Paint: Decorating With Water-Based Paints

This is the first book to discuss and explore all the benefits of using water-based paints and to demonstrate the techniques for achieving the broadest spectrum of colors and effects. John Sutcliffe discusses each water-based option in detail, placing it in historical perspective and showing how distemper, milk paints, latex, acrylics, and water-based varnishes can all be used to their best advantage when decorating rooms and furniture. He provides a full analysis of which paints are commercially available and gives recipes for mixing your own. The highly practical photographs illustrate step-by-step how to achieve a foolproof finish using these quick-drying paints, progressing from the simplest broken-color techniques - such as colorwashing and stippling - to the more advanced, including creating patterns through block printing, stamping, and stenciling. He even shows how it is possible to simulate wood grain, stone, marble, and metal without resorting to solvents. Paint cleverly proves that water-based paint is the medium to use now and in the future to create successful effects that cause no damage to the home decorator or the environment.