The richness and beautiful finishes special paint effects can add to walls and furniture in your home allow you to indulge your imagination and taste in unique ways.

These tricks with paint can recreate the look of highly expensive materials like marble, wood or stone, in a completely realistic yet cost effective way. You would, for example be able to choose a wood graining effect in an area where it simply wouldn’t be possible to fit real wood features. Practical and inexpensive items – cupboards that have seen better days, shelving that’s looking shabby – can be completely transformed or indeed brought up to date by matching to other wood in the room.

Stunning wall effects can be developed with colour washes, metallic and pearlised finishes, marbling and antiquing. You’ll see how the gold finish in this living room can be used to create either a very subtle, underplayed style or made highly dramatic in ways that could never be achieved by straightforward plain colour painting. Check out the Gallery for some more ideas and examples.