Great Paint Finishes for a Gorgeous Home [Hardcover]

Gary Lord (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1998

Lord, a pioneer in paint finishing, shares his refined techniques in 12 step-by-step projects for achieving an array of imaginative effects -- from elegant and contemporary.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Professional decorative painter Lord presents 12 paint finishes with which to decorate interior walls. He explains what materials are needed, how to prepare the work area, and how to clean up and offers tips that provide additional help along the way. Each step of the technique is shown with clearly captioned photographs, and full-room views of the finishes are provided. Lord concludes with lists of U.S. schools, professional associations, and suppliers. Although not as comprehensive as Jocasta Innes's Applied Artistry (LJ 1/96) and New Paint Magic (Pantheon, 1992), this book covers some techniques, such as torn paper and lightening wood paneling, not found elsewhere. A good purchase for public libraries.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Gary Lord is the owner of Lord Wall Options and Associates, a decorative paint finishing company that serves clients nationwide. His work has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens and Interiors, and he has appeared on the Home and Garden Network's Decorating with Style. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; 1st edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891348220
• ISBN-13: 978-0891348221
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,094,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gary Lord has been a professional decorative painter and has owned his own decorative painting contracting business, Gary Lord Wall Options and Associates Inc., since 1975. Wall Options specializes in faux painting, marbleizing, wood graining, Venetian plaster, dimensional and embedded techniques, murals, furniture, cabinetry, concrete, metallic foils and hand-made wallpaper finishes. Wall Options has won seven National First Place Awards for the Best Faux Finishing Company in the United States from 2002 to 2006 from both the American Painting Contractor and the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America. Wall Options has also garnered hundreds of first place awards in local and regional home shows over its 35 years in business. In 2007 Gary personally received the honor of being the top choice for Who's Who in faux finishing by the America Painting Contractor. In 2008 Gary was also awarded the Who's Who spot for interior decorative painter by Stratford Business Services. www.walloptions.com

Gary also owns and operates Prismatic Painting Studio, a decorative painting school that teaches hands-on workshops and classes for the decorative arts. Prismatic Painting Studio has been in business since 1992 and teaches how to faux paint walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, cabinetry, countertops and concrete techniques. Gary has taught thousands of faux painters in a very easy to understand and clear format enabling them to perfect their skills. Gary has also sold over 10,000 VHS and DVD videos showing how to faux paint dozens of different techniques. www.prismaticpainting.com

Gary has launced a educational web site with inexpensive or free downloads on decorative painting technique. www.itsfauxeasy.com


Gary has appeared on over 100 different national television shows as a faux painter and demonstrated a wide variety of paint room finishes. Some of the shows on HGTV were The Carol Duvall Show, Decorating With Style and D.I.Y. On PBS he was a guest on Paint! Paint! Paint!, For Your Home and Paint Paper and Craft. On The Discovery Channel he has appeared on the Christopher Lowell Show and Home Matters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pro's techniques and products,no brain surgery required!, April 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Paint Finishes for a Gorgeous Home (Hardcover)

I am an experienced trainer with the products used in this book, and I am very impressed with the range and caliber of finishes demonstrated . Each finish process utilizes a professional perspective of achieving the most visual impact with the least unnecessary steps and layers . Straight forward understandable and well illistrated processes allow the beginner to duplicate what they see and the experienced finisher to build a limitless portfolio by integrating techniques and altering color. The gallery of homes section is a wonderful tool for showing whole room settings of a finish to prospective clients. I have had to sell my personal copy 3 times in the last month to prefessional finishers and students. When I can keep my own copy for a few days, I am looking forward to adding to my own portfolio and improving the techniques I teach. Thank you Mr. Lord .

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't wait to get started!, April 23, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Great Paint Finishes for a Gorgeous Home (Hardcover)

Just looking through this book has my brain reeling with all kinds of ideas for the walls throughout my little tiny house. The ideas in this book look as good for small spaces as they will for large ones. Just reading the book, I've already picked out three techniques I want to try. The book offers a list of materials for each project, tips and a really clear explanation of all the how-to steps to complete them. I heard about this book when Gary Lord was on the Discovery Channel show Home Matters. He did the technique in Chapter 7 using tissue paper on the walls. The way he prepares for this project allows you to remove the tissue at a later date when you're ready to try something different. This had always been a concern of mine when I'd see one of these wall treatments done. After all, times change and so do peoples' tastes. Can you imagine the nightmare of scraping tissue paper off the walls? Well, this book looks like it has everything under control. I'm planning on using this particular technique on a stairway wall that has a lot of cracks in it that I haven't been able to seal permanently. If you can't fix it, camoflage it!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Specialized Expensive Products Needed for Many Projects, January 2, 2006

By 

Sonya "readaholic" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Paint Finishes for a Gorgeous Home (Paperback)

I think this book must have been commissioned by the company that makes the specialized products used in this book. Many of the more sophisticated and complex treatments use products called Aquabond, Aquatex, Aquastone, Aquacreme, Aquacolor, etc.

There are many nice paint finishes and faux techniques in this book. The chapter on stone block is pretty awesome and I like the clear instructions on how to get the color variations in the "stone." There is also a Sand Drifts technique that is gorgeous and has the look of travertine. Several of the projects involve a lot of time, which is not unexpected with a complicated technique.

Some of the techniques are old standards - striping, combing, rag rolling, using tissue paper and even torn brown kraft paper. I have never heard of Aqua products and when I looked online, it appears that it is a product sold online through Faux specialty stores. The Aquacreme often requires tinting with Aquacolors, that then requires mixing of products.

From my brief look online, I did not see any local distributors in my area and the products seem quite costly, especially considering how much might be needed to do an entire room. For example, a quart of Aquacreme at one site was $20.95 and an 8 oz bottle of Aquacolor was $15.95 (the smallest size). Because no alternatives for these specialized products were given, I am giving this book a 3 star rating. If alternatives were given that were readily available, I would have given this book a 4.