Interior style : how to use color throughout your home / written by Lesley Riva.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Color is interior design's hardest-working tool.It's the one element that can alter our mood, influence the way we see space, camouflage imperfections, give us an instant taste of drama or serenity. Paint is the easiest, most effective, and most inexpensive way of achieving those effects -- the quickest, most powerful way to transform any room.

But sifting through hundreds or thousands of color chips in the paint store can be daunting. You can start with your favorite colors, or copy a scheme you saw at a neighbor's house, or play it safe and stay with the same color you already have, but that doesn't always guarantee decorating success. In Interior Style, the experts at Benjamin Moore share more than 100 years of know-how and advice on what does generate success. Chapter by chapter, color family by color family, Interior Style explains how anyone can master the art of using color. Rich photographs of interiors take the guesswork our of choosing a palette and pairing colors because each is matched to specific Benjamin Moore paints.

Interior Style explores the properties of color; how it behaves in both natural and artificial light; how colors look next to one another -- within a room, from room to room, or in conjunction with furnishings; how to incorporate neutrals, whites and off-whites without becoming bland; how to use extreme, bold colors without being overpowered; how any other color palette can be used in your home. Plus, in a special how-to section Benjamin Moore's technical experts share their practical know-how.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 11)
• The power of color (p. 12)
• How color affects our moods and shapes our perception of the rooms around us
• The power of light (p. 14)
• The impact of light on color: Daylight
• Artificial light
• Night light
• Seasonal light
• Exposures
• Painting a room (p. 16)
• Pulling a room together with paint: Doors
• Baseboards
• Floors
• Ceilings
• Walls
• Windows
• Trim
• Finding your palette (p. 18)
• The first steps to finding the right color palette for your home
• The color wheel (p. 22)
• Color terms defined
• Refining your preferences color by color and finding the paint to match
• Color inspirations (p. 40)
• From traditional to ultramodern, townhouses to country homes, subdued to saturated colors: Inspirational projects by leading designers
• Practical matters (p. 130)
• Getting down to the business of painting: Before you begin
• Preparing surfaces
• Priming
• Treating walls, doors, windows, floors, trim
• Cleaning up
• Storing paint
• Types of paint
• Paint finishes
• Paint safety and disposal
• Photography Credits (p. 142)
• Acknowledgments (p. 142)
• Designer Directory (p. 143)