Summer is all about recharging the batteries, which includes some relaxed reading. With that in mind, we have some top titles to give away over the next week. Put your feet up and start with an extract from Colour Deconstructed, the visually incredible book by Tricia Guild (of Designers Guild fame) with photography by James Merrell, published by Hardie Grant. Leave a comment here for your chance to win - full details are below.

For as long as I can remember, colour has played a vital role in my life. Choosing colours, as well as living and working with them, has always been a matter of personal expression and one that, for me, is instinctive and often spontaneous. Much of the way that I work with colour depends on my immediate response and reaction to a particular shade or group of colours - how they make my heart sing or beat a little faster is the only science that I use. There is an energy and a mood that surrounds every tone and shade of each colour with which, at some primal leval, we make a connection when we make our choices' a connection that, ultimately, says something about who we are, what we love and how we want to live.


Image credits from left: Trustees of the British Museum, Blue Ruin 1, James Merrell.

The combination of black and white is as timeless as it is definitive. Just as the polar opposites of night and day or north and south are inextricably linked together, black and white form a never-ending partnership that intersperses our style and taste with simplicity, classicism and, often, an incisive edge. This dynamic duo is a signature of formality and gravitas; almost without us knowing, it forms the backbone to a world of colour. The effect of black and white together can be as conflicting as the colours themselves: sometimes nostalgic and classic but just as easily modern and contemporary, serious and authoritative as well as flippant and flirtatious. Dynamic and strong, or as romantic as an old film, monochrome can sharpen a room and add a timeless focus.


Image credits from left: James Merrell, The Maas Gallery, London/The Bridgeman Art Library, James Merrell

Somewhere between the lush vitality of green and the dreamy intensity of blue lies a group of colours whose presence is altogether more mysterious and harder to define than either of their primary sources. Uplifting, enduring, calm and always elegant, these clear, harmonious tones have the ability to work with both warm and cool colours, inevitably adding a dash of their ethereal beauty to the mix. The formal sitting room (details pictured) demonstrates how jade and aqua can work as part of a team to create a scheme of vitality and depth. Turquoise and aqua give the room a sense of calm and serenity; the accompanying zesty citrus adds a note of wit and vitality, making the room sing yet respecting its classical proportions and architecture.


Image: James Merrell

Soft citrus green takes on a more reticent role in the morning room (pictured). Here, as it unites a scheme of rich ochre, peony, natural and carmine, this pale shade is the neutral that gives the space its restful calm. Almost hiding within the exuberance of the large-scale flowered print that covers one wall, hanging in heavy drapes at the window, this dreamy soft green underpins the space with subtlety. The rich tapestry-like floral is repeated on the rug, while a pair of smooth sofas covered in linen stripes of moss, citrus and natural give the room an expanse of tranquility and allow the coloured flowers to sing out. A small armchair in zesty acacia gives the space the necessary shot of strength, while the overall effect is one of romance and elegance. This particular shade of soft citrus green works with all the colours in the room, allowing them to play their part. It remains firmly in the background - subtle, almost imperceptible, but without it the room would not have the spirit and life that it does.

To win a copy of 'Colour Deconstructed' by Tricia Guild, leave a comment here on the blog before 5pm (AEST) on Friday 9 January 2014. You must be a member of Temple & Webster to enter, and you may only enter once. We will choose our  favourite comment, and will notify the winner via their Facebook page or at the email address attached to their Temple & Webster account (if we are able to ascertain it) by Friday 16 January 2014. If we are unable to make contact with the winner via either of those methods within 30 days, we'll choose a replacement winner. Good luck! 
Competition closed.