Design Your Own Furniture [Paperback]

When I first opened this book, I honestly misjudged it. Lots and lots of pictures of furniture is not what I was looking for. Then I realized they are pictures of pieces he had built. This book is a must have. Read on to see why. On second impression I was also disappointed when I saw that it was only 128 pages. It is a large book in every other dimension. High quality color photographs run throughout. The topics covered in the sections, which only run about 4 pages at times, seemed like we were covering basics. Beginning chapters are: Design elements, Creating a drawing, creating a materials list, sizing from a photograph, and small shop considerations.
When I read the name of the book, I jumped at purchasing it. I wanted to learn how to design furniture, and build it on a step by step basis. You know the specifics of joinery and the like. I was thinking about it and the intracacies of doing so. This book does not cover that. If you need to decide whether to use dowels, biscuits, or mortise and tenon joinery to join the apron to the legs on your table, this book will not help with that. It will show you how to imagine the flow of the pieces when you make up your drawings. The aesthetics are really what the very best pieces are all about, and that is what this book gives you a feel for. How to create the most beautiful pieces. That is what I feel about the pieces the author has created. Many of them are far more attractive than the furniture that we see today. The blend of the proper woods, in proportion to size, and function.
He makes you spend a lot of time with pencil and paper, thinking out your piece. How will each and every aspect of it go together, and in what shape, angle and size. Isn't this what we all need. Instead of being fixed in the plans delivered from those who are building standard appearance works.
The later chapters cover: Putting it all together, Beds, dressers, sideboards, and hutches, bookcases, tables, chairs, wall and base cabinets, desks, and entertainment centers.
It is important to say that as an enthusiast, I have been recording the New Yankee Workshop for some time now, thinking I would be able to pull out a tape, and review it when I build a similar piece. What I have learned from all of that is that their is really a limited amount of joints and procedures that we need to learn, to tackle most any project. Notice I said, Most any, carving and highly ornate work, as well as some sophisticated veneers and or inlays are a few exceptions. Nevertheless, armed with this understanding, this book "Design your own furniture" fills a niche that I have not seen anywhere else. How to conceive your own project. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and this book will take you by the hand, and lead you into the creation of pieces of furniture that will be uniquely yours, both in style and function. When you see the pieces that were made in the book, you will realize that the author has transended the standards.
I really hate to boast about a book, knowing that with such high expectations, anything that arrives, will seem like a disappointment. BUT when you take the third impression, and really start to read it as I have, you will realize, that this, more than others, is the key to your real attainment as a woodworking artist. Not an extremist, but rather a sense of freedom from the standard, while still maintaining the standard format and function of the designs that we have all come to know. I know this book will be helpful, and I hope this review is also.

This is a beautiful book, nicely laid out, with inspiring photography. The book has 12 chapters, the first 6 cover general design and construction topics, and the remaining 6 each look at a particular type of furniture.

The main reason I bought the book was to gain some insight into the design process. Chapter 2 is titled "creating a drawing", and covers this by looking at how the author drew/designed and eventually built a table. The chapter is helpful, but a bit short. I would have liked another example. Design seems to be an iterative process, where you draw something and see what works and doesn't, fix and draw again. I would have liked some examples of drawings that show this iterative process, and what criteria are used to determine what works and what doesn't. But maybe that's where the skill of the designer comes in and this can't really be taught in a book.

The last 6 chapters showcase some nice pieces, and have some comments on them. Again, it would have been nice to have examples of the iterative design process used to get to the final result. And to correct another reviewer, some of the pieces are pieces by the editors of Popular Woodworking.

My guess is that the book would have been much more expensive if each type of furniture had an exmple of the design process. Study the second chapter carefully, and apply it.

I highly recommend this book to people that are interested in going beyond building after plans. I have begun work on a custom bookcase for specific books, and have found the experience very rewarding.

After reading the two reviews, I thought this would be a great introduction to furniture design. I was expecting information such as generally accepted proportions of furniture elements, possibly a discussion of the application of the golden rectangle, and other non-obvious thoughts. The information is very high-level and broad. This book is so light on real information that I consider it useless.

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