Customer Reviews

Painted Furniture: Simple Techniques For Fresh, New Looks

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you've ever been to a flea market and seen whimsical painted furniture, you've probably said to yourself, "That is so cute! I wish I could do something like that!" Now you can! Ranging from the country-craft, cheesy look to the artsy-fartsy weird, this book shows you in clear, up-close photos how to prepare either new raw furniture or old beaten-up pieces for glazing and decorative painting.

The book includes step-by-step instructions on how to create your own stencils and despite what your painting ability is, you'd be amazed what you can do.

Projects range from the extremely simple to the highly adventurous, but all are possible to do. A photo spread of tools used and techniques how to use them are shown... even how to remove mildew from old furniture! All the materials found in this book can be acquired at a hardware store, art/hobby store, and many items you have laying around the house.

This book gets right to the point and there is no fluff, just the information you need and detailed, well-shot photographs.

This is the most useful book I've seen on painting furniture. Though these are not "quickie" projects, each is full of good information. Obviously the author really knows her stuff, and the information on preparing furniture for decoration is solid. I used some of her techniques to start off a piece and it came out wonderfully. Please write some more books, Diane!

I was looking for some inspiration, but the furniture was pretty
uninteresting. Only the cover piece was at all bold -- everything else pretty predictable.

I thought this book would be a simple "how to" book. It offers several projects; many look pretty darn complicated for the person looking for "simple techniques" as the title suggests. I was pretty disappointed.

I bought this book along with "Painting and Decorating Furniture" by Sheila McGraw. While this book did inspire some ideas, most of the projects aren't very exicting and the tips are common sense. I like "Painting and Decorating Furniture" by Sheila McGraw much better. She gives really good tips that aren't common sense (like using chaulking to create raised effects).

Obviously Diane Weaver is a talented artist with a steady hand and excellent perspective and spatial skills. You must be too, if you would like to duplicate her projects which are very complicated and time consuming.

I consider myself an amature artist with skills slightly better than the average non-artist.

In the book, one table needed seven layers of red paint that need sanding with soapy water and wiping down between, I think, 4 of the layers. This is step 17 of 19 complicated steps, that do not even cover all details necessary.

You need to figure out how to do the shadowing yourself on many of the designs, such as the marbles on a red table, and I cannot figure out how she got the paint to gradient from red to black. She uses that gentle gradient paint method on many of the projects, and the only way I know how to do something like that is with a paint can, but she does it with a brush and I cannot figure it out.

There are not enough pictures to cover these complicated projects, for instance, one wooden cuppboard is painted with many realistic insects and looks very cool, but she does not show any close up pictures of the complicated insects such as a dragonfly or butterfly, (she does show detailed pictures of the ladybug, which most first graders can draw easily.

The coloring she did on the dragonfly looks amazing, how she got the lacy colorful yet translucent wings is the 8th mystery of the known world. There are no instructions, and no close up pictures.

This book did inspire me, although I will not be doing any of the projects in the book, not until I raise my kids, go back to art school for 4 years, then retire from work to have the time and experience needed for her projects.

Her work is interesting and she is talented, but I would have perferred just photos of many more projects, just to inspire but not instruct. Or more details. I know book length, word count, and number of photos included are usually dictated by the editor and not the writer, so I do not mean to insult Diane Weaver. Her work is beautiful and the photos that are included are clear, bright, colorful, and helpful.

All my complaining could have been avoided had the editor left the misleading word "Simple" out of the subtitle of the book, and just subtitled it, "Techniques for Fresh, New Looks."

Would I buy this book again? Yes, but only at a good sales price, which you can find here at amazon. Or buy it if you have artistic talent, you may get more out of this book than I could. That is why in spite of all my complaining, I am still giving her 3 stars instead of less.