Customer Reviews

Debbie Travis' Decorating Solutions: More Than 65 Paint and Plaster Finishes for Every Room in Your Home

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is an essential ingredient for anyone who feels an itch to paint anything, anywhere in their home. It is accesable to those less familiar with the lingo and provides a fantastic array of quality photogrpahs to stir the imagination. For the connesieur of paint & design, it offers more solutions than could be acted on in years of painterly play. Travis and Dingle have articulated everything so clearly that you won't need to waste any thinner deciphering text or jargon, either; crystal clear step-by-step processes throughout. Bravo!

I actually preferred this book to "Debbie Travis' Painted House." This book is particularly useful for those renovating older homes, which often have a ton of existing cracks and flaws in the plaster. It is also a super book for those redoing an older apartment. With the transcient turnover of tenants, most apartment owners seem to think white is the eternal answer to everything; therefore, we often find white-washed institutionalized walls in every room. The nitty-gritty of the matter is that white paint can be relatively cheap, and for many landlords cheap comes first on the list of priorities if, in fact, painting is even on the list at all!

This book will help you spruce up those hum-drum boring walls, floors, and even stairways. I particularly liked the kitchen and bathroom concepts. Generally, when you do buy an older home or rent an older apartment, these two rooms tend to be a tenant's worst nightmare. Debbie has some great concepts for these areas, especially with kitchen cabinets, and she even has advice for redoing a fireplace.

The only downside of the book is similar to "Painted House." Many of the colour schemes are simply too trendy for my taste and appear outright garish. Some walls almost jump at you. However, the various finishes and techniques make up for what the book lacks in colour co-ordination.

Some amazing decorative effects. The "leather" walls are unbelievable.

The author gives both paint and plaster finishes for walls, ceilings and floors. Lots of creative ideas...there's bound to be something you'll use if you like faux finishes. A great complement to "The Painted House" by the same author.

One word of caution...don't let yourself be prejudiced by the rather unorthodox color schemes the author uses in some of the photographs. Use the colors YOU like and you'll love the results.

I colorwashed my bedroom walls and am absolutely in love with the new look.

I have been a fan of Debbie Travis for a while. Unlike some instructional books for faux finishes which are complicated and use items I will not be able to find in my small hometown, Debbie's instructions are easy and I can find everything at my local paint store. As some have noted, some of the colors used are a bit garish. However, these are just an example. I followed the directions for the tinted venetian plaster (which in the book is a hideous green and yellow combination) in neutral umbers and it came out beautifully. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking to add some color and texture to their home.

Okay - I read the "halloween review" as well. To expand on the comment made by a fellow reviewer: you don't have to use the same paint colors Debbie Travis uses (she has a "thing" for some pretty wild colors)! The book is a guide and a wonderful tool that provides easy to follow step by step instructions on the latest faux finishes and some of the more intimidating plaster finishes as well. With your personal color choices and this book - your home is going to look unbelievable!

She has pictures of the finished product,but she doesn't show you step by step pictures of the process to get there.

I saw Debbie Travis on Oprah, and thought the redecorating she did for the show was outstanding. It was on the strength of that work that I bought this book. What a disapointment. The examples in this book, and the colors she uses are the absolute opposite of elegant and understated. Wild purples, oranges, reds, colors I don't want in my house. Some of the work looks amateurish. I was not impressed, and am going to return the book.

I love this book! Not as much as Debbie Travis Painted House...that's 5 stars! But I love this book! I disagree with the Halloween review...color is a personal choice...some people are at the other end of the spectrum (can you say "Martha Stewart"?) This book gives great instructions in easy to understand language. I finally colorwashed my bathroom and 1/2 bath and was confident enough not to even practice first! This book makes it that easy to grasp. I really miss seeing Debbie's show...I can't find it anymore on PBS. Too bad! She's a great teacher.

If you have bought Painted House then there is no need to buy this book as there is little difference. Does not live up to it's advertising. Looks better on TV than in real time

So, anyhow, we are thinking about building a new house and towards that goal we started doing three things this summer. First, we put up three poster boards on the wall in the kitchen where we could jot down ideas for each room of the house. Second, on Sunday afternoon we go looking at open houses in the area. Third, we made HGTV our default television channel; if we are not watching anything else that is what we watch, which means that most days we get a double dose of Debbie Travis. Specifically that would be the half-hour "Debbie Travis' Painted House" and the full-hour "Debbie Travis' Facelift." Now, the second and third points are some of the ways we come up with things to put down on the posters, along with correcting aspects of our current living situation and memories of homes past. But I also have to admit that I got to the point where if I did not hear Debbie Travis each day, my day was not complete. It is not just the accent, but the unique cadence to her way of talking that we call "Debbie speak" around the house.

The first thing you need to know about Debbie Travis is that she wants to paint pretty much everything (but first, you want to put on a good coat of primer). Understand that and you can appreciate "Debbie Travis' Decorating Solutions: More than 65 Paint and Plaster Finishes for Every Room in Your Home," which is co-written with Barbara Dingle with photographs by George Ross. As Travis explains in her introduction, "Just as the windows are the eyes of a house, the walls, floors, and ceilings are the soul." The point of this book is to convince you that it does not take much to make them beautiful and to give you a wide range of options along those lines.

"Part One: Before I Start Painting" is a reminder to do appropriate preparation before you begin decorating. In detailing the preparation and tools of the trade for decorating, Travis provides specific tips and tools for painted finishes, stenciling, plaster finishes, and other techniques covered in the book. There is also a section devoted to choosing color, which along with pattern and texture are the principal elements of any decorating scheme. Here you will learn the basic shades of yellow, blue, green, and red, along with terra cotta, white, neutral colors, brown, and black. You will also pick up tips as to where and how to use each, because the whole point here is to come up with ideas for solving your decorating problems.

The bulk of the book is devoted to "Part Two: Decorating with Paint and Plaster." Within this unit there are five sections, each of which is divided into more specific techniques: (1) Walls offers a wide variety of techniques: color washed walls, graffiti, weathered wallboards, tinted Venetian plaster, leather walls, feathering and parchment. Then Travis moves on to decorative wall panels (strie, faux linen, pastel metallic, and frescoed), an innovative dado that divides a room (brushed steel, fantasy marble, faux denim, country tartan, and anaglypta), and building a border (gesso, French country, Casablanca tile, lincrusta borders along with stenciled silhouettes). The key thing here is that you are going to find something that catches your eye, and then the big question is whether you think you can follow the instructions well enough to actually do some of these yourself. I fully admit that stenciled wall paneling scares me, but I actually think I could do the leather walls and/or the parchment for my study and maybe even the frescoed panels for the master bathroom (where I want to try a warmer style).

Obviously the emphasis in this "Painted House" volume is on walls, but Travis goes on to talk about the other parts of the wall as well: (2) Floors covers (ha-ha) honeycomb floor, clip art border, block painting and cottage floor; (3) Ceilings involves bronze moldings, gold leaf ceiling, distressed stucco ceiling, leopard ceiling, and the one I find most interesting, cloudy sky; (4) Kitchens and Bathrooms involves quick fixes for kitchens when renovating is not an option, such as backsplashes along with fantasy wood graining, crackle finish, and heritage kitchen cabinets. For bathrooms the focus is on eye-catching ways of making the most of a small space; and (5) Stairways, Doors, and Fireplaces, which are just touched on in terms of dressing up doors with easy painted finishes and fast fix-ups for fireplaces.

Those last couple of sections only touch on what all can be done in such areas, and you can track down "Debbie Travis' Kitchens and Baths" or other volumes in the "Painted House" series that go into more detail on those or other rooms of the house. The bottom line here is to show you that you can make your home stylish without spending a whole lot of money. That is why this volume has over 400 photographs and step-by-step instructions for each specific section. After all, when it is your house you do not have to do with some safe shade of white on your walls. Picking a color is only part of your decision and even if you are intimidated by pattern, at the very least you can add texture into the equation.