Annie Sloan's Painted Kitchen: Paint Effect Transformations for Walls, Cupboards, and Furniture

Annie Sloan's Painted Kitchen is more of an eye-candy idea book than a how-to book.On the plus side ...Nice overview of various paint techniques and great inspirations for different types of kitchens. If you are already versed in faux finishes and custom painting techniques ... her instructions will convey the idea and you can use your existing skill-set. For example, I prefer milk paint to chalk paint so I mentally adjusted her instructions toward my favorite techniques as I read. If you are a beginner ... the value of this book is eye-candy. You would need a different "how-to" book or a lot of experimentation for your learning curve.On the minus side ...Not surprisingly this book is biased toward Annie Sloan products and colors ... so if you use different products ... you will have to do some "mental editing" to make her instructions work with your preferred products.Although I appreciate this book is NOT a beginners "how-to" ... I was disappointed there wasn't more commentary about layering colors and the principles of choosing which colors to layer. Layering is such an important topic ... whether you are distressing, marbling, color washing, dragging, etc. Painted Kitchen only has examples like: Pink color washing TraLa! Bleu dragging TraLa! White and grey Voila! NOTHING about how WE might choose the right colors to layer in our own kitchen projects.By osmosis and common sense ... I "kind-of" got that one might use the wall color or back-splash as a base color in a layered-effect cabinet. But this is never plainly stated ... nor is there any discussion about when or why to use dark over light vs. light over dark, contrast vs. analogous, or any of the other "advanced" questions I have about layering paint.Also ... it's a KITCHEN book ... so why no significant commentary about matching color to appliances and counter-tops? Which is the main challenge in any kitchen. There is brief mention of colors used with a blue stove ... but really ... who has a blue stove??? The rest of us would like some guidance about white, black, and stainless steel ... the appliances we actually have in our kitchens.All-in-all ... I bought this book used ... so recommend it USED which price is about the same as a typical home mag. I would not pay full price for it. If you can get it used, it's worth the price of admission.

Annie Sloan has put together an vibrant collection of kitchen makeovers for very little money. All you really need is a little time and with patience and a "this can really be fun" attitude you can redo your entire kitchen with little more than some paint and a few pieces of new hardware. save between $2,000 and $35,000 and get real custom cabinets. By You! One idea that I initially balked at (because of the extra time involved) was painting the interiors of drawers and cabinets. The first interior was not too bad and then it just got easier, and then I started changing colors. No boring cabinets for me anymore! I even painted the old fridge we planned to replace. It's been three years and I still have the old one. It's painted purple and every one loves it!!!! Especially me.Annie's paints are a must for these projects too. Don't even think of using inferior paint to save a few dollars.

She covers tools, as well as a myriad of techniques. I feel confident now that I can tackle the project and it will look amazing!

not useful

It just kills me when people knock idea books as in "I would never do that". It is a basis from which to draw from your own imagination. Not to copy her ideas or even adopt her style. You're supposed to use it as a reference for inspiration. I've found amazing results from using Ms. Sloan's products coupled with my imagination to produce wonderfully designed rooms and furniture pieces. Keep rollin' out the products and publications Annie! Those of us who think creatively sure do appreciate all your time and efforts!

This book makes the perfect gift for anyone who loves to find amazing projects to enliven any home. The book provides great ideas and easy to read instructions.

Not the best book on the subject. Kind of messy and not very good. If I'd known it was this poor, I would never have bought it.

I was expecting instructions on how to apply paint.

I love Annie Sloan and have a few of her other books, so bought this when I wanted inspiration for my kitchen. However, this is just a re-hash of techniques feature in earlier books. What's worse, most of the AS paints feature are out of production. Better info/inspiration can be found on the net gratis. OK if you haven't read her earlier books.

Disappointed with the purchase. It's an old book - 2004; did not find anything useful in it. Waste of money.

A good, well written book and with good photographs. I am enjoying reading it, and definitely inspired to get painting!

Good book lots of ideas

Worth waiting for this informative, hard to find book. As described and well packaged