Painting Do-It-Yourself For Dummies [Paperback]

Katharine Kaye McMillan (Author), Patricia Hart McMillan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2007

Painting your home yourself can be faster, more affordable and even easier than hiring professionals—but only if you get it right the first time. Painting Do-It-Yourself For Dummies, helps you do just that with easy-to-follow, step-by-step procedures for giving your, floors, walls, and ceilings the extreme makeover of your dreams.

More than 500 photos and illustrations show you exactly how to perform each step of each procedure the right way and avoid drips, smudges, and ugly surfaces. You'll find out how to choose the best paint for the job, figure out how much paint you'll need, and use rollers, brushes, and other painting tools with skill and precision. Before you know it, you'll have the confidence and ability to tackle any household painting project with ease. You'll discover how to:

• Select the proper tools and materials for each painting job
• Choose colors that will work for you—now and for years to come
• Prepare your room and the surface for painting
• Make necessary wall and ceiling repairs before painting
• Brush up on painting basics
• Create faux finishes with shapes and patterns
• Use glazes to dazzling effect
• Bring out the beauty of wood trim, windows and doors
• Finesse furniture, frames, and other household items

Complete with a handy list of dos and don'ts for perfecting your painting skills, Painting Do-It-Yourself for Dummies, gives you the guidance, tips, and information you need to get a professional-level outcome every time.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

DO-IT-YOURSELF

Step-by-Step instruction to get you painting your home like a pro in no time!

Have you ever walked into a home taken a look at the paint on the walls, and wondered, "How'd they do that?" Now you can find out and do it yourself!

Make your walls, floors, and ceilings look like they received an extreme makeover! Generously illustrated, this practical handbook shows you how to jazz up rooms with step-by-step, professional-level instructions that help you master the art of painting and faux finishing without spending a whole lot of time, effort, or money.

Stuff You Need to Know

• Choose from over 50 projects
• Select the right color and style of paint
• Prep and prime your surface for paint
• Decorate with checks and stripes
• Spruce up your wall with faux leather or suede

About the Author

Katharine Kaye McMillan, PhD, is a social cognitive psychologist who writes do-it-yourself decorating advice in her online Design Doctor column. She is the coauthorwith her mother and mentor, Patricia Hart McMillan, of Home Decorating For Dummies, 2nd Edition, Glass Tile: Inspirations for Kitchens and Baths, Sun Country Style, and House Comfortable. Where the Pros Live, her weekly feature series on how trendsetters and tastemakers really design for themselves, runs weekly in the Palm Beach Post’s “Florida Home” section. She is a contributing writer to Florida Design, the leading internationally distributed decorating magazine. An expert in masculinity and self-concept, she teaches psychology at private and public colleges in South Florida. She appears on national and regional television shows, talk radio, and trades her do-it-yourself design secrets at home shows nationwide with Patricia Hart McMillan.

Patricia Hart McMillan was Interior Design Editor of 1,001 Decorating Ideas (later Home), one of the first dedicated do-it-yourself magazines with a multimillion reader circulation in the U.S., Canada, and Japan. She became Remodeling Editor of Home Mechanix Magazine, whose do-it-yourself readers included semi-professional and professional carpenters, painters, paper-hangers, floor-installers, and plumbers. On at least one occasion, she hung wallcovering for publication! As Editor in Chief of 20/20 Magazine, she helped launch a retail shop design series entitled Blueprint for Success, which continues. Private decorating clients include some “household names” as well as newlyweds with big dreams and small budgets. She’s author and coauthor of eight books and at work on four more dealing with interior design, contemporary architecture, architectural glass tile, and historic houses and gardens. Her trendspotting articles and profiles of nationally known designers appear in newspapers, magazines, and online.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies (November 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470175338
• ISBN-13: 978-0470175330
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Plumbing & Household Automation
  • #92 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Home Repair

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect to get beyond slopping paint on a wall..., February 2, 2008

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Painting Do-It-Yourself For Dummies (Paperback)

Painting Do-It-Yourself For Dummies by Katharine Kay McMillan, PhD and Patricia Hart McMillan is one of those books that you probably look at and say, "I already know how to paint a wall!." But if you're anything like me (and I hope not for your sake), your skill in doing more than slopping paint around is not all it could be. This book uses the traditional Dummies style to show both the basics and a number of techniques you may never have considered in your decorating plans. My wife and I will be trying some of these out this summer as we gear up for some bigger redecorating chores.

Contents:
Part 1 - Preparing for Your Painting Project: Gathering What You Need; Readying Your Room and Surface; Making Necessary Wall Repairs; Brushing Up on Painting Basics
Part 2 - Painting Walls Like a Pro: Faux Finishes with Shapes and Patterns; Faux Finishes Using Glaze; More Fun Decorative Techniques
Part 3 - Covering Other Areas of Your Home: Coating Ceilings and Floors; Turning Your Brush to Trim, Windows, and Doors
Part 4 - The Part of Tens: Ten Tips for a Practically Perfect Paint Job; Ten Tips for Picking the Best Color
Index

The first part covers all those things about painting that seems to take all the time and are no fun at all... the prep work. Tools are explained, as well as how to properly prepare the surfaces for painting and how to make the necessary repairs involving those gouges and cracks that tend to occur over time. Even though you've done all these things before if you've painted, it's a good refresher on just why it's important and what you gain by doing it correctly. Then it's on to the fun stuff... actually putting paint on the wall! The authors show you, complete with plenty of pictures, how to try some of the things that you usually only see in houses that have decorators on hand. There's horizontal and vertical striping, clouds, color blocking, and tone-on-tone checkerboarding. They are very striking techniques, and obviously would not work in every room in every house. Still, it'll give you ideas you may have never had the courage to contemplate before. Personally, I was most excited about the glaze and texture ideas. If I can talk my wife into it, I'd really like to try the painted tissue wallpaper. Texture for the wall, coverage for the lathe/plaster cracks and irregularities, and something really "different". The part on covering other surfaces is not quite as long or perhaps exciting, but again you'll get the proper technique for doing things so that the results come out looking professional.

This is one of the few books I sat my wife down and went through with her. While we might not agree on actual colors and styles, we at least had a shared perspective that was more than her giving ideas and me saying "whatever". I look forward to actually painting a room or two this year (did I actually write that?), and this book will help me improve the outcome dramatically.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, August 3, 2008

By 

Web.Terrestrial (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Painting Do-It-Yourself For Dummies (Paperback)

For the most part, this book will help anyone who doesn't consider themselves a pro. It's probably of most value to people who just wanna do it right the first time (whether this is for their first paint job, or they remember the pains of painting).

Great tips for less mess, and easy clean up are in here. Also covered:
The order in which you paint a the surface in a room.
Taking care of brushes and rollers in between uses, on top of picking the right brushes and rollers for the job (and those of good quality).
How to calculate how much paint you need, based on the size of your room/surface.
Preparing a room, or surface for painting.
Did i mention tips for less mess, and easier clean up. I remember all the cleaning i would have to do when i painted in my teens, and the drops of paint that were on the floor. I spend so little time cleaning, now that I employ these tips.
Explains what "cutting in" means, and how to do it.
Safety/health tips.

I've used just about every suggestion offered in this book. There is one that bothers me though. When actually applying the paint, it says to paint in sections, but it's instructions for connecting sections seamlessly are not good (imo). It doesn't include a picture. So i got these bands of layered paint and my wall looked uneven.

The book also covers doing fancier things like patters and whatnot. I haven't tried it though. I'm just telling you it's there.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plan your work and work your plan with this book, July 21, 2010

By 

Prof Zoe (rural North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Painting Do-It-Yourself For Dummies (Paperback)

Before I painted the interior of my house, with the help of a friend, I decided to see if anything new had been developed since I last did any painting. This book made it easy to plan my work, keep problems to a minimum and then work my plan. I lent it to the man who will get on the ladder to reach the high spots and ceilings.
If you have not painted in a while, this is a great review.