Hints for painters, decorators, and paper-hangers.

A practical companion for anyone who works with walls, ceilings, and timber, this guide breaks down the essentials of house‑painting, paper‑hanging and decorative finishing into clear, bite‑size instructions. It starts with the fundamentals—preparing surfaces, understanding the qualities of paints, oils, driers and pigments—then moves on to reliable recipes for mixing colors, achieving realistic wood grain, and applying finishes to everything from brick to glass. The author’s straightforward style avoids jargon, making even the trickier topics—like proportioning ingredients or estimating material costs—accessible to a novice with a little common sense.

The second half of the book turns to the carpenter’s indispensable tool, the steel square, illustrating its many uses with more than seventy‑five detailed wood‑cuts. Readers learn to lay out rafters, hips, stairs and even complex geometric shapes such as ellipses and polygons, all using simple rules that a twelve‑year‑old could follow. Together, the two sections offer a hands‑on, no‑fluff resource for tradespeople looking to sharpen their craft and solve everyday problems with confidence.