, FL
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Comments: misguided While I agree with the people who have already reviewed this book that the pictures are very good, and the colors combinations are good, I would not say that the authors were guided by the concepts of small spaces that are in the real world. Most of the rooms depicted were hardly the 12x13 bedroom one finds in real homes, or the 8x10 real people kitchen.
Most of the rooms looked as though there were very few limitations of space or budget....Hardly what I expected from the title.
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
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Comments: Disappointed This book does not seem to address small spaces. I guess if you live in a house in the burbs that cost at least a couple of hundred thousand, maybe it will work for you. I live in an apartment in the city and I saw very little that I could use from this book. The color schemes were VERY bland. White/off-white and gold seem to prevail in their color palette. I found this book boring and unuseable. Fortunately I only paid $3 for the book and $3.50 for the shipping; maybe I'll give it to the goodwill and they can find someone who might appreciate it. Majorly disappointed.
Rated By: Carol DeChant
From: Chicago, IL
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Comments: Last of 7 "small decor" books rated I am irked at this book's deceptive marketing. Unlike other "small space" books, these authors withhold sq-footage measures, but-DUH!-the photos reveal HUGE rooms. Not a trick of the camera, nor an illustration of how their use of color "expands," a typical "small" bedroom featured here accommodates a K-size bed + 3-cushion sofa + huge fireplace + museum size oil paintings & swagged draperies fit for a palace. A living room "seating area" has a 3-cushion sofa + love seat + 3 large upholstered chairs + a day bed + a rocker, all spread around a coffee table big enough to accommodate the 11 people sitting there. Perhaps "small" is relative. My small 3-BR condo is 1400 sq. ft. The average US apt. is 800 sq ft. So if 4,000 sq ft is "small" to you, buy this book, but you'll find color charts that any paint store has, and poor reproduction of colors in the photos. Better yet, buy any decorating mag at the grocery store: even average rooms shown will be smaller than the "smallest" in this book.
