Product Description

"The Complete Guide to Painting and Decorating" is a comprehensive source of information on all DIY techniques for home decor: interior painting, wallpapering, and staining. In addition, it provides a practical introduction to the basics of home decor design and colour theory. This is a substantially revised edition of one of CPI's best-selling home decor books, previously hardly available outside the USA. This new book features updates of all the tried and tested techniques, plus classics projects using the latest tools, today's most popular patterns and colours, and new, indemand techniques. "The Complete Guide to Painting and Decorating" includes 20 projects, showing DIY-ers how to achieve popular new painting and decorating effects, from plaster skim-coating to wallpapering; geometric paint effects to antique staining. It is the must-have book to turn DIY ideas into reality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157177 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
A good choice for those who want to add a little flair, depth, and sophistication to their interior painting and decorating efforts, Black & Decker: The Complete Guide to Painting and Decorating will encourage you to do more than just slap on some paint. After flipping through the pages and seeing more than 700 color photos, you will want to play with paint, experiment with it, and control it. The first section of the book--Color & Decorating Principles--explains color theory as well as the use of colors and patterns to create moods in a room. (Warm colors, for example, help make north-facing rooms more inviting, and the people in them warmer.) The second section of the book--Basic Painting & Wallcovering --explains the process of preparing surfaces for finish paint, choosing the right materials, and estimating quantities. (This portion also notes how small patterns help make close spaces seem larger and more open, while large patterns are stimulating and look best in active areas such as a child's room or a large kitchen.) The book's final section--Advanced Painting & Decorating--looks at how to embellish walls and floors with faux designs and decorative accents, and how to add elegant touches with wallcovering cutouts, cornices, and wall frame moldings. Specialty painting tools are also discussed, including paint gloves for contoured surfaces such as pipe and wrought-iron, bendable paint pads for window shutters and cast-iron radiators, and mixer bits. Knowing that some of the designs and color combinations may spur people to wilder-than-normal decisions, the authors wisely advise that people first get samples of their preferred wallcoverings or paints, and then take them home and subject them to the 24-hour test, checking from time to time over the course of a full day to see how the colors change under varying lighting situations --John Russell amazon dot com

I can do a passable paint job- but this book helps me assess color and patterns, select type of paint and tools specific to the job, prepare the surfaces and apply the paint. It even guides me through complicated patterns and uses I wouldn't have contemplated at all, without a clear guide. This book takes you through it all with clear advice, excellent step-by-step color photographs. You'll save lots of money and time, and best of all, get easy-to-follow advice to do it right the first time. --JDiver

this book is written so one can get many interesting ideas and easy to follow instructions. a varity of ideas for everyone pocket book pictures demoastrate beautifully the techniques i really enjoyed this book and recommend it to everyone redecorating thier homes and or giving a room a fresh look --ACustomer

About the Author
Jan Farris is the author of several books on home decor and lives in Missouri, USA.

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended. Comprehensive. Practical and Inspiring.
If you're only looking to buy one book on decorating, get this one! The book is really well illustrated throughout and covers not only practical techniques, but also deals with design and use colour. The book starts with a guide to the principles of using colour. A sequence of photographs showing the same room decorated with different colours helps to show how the theory works in practice. It also shows how colours work together, again with good illustrations to help you decide what colour schemes will achieve the effect you are looking for. The next section of the book deals with practical matters: preparing surfaces for decorating, and techniques for painting and papering. The final section on advanced techniques includes all kinds of ideas for creative use of paint and paper, plus sections on coving and decorative mouldings. A great source for ideas. Overall, a book we have frequently dug into and re-read. The only minor downside is the US English text, which contains a few terms where you have to guess the UK English equivalent! Highly recommended.