Painted furniture and interiors expert Annie Sloan leads the enthusiast through a fully illustrated, international spectrum of decorative styles--American colonial, Dutch folk art, Irish vernacular, Scandinavian neoclassical, Oriental lacquerwork, German baroque and more--all achievable by collectors, decorators and do-it-yourselfers.

For each enchanting room and object, the author reveals how the paint effect was achieved and how to recreate it in the contemporary home. A generous glossary of techniques describes the essential terms, from spattering and marbling to patinating and distressing. The book also offers a library of over 50 motifs, both classic and modern, for use as a fingertip reference or for on-the-spot tracing.