Recipes for Surfaces: Decorative Paint Finishes Made Simple

Recipes for Surfaces is a one-of-a-kind handbook that enables you to master decorative painting techniques for walls, floors, ceilings, and furniture as simply as you would use a cookbook: Just follow the recipes. This easy guide will show you how to create a variety of exciting surface effects for your entire home using the basic methods so popular today -- sponging, ragging, stippling, color washing, spattering, dragging, stenciling, marbling, and wood graining.

The straightforward format of Recipes for Surfaces gives you the tools to transform any aspect of your home with paint. More affordable than wallpaper, more personalized than solid-colored opaque paint, these painting techniques -- once the closely guarded secrets of painting professionals -- are not limited to walls, ceilings, or floors, but can be used on moldings, doors, and furniture as well -- as accents or to try out effects on smaller subjects. With Recipes for Surfaces as your guide, you can achieve professional and customized effects yourself -- with a lot of fun and no hassle. What makes this book so special and so different from many home decorating books is that -- like making a meal with your favorite recipes -- it allows, and in fact encourages, you to create a completely personal look that suits your own space, style, and budget. And, as your skill and confidence grow, Recipes for Surfaces will show you how to move beyond the basics with exciting and unique variations.

Recipes for Surfaces is organized for practical use, with clear concise explanations and full-color illustrations. Part One gives background and specific information on color, paint, and preparation, including advice on stocking up on the right paints and brushes, how to ready surfaces for painting, and how to store paints once you've finished. Helpful color charts supplement the discussion of how to mix and match colors for your taste and needs.

The second part of the book illustrates many painting techniques. Each of over 40 recipes can be followed independently and is rated accorded to difficulty from easy to more complex. The recipe itself includes a list of paints and other materials needed, tips on surfaces best suited to the technique, and painting advice -- all in a simple-to-read chart right on the page. Detailed step-by-step instructions outline each method and its variations with full-color photographs. As you master a fundamental recipe -- such as sponging on -- you can create many different looks, trying different colors and patterns with the same technique or combining various techniques to suit your needs.

The clearest, most concise guide of its kind, Recipes for Surfaces gives you the confidence and ability to create the painted interior that's right for you.

Mindy Drucker is a freelance writer specializing in design and home decoration topics. Her work has appeared in Colonial Homes, House Beautiful's Building Manual, Creative Ideas for Living and other publications. She lives in New Jersey.