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.

A suggestion: take a sizable box (like a packing box) or some mailing paper and try out several of the techniques in colors you like and create a "portfolio" of finishes. It will give you practice doing them and you can put them against a wall to get a feel for how it will look. J.R.


Many great finishes-simple and explicit!   January 22, 2000
Mark London
23 out of 24 found this review helpful

As I look for all my faux finishing books, not one of the books could describe lovely finishes any better or any easier. My stucco and blocks have turned out marvelously...just like the book! Now that's what we like!


Great Basic Reference   September 26, 2001
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Along with the companion book, Decorative Paint Finishes Made Simple, this is one of my core reference books for faux finished paint surfaces. Pictures are useful, instructions clear . . . a must-have for the faux painter's library.


Good basic reference   September 26, 2001
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is one of my favorite faux painting books and one I will always refer to for ideas and instructions. Well worth the investment. Great for beginners or pros.


Excellent resource for Faux Painting   June 14, 2006
Amalfi Coast Girl (Mid-Atlantic, USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

A woman that is passionately in love with Italy and all things Italian writes this review. Once I traveled to Italy, I wanted to bring that look back to my home. I purchased this book about 10 years ago and I still refer to it regularly. This book covers many techniques not just those that would apply to Italy.

I am an avid do-it-yourselfer and love to do things around the house. As an amateur artist, I take photographs and paint landscapes; I think that this book is a good as taking a class in faux painting. I feel that the directions and photographs of the various techniques are very well documented.

The book is subdivided as follows:

PART I - General Information
Intro - What Decorative Painting Can Do For You
1. Color: The Flavor in Every Recipe
2. Paint and Tools: The Staples
3. Preparing to Paint
4. Mixing Paints
5. Before You Begin
PART II - Recipes
6. Metals
7. Stone
8. Fantasy Marbling
9. Reasonable Replicas
10. Textured Wall Finishes
11. Small Surface Specialties and Stenciling

If you are not an artist, the first chapter on color is very handy. This chapter is also covered in the first book in this series. It teaches about the color wheel, the colors that harmonize, classic color schemes, and color moods. The chapter regarding tools is also very helpful, but again this is covered in the first book. It explains the difference between oil and water based products and the advantages and disadvantages of both. There is also a nice discussion of brushes and other tools that is very useful for the beginning artist.

The recipe for copper verdigris is very easy to replicate. This is one of my personal favorites. Likewise the bronze verdigris is also an easy look to achieve. The faux stone requires much more of an artistic sense to get right than the book suggests. Don't be frustrated if it does look right the first time. If you keep practicing, and look at some natural stone for inspiration, you will get it. I found that much of the difference is in the shadowing and highlighting. The suggested techniques for marbling and extremely are easy to replicate. This might be one of the easier techniques in the book to master. The fresco technique is one that I have used over and over in my home. The author suggests using regular paint and glaze. I found that using lime paint (available at most larger hardware stores) makes a more convincing end result.

Regarding stencils I would recommend using acetate and a stencil burner, it works better for me that the cardstock and exacto knife that is shown in the book. I would also recommend that you buy some poster board or use large pieces of cardboard to practice your techniques. I find this to be much easier than going to the wall immediately. Also, once I find a color combination and technique that I like I replicate the process on a small (8 x 11) piece of luan plywood. On the back of this plywood I document which paint colors and glazes I have used and which tools and techniques. I also document the rooms or furniture on which this combination was used. That way if I need to touch up something I know what I did the first time.

I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to try out some faux painting on his or her walls or their furniture. If you are artistically inclined this book will inspire you to get out the paints and change something in your home. I also recommend the first book in this series "Recipes for Surfaces". There is some duplication, but it also includes techniques not covered in this volume. I have found that the most important aspect to achieving the look that you want is to have a clear idea of what you want the end result to look like. In my case, I use photographs of Italian houses to achieve a similar look. I cannot emphasize enough how important photographs are to recreating a look. Please don't skip the photographs; it will make a huge difference.

Happy painting!