Color - on the walls, ceiling, and floor, as well as on the furnishings and accessories - can make your home feel cozy or spacious, cheerful or serene. Used well, color brings character to your rooms and makes them places where you love to linger. How do you know which colors to use and where to apply them? With the help of Better Homes and Gardens Color Solutions, you'll explore the options to find the one that's right for you.

Color Solutions was inspired by your questions on BHG.com, where the decorating discussion group on color is one of the most active and enthusiastic of all the discussion groups. Instead of prescribing color schemes, Color Solutions focuses on the 10 most frequently asked questions about choosing and using color. How do you create a feeling of flow through a house? Which colors should you choose to make a room feel larger? Do ceilings always have to be white? What color should the trim be?

By starting with the elements that make the color statement - walls, woodwork, ceilings, fabric, furniture, and floor covers - Color Solutions helps you identify the look you want to create and chart a path toward achieving it. Each question is followed by several options because there's no one "right" answer. The best solutions depends on your personal style and the effect you want to achieve.

Color Solutions also shows you how to use what you have as a tool for making color decisions. Unless you're starting from scratch, you probably have some "givens" - a sofa whose upholstery you love, wood furniture you want to showcase, or a piece of art you want to emphasize. Your givens may also be challenges: a carpet you don't care for but can't change, a visually dominating interior brick wall, or a bathroom full of bright pink tile. These givens are starting points. Fabrics and art, for example, can be the perfect sources of inspiration for developing a color scheme for a room or a whole house. With fabric and paint, you can downplay a carpet or integrate ceramic tile into a fresh new scheme. You can even use paint to transform a dark, dated kitchen or bath without undertaking a major remodeling job. And because white (or near-white) is a choice for some and a necessity for others (such as renters), one chapter discusses ways to make the most of white.

Throughout the book, tips from homeowners and experienced designers supply nuggets of information you can use: how to achieve special effects with graphite and polyurethane, how to paint a "popcorn" ceiling, how to determine whether your kitchen cabinets are real wood, how to care for marble and tile surfaces, and more. "Color Concepts" pages explain how colors relate to each other, what value and intensity mean, how light affects color, and how wall color can enhance or detract from wood furnishings. The resource section provides paint and fabric information keyed to photos by page.