The Right Color: Finding the Perfect Palette for Every Room in Your Home [Hardcover]

I was inspired to buy this book by the NY Times article. The book was OK-some parts of it a BIG FAIL. Two of my biggest complaints would be that the colour photographs of brightly coloured walls are not accompanied by text telling you the colour AND when you get to the section "Colors That Work" which is a demonstration of Eve Ashcraft's paint line in action-the book only provides pencil illustrations. No photographs of the new colours on walls in rooms. Are you kidding? I KNOW designers are going to say "but it's about the philosophy of colour, so the name of it doesn't matter". YES-in a printed book where publishers colours and real paint colours are not the same-it matters to someone who is going to try and implement the suggestions in this book. I'd have to agree with the other reviewer that said "this advertisement paid for by me".

Still, I was intrigued by some of the colours in the book, so I persevered with thinking about a new colour scheme for my house. After making a decision and identifying some potential colour candidates, I was ready to order some paint chips and sample pots. At the end of November the Eve Ashcraft web site was still saying-"we're working feverishly to get sample cards and should have them by the end of November". Well, it's the end of December and I'm still waiting and the Eve Ashcraft web site hasn't been updated. I tracked down a retailer in my area who carried Fine Paints of Europe and called him to ask if they had the paint "beeswax". I drove an hour and a half to the store and the man had not heard of these colours from Fine Paints (they had a beeswax, but it was one of their older colours and not the Eve Eshcraft formulation). He kindly called Fine Paints and bizarrely, they kind of didn't want to help. They didn't have fan decks, aren't going to have paint chips, aren't going to provide customers with sample pots for order, and may or may not have the paint available for sale now. Fine Paints is a small company with less than 80 retailers in the US, so to launch a paint line and not provide a whiff of information to retailers three months after the book is out is a pretty good indication that they don't plan on making this product line available to the general public ever.

My best guess is that this book might be one of those deals that the authour printed to drum up more interest in her $275 an hour, minimum of ten hours consulting business. The paint formulations might become available to her high end clients when ordered through her, but they have no intention of ever making it available to the masses willing to pay $120 bucks a "euro" litre for it. I'm sure Eve Ashcraft's customers are able to see samples of the paint and ***gasp*** even get to have a sample of it on their walls before committing to it after they pay her a few thousand dollars in consulting fees of course. For a lady whose main advice in the book is to put colours up in rooms to see how they change before you paint and who advocates a philosophy "color only exists in light", you think letting customers have $10 sample pots would be important. Either this was a complete marketing failure, or a scam to begin with. Fine Paints of Europe is generally a good company, so why they'd take part of this, alienate future customers and allow themselves to become manipulated by a "paint doctor" is unfortunate.

I would have returned the book months ago if I had known I wasn't ever going to be able to get the paint. For better advice and service about paint and colour, try Farrow and Ball. You can order a fan deck on-line and it comes with colour photographs telling you what colour of paint was used. And get this---they let you order sample pots!!!! Give Eve Ashcraft's book and any ideas you had about learning about paint out of your head. Purchasing this is only helping to make what I'd consider a dishonest person wealthy. I'm going to order the Farrow and Ball books next and see if I can't complete my project with a company that has their act and morals together.

I read a wonderful interview of Ms. Ashcraft in the NYTimes just befor the release of this book. My curiosity was piqued because the photos along with the interview were really beautiful and the colors depicted were not "the usual." Inspired by the article, I hunted down the book and was happily surprised to find it in stock! Maybe I should have spent a few minutes reading it in the store before actually buying it and taking it home... 'cause when you get right down to it... there ain't a lot of "advice" in it, which is ironic when you're titling a book "The Right Color." The book is beautiful, there are nice photos--- but, the 28 color palette (...which are the colors Ms. Ashcaft is releasing in her own paint line distributed by Fine Paints of Europe), are really the only "definitive advice" in the book; and that's really a sales pitch. Maybe for some people who haven't read *a lot* of color books, this book will be a revelation; they will enjoy reading about the philosophy of color and her process... but for those of us who have read several books on color, and who really *do* struggle (...and enjoy the struggle) of finding the just the right shade of green or yellow to look just right in a room... this book doesn't deliver, and didn't inspire.

I also read the article in the NY Times about this book and was very excited to order and receive it. Ms. Ashcroft is very impressed with herself, I was not.
I paid for an advertisement and not a very good one.