:"Visual deception" can open up space, solve a decorating problem, or create exciting objets d'art to enliven your home. With just a few tricks of perspective, shadow, and color, anyone can usetrompe l'oeil to change the appearance of furniture, ceilings, walls, or an entire room! It's easy, and you don't have to be a skilled painter to get fabulous effects; this basic primer guides you through all the materials; preparing surfaces; mixing colors; and the laws of perspective from background to mid-distance to foreground--even an aerial view. Beautiful projects include a projection of a window overlooking a park, extremely suitable for beginners; painted stones; decorative panels; and classical forms like arches and columns. You won't believe how fast you can get great results!

A how-to craft book that shows how to use simple stenciling, template and faux finish techniques to create trompe l'oeil paintings.

Beginners can try their hands at basic projects (some requiring only six steps to complete,) while intermediate decorators can take on more elaborate trompe l'oeil compositions featuring landscapes, drapery and architectural elements.Complete instructions show how to block out shapes, scale drawings, and use shading and highlighting to create three-dimensional effects. Readers will also find a techniques and materials section, as well as a template section with full-size, traceable patterns.

The essential reference for amateur and professional alike, The Handbook of Painted Decoration is the first book to cover the whole spectrum of trompe l'oeil decorative painting, from classic marbling and wood graining to ancient techniques of decorative painting that have been nearly forgotten.

From the coauthor of the best-selling Handbook of Painted Decoration comes this advanced exploration of trompe l'oeil art and technique.

Our political age is characterized by forms of description as ‘big’ as the world itself: talk of ‘public knowledge’ and ‘public goods,’ ‘the commons’ or ‘global justice’ create an exigency for modes of governance that leave little room for smallness itself. Rather than question the politics of adjudication between the big and the small, this book inquires instead into the cultural epistemology fueling the aggrandizement and miniaturization of description itself. Incorporating analytical frameworks from science studies, ethnography, and political and economic theory, this book charts an itinerary for an internal anthropology of theorizing. It suggests that many of the effects that social theory uses today to produce insights are the legacy of baroque epistemological tricks. In particular, the book undertakes its own trompe l’oeil as it places description at perpendicular angles to emerging forms of global public knowledge. The aesthetic ‘trap’ of the trompe l’oeil aims to capture knowledge, for only when knowledge is captured can it be properly released.

Offers step-by-step instructions for creating trompe l'oeil murals using stencils and includes advice on tools, paints, and stenciling techniques.

Innovate while you renovate! It's Decorating 101! Here is a comprehensive guide to decorating styles and terms, design basics, inventive solutions, tips on working with a professional, and more-presented in the illustrated format that home improvement readers love. From a room at a time to a whole house, start-from-scratch to dazzling makeovers, this book offers everything aspiring decorators need to know. Photos and line drawings throughout plus a lush 32-page color insert A back-of-the-book decorating kit offers templates, graph paper, and a sketchbook so readers can get started on their projects right away Particularly timely as Trading Spaces hits the NYT bestseller list!

Takes the fear out of painting large murals by starting with the very basics. 11 step-by-step projects.

Ever look around the walls of your home and think, Blah! Do you have Martha-Stewart envy? Do you buy decorating magazines by the dozen and just end up throwing up hands at the impossibility of the task of re-doing your home? Fret no more. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Decorating Your Home, Second Edition gives clear, easy-to-understand instruction to turn the most humble abode into a work of art. This brand new, updated second edition has even more photos than before to help you get a picture-perfect vision of your decorating dreams. An all-new chapter on decorating resources on the Web, as well as how to use such hot tickets as e-Bay to get that perfect item for your home at a perfectly low price.