Colour Confidence: A Practical Handbook to Embracing Colour in Your Home

by Jessica Sowerby

Colour Confidence will demystify the technical world of colour, as it helps empower you to live a happier and more colourful life.

Including a blend of everything from identifying your perfect palette, to creating a harmonious colour scheme and accessorising to achieve that perfect colour ratio, this book will show you how to use colour to transform your life. Get inspired with expert tips and tricks to create a home that truly reflects your personality.

Discover how colour can impact your space and mood. Jess will show you how to embrace darker tones, find the perfect white, and demonstrate how to successfully bring a cohesive look together; whether that is pastels, neutrals, earth tones or even brights – find your colour confidence whatever your style.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2023

Reviews

[Leah Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I flipped through this book in the gift store of an art museum and couldn't stop thinking about it, so I ordered a copy.

The pictures are gorgeous and the information is good, I just wish there was more of it. More practical advice. More color theory. Just ... more.

I also wish there was more variety in the pictures. Most of the home pictures are in a similar style and color palette.... potentially all the writer's home? Beautiful. But I wish there had been more examples in different palettes.

[Mircah Foxwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains some practical advice on how to plan a colour scheme for your house. For example - create a design board to audition colour combinations. Try to pick a colour scheme for the whole house, that can be spun in different ways in each room. Try a ratio of 70% main colour, 20% secondary color, 10% tertiary color, then dashes of a fourth colour (in the next room, same 4 colours but change which is the main colour etc).

However, a lot of the writing was incredibly general, and all the pictures seemed to be of the writer’s own house (which btw had a lot of pink). I think it would have been helpful to have photos of other houses with other colour schemes - and maybe some specific examples of how to tweak an existing house without spending a lot of money. If she had shown how to problem-solve a few rooms with before and after photos, I think that would have added to the book. Most people don’t have the budget to buy everything new, and just want advice on how to improve what they already have.

The book was easy to read, and had some useful ideas. But I think it could have been better.

[Aubree · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars rounded up. This is a book about how to use color in your home. The information in the book was good but there wasn’t very much of it. Specially, I learned a lot about natural lights in rooms depending on the way they face and loved the author’s “math” equations for colors and types of lights. There was also a lot of good color theory. But I would have loved more examples. Almost all of the photos are from the author’s own home which is very colorful and lovely but it’s just one color scheme over and over. She did make a few mood boards for the book but just a few. I would have loved a lot more color pallet examples.

In conclusion, I still do not know what colors to put in my bedroom makeover after reading this but I do feel like I have a little more information with which to help me choose. And this book will look lovely on my display bookshelf in my office.

Oh and I also wish there was a US version of the book with terms for paint sheens etc that I am familiar with.

[Katie Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has lots of practical tips on incorporating more color into your home. I thought the author’s color classifications (warm neutrals, jewel tones, dark tones, etc) really didn’t make sense. There was too much overlap between the classifications for the tips to feel applicable. Great info on understanding how light interacts with color!

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the fact that the author seemed to believe that I could think of a childhood memory and be able to know the exact color of somebody's shirt... it was helpful in getting me to figure out how to throw multiple colors in my house without it feeling overwhelming.

[Kate Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some useful tips, but for me it needed more visual examples. The pictures of the authors home are great, and I love her style, but I’d already seen it all on Instagram and was ready for something new.