Synopsis
Color has always played an important role in interior design, from the earth-toned halls of ancient Cretan palaces to the bright surfaces of modern homes. Yet most people are largely unaware of the way in which color affects their surroundings. In this comprehensive introduction, readers discover the impact that color has on the way they see the world and learn how to effectively use color to beautify their environment.
With a wealth of information and images, the book is divided into three parts: a history of interiors from the perspective of color systems, an easy-to-understand outline of color theory and its underlying science, and a practical guide to using color to enhance interior settings and create specific effects. From James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room in Washington D.C., to Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye in provincial France, to a Prairie-style interior by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ethel Rompilla shows how color creates the world in which we live. This lavishly illustrated volume is an indispensable and accessible guide for the professional and amateur decorator alike. AUTHOR BIO: Ethel Rompilla is a professor of color theory at the New York School of Interior Design in Manhattan, as well as a highly regarded interior designer. She lives in New York City. The New York School of Interior Design is an accredited school of interior design offering programs leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees in interior design. The school is located in New York City.
Reviews
Whether it was in a cave, an early Minoan palace or an American Federalist home, people have always looked to bring color and design into their living spaces. Both science and psychology influence the art of marrying style and pigment: "Nature has always provided the visual stimulation of color, light and texture, while history has shown the human need for variety and change," writes Rompilla in her breathless survey of 3000 years of architecture, art history, color theory and science. Complementing an eclectic assortment of 125 illustrations (including 95 in color), the text is concise, lucid and well-organized. Such an ambitious synthesis could have easily become either chaotic and dense or thin and overly simplistic, but Rompilla hits all the highlights and stays on point, even when covering Aristotle in a few lines: "He believed that the rainbow had only three fixed, or primary colors: red, green and blue (although yellow was visible), and he assigned these three primaries to pigment as well." Broad ranging despite its brevity, her introduction to the study and practice of color for interiors leaves the reader with the sense of the complexity and depth of the subject-and might inspire some to study further. Except for a few anomalies, such as an out-of-focus photograph of Josef Hoffmann's Palais Stoclet, the art is well-chosen, nicely reproduced and beautifully incorporated into the book's coffee-table format.
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