Customer Reviews

Painting and Decorating Furniture

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been painting and decorating furniture for 50 years and this is the first book I truly, truly have found well written, clear, informative with wonderful photos and answering questions before one asks. I sincerely enjoyed, and am experimenting with Sheilas methods. (loved the little penguins and cats, nice touch)

This is, by far, the best "how to" book I have ever purchased. I was interested in some basics on how to paint/decorate a table & chairs for my Granddaughter and found this recommended book at Amazon.com. Best money I have spent in a while. Loads of interesting (but very simply stated) ideas on LOTS of projects. NOW I know how many of those items I have seen in antique stores and craft shows were created. My Granddaughter's table project is now on the right track. Thanks to this book, I have several other projects planned. Cudos to the author!!

This book is beautifully displayed with before and after photos, as well as clear, detailed step-by-step instruction. Any novice can complete the projects shown in this book. The author fully explains every tool or item you need to purchase (and gives pictures of them). The projects listed are numerous. Anyone wanting to put new life in old furniture will definitely get their money's worth out of this book.

I would NOT recommend this book if you are an advanced artist looking for new and fabulous furniture ideas. I was disappointed after receiving this book. This book does not contain anything that is "to die for", just the plain ole basics. However, if you are a beginner, this book will give you the basics for step by step furniture preparation and materials. It has good information on tools and lots of materials that are important to the beginner.

If you are looking for beautiful old world style, modern or contemorary painted furniture, this book is NOT for you.!!
I recommend: "Sophisticated Surfaces" by Karen Aude. It has beautiful professional ideas for walls, floors and furniture. It features professional artists and sample pictures of their painted furniture, walls and floors.

Unusual yet realistic ideas for painting furniture. Easy to understand and very detailed. I wish she had a volume II.

The title is deceptive as the contents is purely for the beginners and a lot of the projects are decoupaging. It would be a plus if the book includes more painting techniques. Thus, this is not a book for the experienced decorator or painter.

However, this book will be a good start for beginners who wanted to try their hand at less frightening furniture decoration projects. The projects in this book are not complicated and they come with easy to follow instructions, aided by beautiful photographs.

This is absolutely the best book to use if you like to paint furniture. The instructions are well done and the pictures are great. It is also great if you need a book for ideas or inspiration. The minute I opened this book, I knew it was going to be a keeper. Great job Shelia McGraw!

This is a great book about decorative furniture painting. McGraw gives creative tips and techniques that I hadn't seen in other books, such as using caulking to create raised effects. She also shows you how to create your own block stamps on a roller to create consistent patterns. Although some of the projects aren't my style, many of them employ techniques that I definitely will use. I bought this book along with "Painted Furniture" by Diane Weaver because I wanted to paint some dressers that had been handed down to me and was looking for inspiration. This one is so much better than the Weaver book. I'm inspired to paint my kitchen table and chairs too. I was going to buy new kitchen chairs, but this book had an example of a painted chair that's exactly like mine. One of my chairs is wobbly and has been glued and clamped several times. This book gave me tips on how to really fix it and although I don't care for the floral motif on the example chair, I'm bursting with ideas for mine.

This book is amazing with the ideas of creating with old furniture. After recieving in the mail I just wanted to get started painting a dresser or creating my own piece of painted work. The desciption of the different techniques is very good. Top notch book.

I'm not looking to make an artistic statement, just remake some old furniture I inherited into something I can live with. I've looked for ideas and books for months, and when I found this in the library I loved it so much I bought too copies: one for me, and one for a friend with zero craft skills.

There are lots of ideas (so what if it's simple old decoupage? who'd have thought of pasting an entire poster on a dresser, or using lovely calligraphy?) The instructions could not be more well thought out and illustrated

There are lots of tips and "words to the wise" sprinkled throughout to avoid mishaps or just to make the project look better, and the projects are infinitely adaptable to whatever furniture or materials you have lying around.

There is something for (almost) everyone -- some projects are a little high brow artsy for my taste, some a little too country cute, but there are also antiquing and modernizing techniques, projects incorporating natural materials and descriptions of faux finishes. Materials, tools and techniques are thoroughly reviewed, patterns are provided, alternatives are suggested. There's even a section on repairing broken furniture in preparation for painting. Oh, and the index and table of contents are thorough and make it easy to find a project to go with the supplies or ideas you have already.

In a word, this is a wonderful book that does what it says it does -- gives folks with some ugly, broken or boring furniture inspiration and practical guidance to make something useful and attractive.