Product Description

Want to add some colour to your home but just don't know where to start? Love blue but don't know which shade to choose? In this dazzling new book, Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud has taken all the hard work out of home decorating by researching, selecting and combining over 120 particular colours into 70 tried-and-tested palettes that are guaranteed to transform your home. A stunningly produced sourcebook, it has been put together by an acknowledged expert in the field of paint and colour and printed by the astonishingly accurate hexachromatic ( six colour) process. Each palette provides a blueprint for a decorative scheme that you can transfer to your own home confident in the knowledge that it has been sourced by a renowned authority on colour, while every swatch in Kevin McCloud's Cool Colours can also be individually matched to a commercially available paint to help you effortlessly achieve your chosen look.A short introduction describes the history of colour and its replication, colour theory, how to combine colours into a palette and advice on how to use the book. Thereafter the bulk of the book is devoted to the colour palettes themselves - each made up of a collection of between 3 and 8 colour swatches and featuring an inspirational photograph demonstrating its possible use. Every palette is also introduced by a short piece of text describing its influences, potential and variety. Whether your choice is period or modern, rustic or urban, the text and photographs will show how the colours can be used in a variety of ways. Kevin McCloud's Cool Colours will be a must-have purchase for anyone considering changing the colours of their home. This is a unique and invaluable reference book, which is destined to remain on the shelves for years, or even decades.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5465 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
"In Colour Now, Kevin's latest book.... McCloud explores ways to create harmonious interiors using tried and tested paint combinations that use colour in an informed way, exploting it's perceived value and associations to convey unspoken and unwritten ideas and emotions." --Sunday Telegraph, 19th April 2009

Review
"Picking colours can be a tricky thing...some people can do it naturally - they just know what goes with what...but clever Kevin, of Tv's Grand Designs, has the answer: 'Colour Now' tells you- nay, shows you- which colours go together. He's even listed the colours by number so that you don't get influenced by the frankly bleedin' daft names that maufactures give to their colours...take little swatches to your local DIY shop."

Review
"In 'Colour Now: An expert Guide to Choosing colour for your Home' Kevin puts together the various pallettes that create different moods and effects, explaining as she goes with his familiar, on-camera fluency."

Customer Reviews

THE BEST GUIDE TO COLOUR
I can't believe that no-one else has ever come up with such a simple and useful book! This is a selection of 67 colour 'palettes' showing you exactly what different colours work together - and explaining why. Each palette is illustrated with a beautiful 'roomset' giving one an idea of how these colours might work in a real setting. It takes all the pain out of choosing colour and it really works. I have used palette 5 and palette 18 to terrific effect. The book is small and user -friendly so you can take it with you to the shop and the colour reproduction is incredibly true. I recommend it to anyone wanting to redecorate and unsure of their taste!

an enthralling read
Ever since I was a little boy, I have feared colour and regarded it as the devil's plaything. So it was that I approached this book with trepidation. I had no reason to fear, as it turns out. McCloud whips the savage shades and feral tinges into shape, and holds them in check with his ferocious force of will.

Centuries, nay millennia, from now, whatever remains of our species will look around at the faded scraps of our civilisation and will try to piece together what became of it. They will, however, be able to see, from the rubble of the handful of houses not turned to dust, that whatever went wrong, it was not the selection of colours for our houses. And for that, we have Mr. McCloud to thank.

Design By Numbers
This book relates Kevin's created colour palettes to paints supplied by Fired Earth (you don't need to only use these paints). You can use this book simply to search the pages for a colour scheme that you want to use in your home. It will stop the two colour scheme often seen - cream/browm or black/white if, like me, you tend to fall into this category. What it doesn't help with is the proportion of these colours in the room although the pictures give an idea. He does say finding textiles for the room first then matching paint is still the easiest way to acheive a coherent scheme. An idea is to pile everything you have for a room then go through the book to find a matching palette. You don't have to use all the colours in a scheme. If this is all you want to do I don't think you need his other book.