Decorating with Color

Rating:
Summary: How old is this book anyway?
Review: How can a new book look this old? It's the same old sagey, seafoamy greens and pale yellows that Martha has pushed for, like, 20 years now. I like Martha, but I was assuming that her new book would be about new colors that are more on trend than this. I'm disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I was disappointed with this book. I assumed that Martha had grown along with the trends, so I was sorry to see that the colors in the book are the same ones that have been in her magazine for, like, a decade. There isn't very much useful information in this, and I kind of resent the fact that she is dictating a very limited (and limitING) number of color palettes from which I am supposed to choose. Choice is everywhere in the design world, and the trend is NO trend, so Martha's approach seems very old-fashioned and dictatorial. Even that wouldn't be quite so bad if she were using more current colors than her old stand-bys.

Rating:
Summary: More of the same
Review: If you're into decorating, then yes, this is a book to have, along with some of the other "home keeping" books. However, many of the ideas have been in other books as well. MSLO recycles a lot of ideas, so if you have, say, "Good Things," or "Decorating Details," you'll see one or two things again. However, there are many projects and ideas that have not been republished, so it's good to have more ideas in your collection. I wasn't AS impressed as I was with the other two or three on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Ew, Martha!
Review: Let me say up front -- I LOVE Martha Stewart. I shouldn't have been surprised by this book, but I was. Everything is lovely, but it's so pale, almost to the point of being colorless. I found very few ideas I can work into our busy, colorful home, but that's not Martha's fault. Maybe I should go back to Mary Engelbreit.

Rating:
Summary: hnnnnngh... just subscribe to her magazines.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: hnnnnngh... just subscribe to her magazines.
Review: please, if you regularly buy martha stewart living magazines, DON'T bother buying this book. unless of course you want to see more of the same, but packaged altogether with nice binding and a deceptively original cover. it's not even actually "more" of the same, but actually "the same" -- this is a compilation of reproductions, old stuff that was published over the years. not too fresh, and particularly aggravating to someone who's a subscriber.

Rating:
Summary: Great color schemes
Review: 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.