Behind the Scenes: How Our Coloring Book Was Made

Our coloring book, Color at Home, has been out for a couple of months, and we realized we never properly shared how it came together. We hadn’t anticipated making a coloring book, so finding ourselves in the middle of the process was a fun surprise.

Color at Home is an 80-page adult coloring book that includes full-room drawings, curated vignettes, mood boards, frameable art prints, and collections of objects like pillows, chairs, and lighting. It was created to give people a low-risk way to experiment with color and design—so you can try combinations on paper before committing to paint or new furniture. It’s also relaxing: coloring lets you pause and play in pretty rooms you never have to dust.

A publisher that specializes in coloring books—the husband-and-wife team at Paige Tate & Co—approached us with the idea. We loved the concept right away. The illustrator Joan Borawski handled the drawings, and she was incredible to work with. Our role was largely art directing: shaping the book’s flow, deciding page types, and providing written bits like warm-up exercises and color tips.

To keep the book cohesive we planned an overall outline. We mapped how many rooms, vignettes, mood boards, botanical pages, collection spreads, quote pages, and exercises to include. Then we assembled an 80+ page master document for Joan, which we revised and annotated as sketches developed into final art.

Sometimes we began with a photo—occasionally one from our own house—and asked Joan to translate it into a line drawing. Other times we sent mood boards or collages of furnishings and accessories for her to combine into a scene. Early on we learned that not every photograph translates well into a coloring-book page: some images became too crowded once converted to black-and-white lines, while others lost interest without color. For each photo we often supplied a second annotated version indicating elements to tweak or simplify for better coloring.

Joan typically sent rough sketches first so we could evaluate composition and identify issues—things like ornate sconces, overly detailed art, or features that might get lost in the binding. Even small details mattered: a centered chandelier or vase could disappear in the gutter, walls and ceilings sometimes required extra patterning to feel engaging, and rug patterns were often held back until we saw how wallpaper and other elements read in outline form.

We marked up rough drafts with notes and sent them back. Joan revised, added or removed details, and returned stronger versions until a final illustration emerged. It was amazing to watch these rooms evolve, hand-drawn at every stage.

Some pages required several rounds of edits, like adding a rug pattern only after we decided how wallpaper or other elements should balance the scene. Sherry and I would sometimes mock up alternatives in Photoshop and point to areas—such as chevrons on chairs—that needed cleaning up for clarity in black-and-white.

We included several rooms from our home—living room, dining room, bedroom, sunroom, and office—so readers might enjoy coloring spaces that feel familiar. Even familiar rooms sometimes needed adjustments to be appealing as line art: adding art, simplifying patterns, or increasing detail in certain areas to make coloring satisfying.

We tested pages with friends and readers, and it’s been thrilling to see different color choices transform the same scenes. If you color pages from the book, please tag them #YHLColoringBook so we can see your take—every palette tells a different story.

For tools: colored pencils are a forgiving choice, and they work well for shading and blending to achieve a more realistic decor look. Markers and watercolors can also be beautiful in experienced hands—there are plenty of pages to practice on.

The book is printed on thick, premium paper with perforations so you can easily remove sheets. That makes it simple to tear out frameable quote pages and art prints—some pieces match artwork seen in full-room pages, so you can color them and hang them if you like. We also included botanical pages and mood boards so you can experiment with fabric swatches, cabinet colors, tiles, and accent tones.

We had a blast making Color at Home and hope you enjoy coloring it as much as we enjoyed creating it. The book is available from major retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indigo (Canada), Amazon (UK), Book Depository, and Fountain Books (autographed).

Special thanks to our editors Reagan and Sada at Paige Tate & Co and to Joan Borawski, our illustrator—your collaboration and creativity made this project possible. #colornerdsforthewin

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