Your home takes shape, not only brick by brick, but book by book:

Think that classic interiors require plain eggshell-colored walls? The classicists were in fact masters of using deep, rich colors or unusual shades, as shown in "Paint and Color in Decoration: Farrow & Ball" (Rizzoli, $45 hardcover, spring), by Tom Helme and Joseph Friedman, with photographs by Ivan Terestchenko.

The examples show great houses in Britain and Ireland, and while your own great house may not have the scale of these, they will inspire effective ways of using dark or subtle shades with your classic architecture or furnishings.

Some fine examples of Irish architecture and interiors also show up in "Living in Dublin" (Thames & Hudson, $45 hardcover), by Robert O'Byrne, with photographs by Alex Ramsay.

While the neoclassic interiors of Dublin Castle are included, the authors also tune into the light-filled modern home of botanical artist Patricia Jorgensen and the funky, cluttered Ranelagh district domain of book enthusiasts Patrick Bowe and Nicola Gordon Bowe.

The Mediterranean has long been a source of design, with its exotic and intense patternwork in tiles, wood, iron, fabrics, and other media.

Barbara and Rene Stoeltie set their sights on these in "Living in Morocco" (Taschen, $29.99 hardcover, with text in English and German), offering rare pictures of both grand and intimate domestic interiors, all evoking the Arabian Nights.