This accessible guide shows how to accomplish major finishing tasks around the home. Addressing both interior and exterior projects, it covers preparing a job, choosing the right finish (especially for spaces with special needs like bathrooms and kitchens), selecting tools, and various application techniques. The book is lavishly illustrated with 408 color photos and 45 color illustrations.
Date Published 4/1/2002
Ratings
Rated By: Patricia Templeton "ptemp3"
From: Plano, TX
Rating:
Comments: Don't Judge This Book By Its Cover When you look at the cover of this book, what does the largest photo show? A man painting an interior wall of a room. And what is the book title? Painting and Finishing. And the first bulleted caption line on the cover is "Painting the interior or exterior of a house." The second bulleted caption line is "Choosing finishes for kitchens and bathrooms." So, does this book discuss strategies and techniques for efficiently painting a home's entire interiors, including walls and ceilings? No. Does it discuss the new paints for painting plastic laminates or stains and paints for concrete floors and counters? No. Does it discuss scaffolding if you are "blessed" with exceedingly high ceilings in large rooms or address when it makes sense to spray paint rather than roll walls and ceilings? No. This book is devoted exclusively to discussion of painting or finishing wood, that is, solid and composite woods or wood veneers used in moldings, cabinets, furniture, siding, decking, and decorative items.
While a great deal of interior and exterior decor in better homes is composed of wood, this book is marketed as a general painting and finish book for the home, not as a book for one material in the home. Nowhere on the front or back cover, is this book labeled as what it is: how to paint and stain new or old wood surfaces. And although I already know how to use a paint roller, I bought the book to help me plan how to paint two complete home interiors. Not just the trim and the cabinets. The professional advice I expected to find simply is not there because this book is being presented, in my opinion, as something it is not.
If what you need is advice on painting wood, I think there are better, meaning more detailed and more creative, books available. For instance, "The Painted Kitchen", by Henny Donovan (Firefly Books, 2000) demonstrates a wide range of styles and techniques for painting kitchen cabinets and Annie Sloan's "Inspirations In Painted Furniture," (Collins and Brown, 1999) is both inspiring and an excellent technical reference for painted furniture.
Michael Dresdner's book delivers a great deal of solid, basic, technical information, it is well written, and it is well illustrated, but it is also very limited in scope. He covers tools of the trade, oil-based versus water-based products, work area preparation, clean up, and safety thoroughly. He provides some nifty tips on preparing wood for finishing as well. Unless that's just what you need, however, I recommend you keep browsing.
Rated By: hjliv "hjliv"
From: Duxbury, MA
Rating:
Comments: A rare Taunton miss... The title is misleading. Interior painting is barely touched upon, exterior painting content is basic at best. Staining and finishing sections are rather rudimentary.
Typos abound. Some sidebars are repeated three times.
I've never been disappointed by a Taunton book until this one.
Rated By: Gerald W. Moreau "do it all-er"
From: South
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Comments: Tauntons prints great books, but this is not one of them. I like Tauntons press books alot. So when I went to find a book on painting I looked for thier book on painting. Most of Tauntons Press books go into more advanced aspects of what ever they are refering to. This book is more suited for the slow 2nd grader. It mostly deals with outside painting and staining. nothing at all on how to roll inside walls. This is the WORST book that I have ever bought. This book does not even come close to Tauntons Press normal quality, Shame on you Tauntons...
Rated By: Sonya "readaholic"
From: Dallas, TX
Rating:
Comments: Does Not Cover Interior Walls even though it says it does! The Taunton Pro books are usually quite good, but this one is an exception. Even the bullet points on the front are misleading "Painting the interior and exterior of a house." When I think interior, I think walls, but evidently they mean every other surface EXCEPT walls! LOL.
I also wondered if the author had a contract with BIN. I don't mind if you mention that you like BIN products the best, but to waste valuable photography space on showing a BIN display and cans of paint seems a bit of a waste to me.
The section on floors had several diagrams with arrows going in various directions to show sanding patterns (page 74-75). There was not a clear explanation of which sanding pattern you should use and I came away from reading that section even more confused. The section on Kitchens and Bathrooms was also incomplete. It started out telling you how to prepare the old cabinet surface, how to choose the right primer, then "next to painting, the easiest way to change the look of kitchen cabinets is to recolor them" and goes into staining. It NEVER talks about painting the kitchen cabinets! (page 24-27).
Even the "In Detail" callouts were incomplete! On page 27, there is a short paragraph on Mixing Glazes. It talks about clear, water based glaze base, then talks about getting a paint chip and having the store make up a quart. The mixing instructions are "When mixed with enough glaze base, one quart of paint makes 3-4 quarts of glaze." That's it!
I found the instructions incomplete and not up to the regular Taunton level of quality in their books. Do not waste your money on this book.
This accessible guide shows how to accomplish major finishing tasks around the home. Addressing both interior and exterior projects, it covers preparing a job, choosing the right finish (especially for spaces with special needs like 
