Rating: 
Summary: 1998 SMALL PRESS BOOK AWARD WINNER!
Review: Critics from across the continent know why this book is an Amazon Bestseller."...a great gift for the do-it-yourselfer..." ------Style at Home magazine "'Painting and Decorating Furniture' by Sheila McGraw is truly the most inspiring.... The illustrated steps and materials lists let the reader believe 'I can do this!'" ------Newsday "...Sheila McGraw does much to inspire..." ------Vancouver Sun "...exciting and enticing..." ------The Ottawa Citizen "McGraw has a wonderful eye for unleashing the personality of seemingly bland, ordinary pieces." ------New Orleans Times-Picayune The first chapters teach you the basics of how to turn old or ugly furniture, whether it's your great-grannie's dresser, a melamine wall unit, or wrought-iron chair into a lasting work of art. Painting with a brush and roller, spray painting, staining, and varnishing are each covered. The 40 featured projects then illustrate how to combine these basics with original, inspiring decorating treatments for stunning results. Simplified demonstrations of freehand, decorative, and folk painting enable everyone to achieve beautiful results. Complete, easy-to-follow instructions and 1,000 step-by-step, color photographs guide you! ORIGINAL TREATMENTS AND TECHNIQUES, INCLUDING: · decorating with vines, branches, postage stamps · inventive ideas for fabric, posters, baskets TRADITIONAL TREATMENTS AND TECHNIQUES, INCLUDING: · mosaic, metallics, patina, decoupage · antiquing, tiling, marbling PROJECTS FOR ALL SKILL LEVELS: · cabinets, desks, dressers, tables, and chairs · new, simple methods for decorative hand painting Sheila McGraw is an accomplished author, illustrator, designer and portrait painter. Of her many books, she illustrated the best-selling (in the millions!) "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch.
Rating: 
Summary: Painting and Decorating Funiture
Review: 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)
Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginning furniture painters
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginning furniture painters
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginning furniture painters
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy read for beginners
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Easy, exciting and fun furniture painting ideas
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent craft book to revive old or ugly furniture.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK
Review: 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.
| 
