Color your home

Color Your Home is a personal, intuitive exploration of vibrant, sensual colors in nature, and an easy-to-use guide for expressing our passions and selves in the colors we choose to adorn our homes.

But how does one go beyond the "rules" of color to discover what hues inspire and drive us and show us how to incorporate them into living spaces?

Design expert and author Carol Bass encourages everyone to throw out the rules and start fresh by building a new relationship with color through nature and the outdoors.

She shows how to identify colors that stimulate and thrill us as individuals, making it easy to explore this connection and create charm, warmth, and a unique sense of individuality. Bass gently guides even the novice decorator on a journey of discovery, showing how small changes with color can create a more captivating room.

After all, nature is not shy about color, so why should we be?

Rich, orange-red tones of farmers market tomatoes, lavender-black hues of mussel shells from the beach, the patina of aged wood and stone--all can provide endlessly stimulating color ideas.

Bass shows us how to think of using these tones as ingredients in recipes to liven up a room.

Take a giant step outside, breathe in the scent of peonies, wrap yourself in a field, and bring those feelings home. Carol Bass is an artist, interior designer, and prolific author.

In 1988, she cofounded Maine Cottage Furniture in Yarmouth, Maine, whose designs may be found in 200 stores across the United States.

Her award-winning furniture designs have been described as "straight from the heart," "spontaneous and direct," and "bold and full of energy." Her work has been featured in Metropolitan Home, Country Home, Redbook, Country Living, In Style, Coastal Living, Better Homes and Gardens, House and Garden, and Cottage Living.

She lives in Maine and is the author of Maine Living (Gibbs Smith, 2004).