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Home & Interior Design books:
Paint Recipes: A Step-By-Step Guide to Colors and Finishes for the Home

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really really fun and helpful but....... -
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I have both of her books and they are both great, helpful etc..the life-lesson i learned is...if it doesn't work out..paint over it and start again. ...

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Great ideas, poor execution -
The projects in this book are definitely cool. However, I encountered two substantial problems.

First, it was difficult to find some of the supplies. I live in a metropolitan area (2 million people) and could only find one place that sold liming wax. I spent an hour on the phone calling places looking for it. I finally found a supplier 40 miles away.

Second, the colors in the book are quite different than in person. I added the specified amount of artist's paint to create the terracota fresco. The color was suppose to be orangish. It turned out to be pink. Let me tell you, my husband did not appreciate that at all.

My recommendation, take her ideas, but don't use her colors.

Great Value, makes a great housewarming gift -
This is a wonderful book for anyone wanting to decorate or redecorate their home with style. It is great value because it is literally packed with techniques and ideas to suit anyone's taste. Most effects are surprisingly easy to create.

The book starts out with a through explanation of materials. This includes color photos of all the tools, as well as charts with great information on mixing and thinning paint types, primers, undercoats, solvents, glazes, varnishes, sealants, and metallic finishes. Information about toxicity, uses and whether it should be used indoors or out is included as well. There are even several excellent charts on preparing almost any surface for painting.

Numerous techniques for painting walls including colorwashing, sponging, dragging, rag rolling, stippling, limewashing, dry brushing, fade-away washing, loose-glaze, mock and rubbed back plaster are included. Effects such as Fresco, Mediterranean and Egyptian are also covered as well as creating borders, stone blocking and making distressed plaster patterns.

Then wood effects such as aging, spattering, graining, crackling, combing, and staining are covered. The Scandinavian and Shaker color pallets and styles are demonstrated here too. Stone finishes such as marbling, lapis lazuli, sandstone, porphyry, granite and terracotta follow. Then there are metal finishes including patina, verdigris, rust, lead, iron and bronzing. Finally, lacquer, tortoiseshell, shagreen, leather, stenciling, and gilding techniques are shown.

Most of the projects use latex or acrylic paint, only a few use oils. Step-by-step directions are given for each of these techniques or effects. Close-up photos show the each style in a few different colors and recipes are given for each one. Some styles have pictures of finished rooms or objects done with them.

Since printing accurate colors is tricky and there are so many variables in materials and surfaces, I know that results can vary. I would recommend experimenting on a small scale and tweaking the recipe to get things the color you want. All in all this is fabulous and inspirational book at an excellent price for anyone who wants to do more than brush on off-the-shelf paint.

Lovely to look at and inspiring! -
I do decorative finishes quite often, and while I have not actually followed any of the paint recipes to the letter, they have provided a jumping-off point for many projects. A nice sourcebook w/ photos of different kinds of tools, pigments, etc. The use of UK measurements and paint terms could be confusing for some people. Overall a very good reference for the serious or semi-serious decorative painter...

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Lovely book, but where is my terra cotta stone wall? -
I have been enchanted with this book since I first saw and acquired it a few years ago. I have followed only a few recipes, partly because it has been difficult to find some of the ingredients in my area. My most pressing complaint, however, echoes comments by an earlier reviewer regarding the accuracy of the recipes. I am in the middle of a faux stone block wall that calls for a base coat and three glaze coats, followed by veining and shadows--a lot of work. It was clear after the first glaze coat that my wall would never be remotely close to the lovely terra cotta color identified (p. 94) as "the basic recipe". Help, Liz, where are you?