Jazz Up Your Junk With Linda Barker: Fabulous Furniture Makeovers from the Star of Bbc-Tv's Changing Rooms
Junk abounds--some of us have basements and attics full of it, while others seek it out at flea markets and yard sales. The secret is determining which pieces have the potential to take on a new life, becoming decorative and useful items that lend character to a room. Linda Barker has a sure eye for recognizing the ugly duckling and bringing out its inner swan, with the help of paint, fabric, basic craft supplies, and occasionally some simple carpentry. In her book,Jazz up Your Junk, chairs, tables, armoires, and more are stenciled, decoupaged, glass-etched, and sometimes given minor surgery (nailing two side supports to the top of a sturdy coffee table, for instance, cleverly turns it into a vanity-table bench). Not every project is a stunning success (the floor lamp still looks dated despite its silver leaf; the punched tin seems out of place on the massive doors of the tallboy unit) but most are attractive. Best of all, Barker shows us the "before" pictures as well as the in-progress and "after" shots, and explains what attracted her to each piece, thus instructing readers on how to recognize a good piece of junk when you find it and how to approach its transformation.--Amy Handy