Decorative Paint Recipes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finishing Touches for Your Home [Paperback]

Lynne Robinson (Author), Richard Lowther (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1997

A perfect companion to the phenomenal bestseller Paint Recipes, Decorative Paint Recipes shows how to use basic techniques to create fun and sophisticated trims, patterns, and embellishments. Filled with inspirational photos and helpful illustrations, this no-nonsense guide to inexpensive flourish and finesse lets anyone bring a fresh new look to virtually any surface--from walls to rocking chairs to wainscotting. Easy instructions include step-by-step directions, illustrated examples, and complete details about tools, materials, techniques, and color. With a wipe-off vinyl cover for easy cleanup, nearly 150 individual paint effects, and dozens of stenciling motifs, Decorative Paint Recipes provides both instruction and inspiration for the home artist in us all.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Decorative Paint Recipes is a well-designed and beautifully illustrated book about the world of decorative paint applications for nearly every part of the home. "A Good Foundation," the first of three main sections, includes all of the basics on colors, varieties of paints (for example, there are paints made specifically for application on glass), mixing paints, solvents, tools and equipment, and preparation. The second section, "Techniques," is essentially a manual covering how to paint and how to use the tools and materials to create spectacular, professional results. "Projects and Designs," which makes up the largest portion of the book, contains plans for unusual, elegant, and whimsical wall treatments; exciting border designs; painted doors with nature themes; cabinets; fabric screens; delightfully individualized picture frames; and dozens more projects that are diverse enough to appeal to the style and taste of almost anyone.

Review

The do-it yourself decorator will enjoy this book. There are step-by-step instructions on how to add creative touches to your home, how to paint and stencil walls, doors, floors, and furniture for an exciting new look, with beautiful photos by Debbie Patterson. Home & Gardens

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; First Edition edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811818489
• ISBN-13: 978-0811818483
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,122,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, lots of great ideas, July 28, 2000

By 

Angel Lee "Liocorno Amethyst Moonstone" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Decorative Paint Recipes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finishing Touches for Your Home (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book with a lot of different projects, techniques and styles. It is great for anyone wanting to add special touches and effects to their home.

The book starts out overview of materials including color photos of all the tools you will need. There is also guide to mixing paints and a great chart on various materials for painting. There are many wonderful effects that can be achieved by adding your own pigments or otherwise modifying standard off the shelf paints. Numerous techniques follow including colorwashing, dry brushing, rubbing off, sponging, graining, aging, stippling, combing, stucco, embossing, stenciling, stamping and creating a few stone finishes. There are also instructions for painting on glass and using masks or resists such as wax.

Over 25 projects are included for walls, floors, windows, furniture and accessories as well. Some projects include striped Greek vases, checkerboard wall, slot-machine counter front, and colorwashed flowers, daisy-strewn floorboards, cork-tile games floor, and a mosaic border. My favorite projects were the whimsical window frame, fossil tabletop and a beautiful Japanese style fabric screen. There are also some great design motifs such as shells, artichokes, and boats. Conveniently, small templates, which you can enlarge, are included for all the projects.

Most of the projects use latex or acrylic paint, only a few use oils. Step-by-step directions are given for each of these techniques or projects. Close-up photos show each technique in a few different colors and recipes are given for each one. Some of the effects and projects have pictures of finished rooms or objects done with them.

Almost all of the techniques here, and more, are also covered in Chronicle's companion book, Paint Recipes. What sets this book apart is that it is project oriented, focusing on the application of the recipes to the many decorative projects I've described. This is a great source of technical know how and artistic inspiration.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good for non-do-it-yourselfers, December 12, 2001

By 

flifish "gloomisglx" (Sheridan, WY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Decorative Paint Recipes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finishing Touches for Your Home (Paperback)

This book is packed with innovative ideas for simple paint makeovers. I normally do not involve myself with painting tasks and even my own projects turned out nicely.
The only thing that might have helped is more of an explaination on what kind of and where to purchase some of the paints and quality brushes.
This is a BUY book. It would make a wonderful gift for people who like to work with there hands around the home.