If you think that happiness comes in a paint can (and I do), there’s no such thing as too many books about colour. Here's a new one for your reading list.

In The Right Color: Finding the Perfect Palette for Every Room in Your Home, author Eve Ashcraft undertakes the task of explaining the complexities of colour selection. She is a colour expert who has been dubbed the “paint guru” by the New York Times.

Ashcraft begins with a story to explain the process of creating a colour scheme inspired by a porcelain saucer. You quickly learn that matching is for amateurs and she’s a pro.

In the section called Color in Context, she considers the impact on colour of many elements, including light, setting, contrast and surface materials. She explores other options for ceilings besides white and discusses whether or not to highlight trim. Here, she also explores colour “rules” that may needlessly limit your thinking on the topic.

She looks at colour choices room by room and, at the back of the book, offers a selection of “28 colours that work” from her own paint collection.

- Jane

Dave's Two Cents:

Have you ever wandered into a big-box church of home improvement looking for a simple can of paint and been blown away by the rainbow of colour chips displayed? The author gives us the benefit of her expertise to choose among this amazing variety.

When all is said and painted, the “right colour” is your choice, whether you pay the painter or the paint store. Why not invest a gram of research to prevent a kg of regret?

- David Ramsey

Today’s blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

I love looking at images: paintings, photographs or sculptures.

One of the library’s newest acquisitions, In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States has lots to look at; its pages are filled with weird and wonderful imagery.

The book presents the work of well-known artists such as Frida Kahlo, Lois Alvarez Bravo and Louise Bourgeois. One painting, the Creation of the birds, I would love to have hanging on a wall in my house. It was created by the Mexican surrealist, Remedios Varo. I have a particular fondness for the work of Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. These women were close friends, meeting over coffee in each other’s kitchens. (You can learn more about their lives and work in another great book from our collection: Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna.)

Included, as well, is the work of lesser-known artists. It introduced me to a number of great images and artists, such as the exquisitely sensitive photography of Francesca Woodman. She captured haunting images often using her own body in decaying interiors.

Publishers are rediscovering some very fine artists who have had little published about them. What a joy for us to share in this discovery!

- Candace

Creative Display, by Geraldine James, makes a virtue out of clutter. In this inspiring book, objects are imaginatively displayed on every possible surface and every homemaker is an interior stylist. Layered surfaces include artwork, memorabilia and found objects.

Some displays are carefully organized by colour, theme or size and righteously balanced. Other arrangements appear organic and spontaneous, however carefully assembled.

There are displays that feature clever juxtapositions or “unlikely alliances”. On a long table covered by a paint-spattered drop cloth, a collection of expressionist paintings is paired with a loose arrangement of wild flowers.

Books may be the main event or used as props to stage other items.

If you have ever considered cobbling together a house from reclaimed materials, check out Handmade Houses by Richard Olsen. The book is billed the “first comprehensive consideration of the residential design of the back-to-the-land movement.”

It traces the history and origins of the movement and shows houses built by homeowners without architects and well as those designed by the pros.

Fleamarket Chic is another design book that works with vintage furnishings from humble sources integrated into contemporary interiors.

Unlike Homespun Style, which I reviewed last blog, many of the interiors are put together with subtlety and restraint because crafting is not the point of the exercise. Rather, collecting or rehabbing a worthy item that fits well into the decorating scheme is the name of the game.

- Jane

If you love colour and craft and reclaiming vintage furniture, you will enjoy the rooms created by interior stylist Selina Lake. In her new book, Homespun Style, she celebrates the power of hand-made furnishings to create homes that are personal and distinctive as well as welcoming.

She takes “a modern approach to craft” favouring simple creations over tricky techniques. The contemporary shape of a swivel chair is transformed by a funky, over-sized granny square afghan that is casually wrapped around it. Colourful textiles are made into easy cushion covers or simply draped.

The look is light-hearted and casual. In a cheerful dining area, candy-hued finishes are painted onto mismatched chairs. The walls are decorated with pop art trimmed with swags of pin lights and coloured beads. Above the arrangement hangs a bunting of pretty handkerchiefs knotted together at the corners.

Old light fixtures are redeemed with a splash of flowers painted on a lampshade or ribbon streamers fluttering from a chandelier. A modern chest of drawers was customized by refinishing the drawer fronts with pastel paint and vintage wallpaper.

She also demonstrates how to make eye-catching, still-life arrangements from favourite objects.

Lake insists that applying your passion for handiwork to your home does not mean that you need to be handy. She advocates support of your local artist and craftsperson. And good on her.

I’m thinking that if you admire their artistic ablility or tricky techniques mastered, you should be happy to pay for them.

- Jane

This week, a trio of craft books arrived and they’re all pretty with pink.

First, from textile designer and “Queen of Quilting”, comes Quilts from the House of Tula Pink. Her namesake colour appears on the Fade-to-Pink quilt where the design features a gradual transition from one colour to another.

Pink reappears as a punch of colour on the Lollipops Pillow. Here, scraps of fabric cover buttons that are applied to a stitched pattern on a neutral background. The Beanstalks quilt is another charmer where the pop of pink adds excitement to a whimsical pattern.

Quilted Gifts from your Scraps & Stash invites you to use your collection of fabric ends to create a wide variety of pretty projects.

Ruffled fabric roses embellish the patchwork pillow you see on the cover of the book. Narrow pink and violet fabric stripes separate wider sections of floral fabrics to make attractive placemats. Pink energizes a tote bag designed with lots of pockets and trimmed with apple-green rickrack braid.

In Flower Power Patchwork, you find the power of pink in many other clever projects. Pink prints are mixed on a fabric-covered notebook, cute little pincushions and zigzag chair cushions.

All of these lovely books feature good photos and step-by-step instructions.

While sipping ice tea on your sunny summer deck, you can plan some nifty projects for rainy days and colder months.

- Jane

Today's blog comes from Janet Millett, Central Library staff:

Many of us in Calgary feel lucky to live both close to the mountains and to the prairies. However, for gardeners, this often means a double whammy of cold nights and short growing seasons along with the odd freak snowstorm, droughts and dry dusty winds. In other words, growing lush gardens bursting with colour can be a challenge.

Luckily, you don’t have to despair too much about sparse underperforming gardens. Calgary Public Library has a book called Painted Garden Art, by artist Lin Wellford, that allows you to take matters into your own hands. This book will show you how to turn stepping stones into butterfly walkways or cast stone blocks into elegant baskets of colorful blooms. Stone edgings can become a parade of pachyderms or a vibrant caterpillar.

You can also work magic with different sizes and shapes of rocks to scatter turtles, frogs, lizards and even fish ponds throughout the bare spots. And the really great thing about this book is that it’s very easy to paint these artistic creations. Many of the designs are basic and there are step-by-step illustrated directions provided.

Whether nature cooperates or not, it’s good to know that there is more than one way to create and enjoy an interesting and vibrant garden space.

- Jan

If you have been thinking about a visit to Central Library, Stampede is a great time to venture downtown. The adjacent Olympic Plaza and Stephen Avenue mall are lively places that feature music, dancing and other street performances during Stampede. You could also include a visit to the Glenbow while you're at it.

In a new exhibit that opened in June, the Glenbow Museum celebrates Charlie Russell’s connection to the first Calgary Stampede. The “Famous Cowboy Artist” exhibited twenty paintings that were a popular attraction. The Glenbow has tracked down seventeen of these works and brought them together again.

Fans of his western art will enjoy a new addition to our collection: The Masterworks of Charles M. Russell: A Retrospective of Paintings and Sculpture. The book is a catalogue from an exhibit at the Denver Art Museum in 2009 – 2010. It includes eight essays that examine key aspects of Russell’s art and the culture in which he lived and worked.

You can find other wonderful books in the collection by subject searching “west in art”, “cowboys in art”, “horses in art”, "Indian art" – you get the drift.

I have been enjoying Contemporary Native American Artists which popped up from one of these searches. It introduced me to the colourful work of artist Malcolm Furlow who lives in northern New Mexico. I am enchanted by his Reclining Coyote which is pictured in the book.

“Too American,” you say? I’m not a purist. So much of our Stampede celebration traces its roots south of the border. It’s all good.

-Jane

Kitchens are on my mind a lot these days. I’m hoping to renovate mine within the next year. Consequently, I have been hauling home many of the kitchen design books from the collection to help me with the planning. Here are my current favourites.

House Beautiful Kitchens offers a great selection of classic design. Think white cupboards, marble counters, subway tiles and stainless steel combined with a centre island painted grey or black.

It’s a winning combination shown with many variations on the theme. Occasionally punched with colour, their classic combo might feature a cobalt blue backsplash or spindle chairs painted Moroccan red. When they paint, they identify the source. If you love the colour and want to make it your own, you’ll be very glad that they did. (Moroccan red is Benjamin Moore.)

Country Living Kitchens are more relaxed and family friendly with interesting open shelving. I am attracted to a kitchen where a sturdy shelf is mounted across a long stretch of windows.

In the Kitchens book from This Old House, the use of colour is the main event. Not just splashes against a neutral background, but colour lavished on cupboards and walls. The colour is often combined with very contemporary design and feels fresh and invigorating.

So many great possibilities and so many, many decisions.

- Jane