Interior Style: How to Use Color Throughout Your Home

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.

Lesley Riva is an award-winning journalist who has written extensively on home design, decor and color. Her interviews with noted designers appear regularly in the Designer POV section at www.Benjaminmoore.com. She lives in Rhode Island.