By Annie Sloan:

Recommended by Annie Sloan:

How to Paint Furniture

The Complete Book of Decorative Paint Techniques

"a step by step guide to many different paint finishes such as blocking, stencilling, sponging, ragging, stippling, dragging, flogging, combing nad spattering"! (Even the terms used are, metaphorically, Greek to me). The authors, Annie Sloan and Kate Gwynn, really know their stuff.

The boom in home ownership has been complemented, and increasingly, by a revived interest in interior deocoration - with the emphasis on decoration: stylish, individual good looks, something that sets the house apart from all its fellows and gives its owner (often first-time owners) a source of pleasure and pride. It is possible to start quite simply, perhaps with a piece of furniture, and as confidence and skill grows, move on to more ambitious projects. Now I come to think of it, I have at least two friends, who have put their stamp on their houses with wall-paintings, and in one case a decorated staircase, with stunning results.

It isn't a new art. As the authors point out, people have been painting their furniture and walls of their houses for almost as long as homes have existed; and its functional too. Cheap woods, for example, can be disguised with a decorative finish.

The book is down-to-earth as well as insprirational. it lists the tools and other equipment needed for each technique, and - just as important - how to maintain them. It explains how to mix colours and acheive particular effects such as marbling and "antiquing". And much of it, we're told, is easier than one would think. If you have become reasonably accomplished at hanging wallpaper and painting wood, it would seem that this is the next logical stop - and a very satisfying one, combining practicality wirh artistic acheivement.
by Elizabeth Grey - News Extra, June 1988.

Colour in Decoration

Decorative Découpage

Decorative Gilding

Small touches can be the difference between a special stylish home and sterile dwelling. Decorative painter Annie Sloan teaches us how to be personally invested in our home by learning and using easier and more affordable techniques.

Part of her series of Practical Guides to embellishments such as antiquing and faux-look finishes, this latest book demystifies the ancient method of gilding.

Trained in fine arts, Sloan has tested old and new decorative techniques in her 17th century house-cum-labratory. She shares what she's learned about gilding and creating metallic-look finishes with products such as waxes and paints. Each technique - applying loose metal leaf to surfaces, using bronze powders, painting on fabrics, and more - is accompanied by a list of tools, complete instructions, pitfalls to avoid, and ideas about how to use the technique on furniture, small objects, and walls.
Better Homes and Gardens, Summer 1997

Decorative Paint Effects

Decorative Stencilling & Stamping

Decorative Wood Finishes

The Practical Guide to Decorative Antique Effects

The Painted Furniture Sourcebook

Traditional Paints & Finishes

World Design -
1 Century, 400 designers, 1000 objects.

The Linen Cupboard
by Gloria Nicol

Bloomsbury at Home
by Pamela Todd

Charleston
by Quentin Bell & Virginia Nicholson

Classic Meets Conmetporary
by Fleur Rosssdale

Bohemian Style
by Elizabeth Wilhide

Zen Gardening
by Sunniva Harte

The Irish Home
by Ianthe Ruthven

Plants in Garden History
by Penelope Hobhouse

The Swedish Room
by Lars Sjöberg and Ursula Sjöberg

In this book we find some fine examples of the distinctive style we call Gustavian, after the Swedish royal family which, between about 1780 and 1920, insisted on local copies of French furnishings, from Rococo and Baroque to Directoire.

French noblemen probably stepped into Swedish salons in the nineteenth century with a frisson of distaste for the way in which their Baroque mannerism was diluted in the manorhouse. That white tiled stove spluttering away in the corner above unpolished pine floorboards and white-washed ceilings... the home-spun linen painted to resemble Gothic tapestries... the loose covers on the French chairs to protect fine silk.... Quelle horreur! The French had invented the word 'bourgeois' to describe this kind of plagarism.

But in the Nineties the pared-down look pioneered by the Swedes is fasionable, just as French repro is unfashionably retro. Financial constraints encouraged the developement of 'less extravagant solutions' to European fashions: special paint techniques simulate plaster, granite panelling, even fabrics; the carved wooden statues in the garden at Sandeman manor-house were painted to replicate marble. Stingy, or just plain rustic? Who cares? The look is being revived for the mass market by Ikea, with its new collection of Gustavian furniture launched with the help of Lars Sjöberg, curator of the Swedish National Museum. This pretty picture book with its informative text will encourage those of us who aren't Scandawegian to understand its enduring appeal.
Nonie Niesewand - House & Garden, Oct 1994.