Furniture Books

The Editorial Staff of Ortho Books, How to Plan and Build Bookcases, Cabinets, and Shelves (Ortho, 1987)

How do you review a how-to book, really? I mean, as long as it does what it's supposed to do, and does it clearly, it's good, right? From that standpoint, this one's pretty much got it made. Clear descriptions, heavy on the illustration, step-by-step instructions, that sort of thing. I do wish it had gone into more detail on some of the optional stuff (especially face-framing; if you plan to do a lot of bookshelf-building that requires doors, you'll probably need another book as well), but for basic construction of shelving, this should do you right. Not much more to say. If you need it, you need it, if you don't, you don't. *** ½

Pre-Req to this book is knowing how to use Power Tools and manual wood tools.A great place to start. Not for the highly experienced, but great for those who are just starting out in woodworking or those who like 1980 / 1990 Retro. Don't expect to be an expert after reading this book;but do expect to create some nice pieces and learning the basics. You must learn to walk before you run. It can be compared to a 4th Level School book of a 8 Level school.

I bought this book hoping for plans and ideas for built-in shelves and storage units. The book does a fairly good job explaining the construction basics involved, but it is woefully bereft of ideas. The book is published in the early 1980's and the projects which are illustrated have not, for the most part, stood the test of time. If you are looking for building ideas and examples you can show a builder, this book is not a good starting point.

Although the book is supposed to be for cabinet and shevling, it is clearly more about cabinets. Not good if you looking for ideas on interior fancy shelves. Very good if you looking to build interior cabinets.

Chapters: Getting Started, Selecting a Style, Establishing a Size, Materials, Hand Tools, Power Tools, Hardware, Adhesives, Joints, Building Techniques, Finishing Techniques, Shelves, Doors, Drawers, Computer Center, Hidden Double-Bed Cabinet, Slide-Projector Cabinet, Wine Rack, Sewing Center, TV or Stereo Cabinet, Ironing-Board Cabinet, Modular Cubes, Open Utility Shelves, Fixed-Shelf Utility Case, Simple Plywood Cabinet, Freestanding Bookcase, Tall Pine Bookcase, Standard Base Cabinet, Interlocking Shelves, Corner Cabinet.

The photos in this book look like they were shot in the 80's. Hideous wallpaper, ugly paint colors, and gross fabric. Also this book is almost page by page an exact copy of the early edition entitled "Ideas for Great Kid's Rooms" ISBN 0376017546.

Yes there are a few good ideas in this book so I gave it two stars instead of one, but unless you can get it used under two bucks, don't waste your money.

This is a fun books with many good ideas. I enjoyed the "fantasy" aspect of designing a child's room. The main setback for us with executing many of the designs is budget limitations. Also, be aware that this is the same book as Sunset's "Ideas for Great Kids' Rooms". We bought both not realizing they are the same book.

This is a fun books with many good ideas. I enjoyed the "fantasy" aspect of designing a child's room. The main setback for us with executing many of the designs is budget limitations. Also, be aware that this is the same book as Sunset's "Ideas for Great Kids' Rooms". We bought both not realizing they are the same book.

This book is jam-packed with great ideas. Some of the rooms are just unbelievable.

The colors, patterns and storage ideas are very helpful. And having all of the photos helps with getting the kids involved in picking out what they would like in their rooms.

My oldest daughter likes window seats, and we saw a bed in here with a curved entrance made like a window seat, and she really liked it. So, I made her one similiar to the one in the book and she really loves her bed.

I brought this book when I was planning a nursery for my little girl. It gives lots of realistic ideas budget wise and safety wise. There are lots of photos and it gives good tips on how to plan a room for your child that he and you will not be sick of after a year or two.

I have to admit that I did get some tidbits, but I found this book was either far too simple or that it had too few instructions for the procedures. Also, the projects were not in my taste as I hate the "country" look. There really was not much restoration or preservation in it and it mostly involved the taking of old items and spending a lot of time making them look new so that you can then spend too much time making them look "fake" old.
Sorry - just not my taste.

This would be a good book for someone looking to restore furniture.
Not enough new, practical information for me. Iknew most of the info already,and while I like to look at before and after photos, there weren't that many in this book.

Oh well, win some,lose some!

I have been searching for books that outline different painting techniques for YEARS. This book does a great job of showing exactly how to achieve different painted looks on different types of items. The directions are clear and really pretty basic. There are examples of decoupage, tiling and painting that are actually things we non-Martha Stewart types might be able to do! I bought this for a girl friend, and I'm ordering another one for myself.

This was the first book my mother bought me on this subject, & it has become my bible! In fact, I've been trying to find comparable books for some fresh, new ideas, but all of the books I have purchased or been given since have fallen short!

Barker starts out with an intro. section that tells you everything you need to know about stripping, painting, molding putty to replace broken details, reinforcing old chairs & drawers, filling handle holes, checking for pests, etc. It shows step by step pictures & has step by step instructions. This section is invaluable, & I refer to it time & time again.

Although I would have to agree with the previous viewer about the "blues" of the chair & the "pickled sideboard," Barker does offer many wonderful ideas. I don't personally like all of her ideas, but I think that an important accomplishment this book has made is that she has refinished almost every piece with a different technique; thus, you have the information & knowledge available to you to use your own imagination & mix it up a little.

For example, in her bedroom chapter, she shows a Formica topped cabinet that she refinished in a crackle pattern with decoupage fronts. I'm not into the crackle or the decoupage, BUT the actual paint finish was incredible! She stripped, sealed, primed, etc. Then, she used a pale yellow paint. After that, she rubbed the entire surface with an Artist's oil (burnt umber). It was a remarkable, "shabby" finish!! My hubby & I are now using this basic combination to refinish a bargain, couch table we found..

Just Junk : New Looks for Old Furniture
by Linda Barker (Introduction)

Being a big fan of Changing Rooms, I am collecting books by the different decorators and Handy Andy. As usual, Linda Barker shows fabulous tips for turning old pieces of junk you may hanging around the house or find at flea markets. She shows you how to spruce them up and make them show pieces for your particular home.

Her instructions were particularly helpful to this person who does not even know to paint.

Sure, I wouldn't choose some of her color schemes but this was an especially helpful "how-to" and idea book, and I recommend it to all.

This book is a great addition to furniture maker's library. The designes are classic and a delight to peruse and use. It requires a user to have some skill, but that is OK.

The introduction or "how to" accomplish certain tasks in the beginning is very useful.

I bought it for my husband who is a big fan of the stickley/craftsman style. i can't wait for him to build me "stuff"!!!

By happenstance I came across this volume before encountering the first volume. While it provides the minimum basic information to build some 30 pieces of furniture based on Arts & Crafts designs it failed to inspire me to purchase the first volume. The primary reason is that while the information provided is good, there is nothing to inspire me to build or adapt any particular piece. Why? Because Robert Lang relies a bit too much on my imagination.

I'm a bit of a free spirit in the wood shop. I like combining features I like, adding a few twists of my own, and taking a few, judicious risks. Lang seems to have unerringly chosen the simplest, and often the dullest work of a carpentry movement that was anything but simple and dull. Perhaps this should have been titled 'Craftsman Furniture for Beginners.' It would have captured the approach more accurately.

This is a book that would have been improved immensely by the inclusion of a handful of glossy pages with photographs of the completed designs. Something to fire the imagination and make a few of the mysteries a bit clearer. A few pieces (all china cabinets oddly enough) exhibit some of the grace of Stickley's best work. But other than some details of construction, there are other sources that capture the essence and style better.

That being said, it is a good start for a beginner who wants to get some straightforward work underway before tackling the complexities of which Arts & Crafts work is capable. But I would still recommend spending the time perusing a few coffee table books of the movement. Arts & Crafts wasn't just a style, it was an aesthetic movement that continues to have an influence on modern furniture making.

I have both of Robert Lang's books on Craftsman Furniture. They are perhaps the best books of their type that I have seen. I am on my third project from his books and look forward to completing many more. The plans in the books are not for the novice as there is no project-by-project advice or guidance. You must figure-out the cuts and details for yourself. There are 16 pages of general information that is quite helpful to those who know how to apply such information to specific situations.

Unfortunately, there are some dimension errors that lead to cutting lumber too short, wasting both time and money. For example, on page 130 there are two errors that cost me dearly. Apparently the book was not reviewed closely enough. Still, I would like to thank Mr. Lang for his books and look forward to his future contributions!

Great and very historic book, can't wait to get busy building some of the furniture shown in this book. Very clear diagrams, explainations, and items were shown in model rooms.

I haven't had a chance to make anything from this book yet. I like the designs and feel they can be made quickly, as long as you have the tools needed. I'm glad I bought it.

The collection of 2 X 4 Furniture books are wonderful. The only thing they need are the dimensiions of the finished project stated. This way one can determine if the project will fit in their house. When is the next book coming out?????

Of the three books I've purchased by Mr. Henderson, this is by far my favorite. Overall, the instructions and building techniques given are both very easy to understand and easy to perform. You won't need a shop full of expensive tools either to complete these projects because of the contruction techniques. This book contains an excellent plan (as well as very economical) for an entertainment center, which I have just completed, and I couldn't be more pleased. Great beginner/intermediate woodworking book.

I built the coffee table in this book, and it turned out really nice. Some of the dimensions are off, so I recommend buying as you go. Other than that the only power tool I needed was a small sander. Great book for the beginner.

The furniture in this book is flat out ugly. I wouldn't pay $20 for most any of the pieces at a garage sale.

Most high-school freshman can make vastly superior projects in wood-shop class.

On a positive note, the author's instructions are fairly clear and easy to understand. However, since I will never make a single piece of furniture found in this book, I hesitate recomending it.

I like this book because it shows how in pictures. As a new turnner this book was not to simple and not to complex either. A nice addition to the collection and for refference.

Dick Sing is one of the better woodturners that can explain things to my level as an average person. I like them!

i thouch it was a very good book and come in handy

The author (D. Sing) really likes his work. It shows in this book. He has put together a lot of just fun to do projects that still have usefullness beyond beauty.

My only real complaint about the book is it isn't always easy to understand how to construct the project. Some of the turing can be tricky, and there needs to be more explanation on some of these turnings.

One problem I have found with most "how to" books is the person writing the book really has a knack for this kind of work. They just breeze through painting, drawing, wood working, wood turning etc and often just can't recongnize what the problems are for those of us who do not have the built in knack. And, of course the person has been doing these projects for years and can do a lot of basic things by eye or they just "know" how to hold the skew (or paint brush or whatever). This book suffers somewhat from that problem. What is just no big deal or not even thought about by Mr. Sing is very hard for me to do.

Overall, a good book with a lot of fun projects.

I found this book to be interesting and informative. It had some good suggestions for, as it says, useful beauty. Although most books are on the how to's only, this book did include design ideas. However, the items were not all that unknown and different, so I found myself interested more in the technique he used than in the ideas themselves. I think it is a good beginner book but not really interesting to a more experienced turner.

Not much substance for anyone looking to use this as a reference (I recommend Taschen's series for this) but the layouts and photography are superb. There is a wide range of furniture and accessories illustrated with many of the "famous" designs being shown in quite interesting arrangements.

Definitely for the afficianado, this is something you flip through for inspiration when trying to decide how to reupholster that old Danish chair you found at a yard sale.

I picked this book up on a whim at a local book store, so I had an opportunity to look through it before buying. You should be aware that it's mostly pictures, with relatively little text aside from the captions. However, if what you want is a book of photos of Modern architecture and furniture, it's superb.

There is a seemingly endless series of photos showing various diverse interpretations of the Modern style, with excellent captions explaining the details of architecture, furniture, and decoration. It both looks at rooms as a whole and at details in specific, in separate sections of the book. The rooms shown are almost universally stylish and inspiring to the budding home decorator. The book shows furniture and design from throughout the Modern period, ranging from the 1920's through the 1970's, and also shows how Modern pieces can be blended smoothly with Contemporary designs of today.

As it is largely a photo book, I should comment that the paper and printing quality are excellent, with superb color, fine detail, and gorgeous glossy pages.

If you like the modern style and are looking for some inspiration on how to decorate your home, this is a wonderful book to have, and in my opinion [inexpensive] for its quality. If you're looking for a reference book with long discussions of the style and its influences, this is not the book you're looking for.

A definite for retro afficionados

I purchased this book thinking I could use it as a reference book for my Master's thesis paper on Art Nouveau's influence on the De Stijl and Bauhaus movements. I was wrong. This book contains a lot of really nice photos, but there is very little description about the photos. It even lacks identification of many of the subjects in the photos. If you're looking for a "pretty book" this is it, if you want an informative book look for Stephen Escritt's "Art Nouveau."

This book has excellent photo's of backyard ideas. It is a great book if you are just looking for ideas. I had expected a book with a little "how-to" mixed in.

I haven't finished reading it yet but so far love it. It has many photos along with a paragraph about why/how this works - the type of landscape and things to make sure you do/don't do. I am buying a copy for my sister for xmas.

This is a wonderful book with beautiful photos and great ideas. It is not a how to book, but it does inspire!

I'm satisfied. More than enough pictures with detailed analysis for each. There is nothing missing.

Marshall Brooks's Brief Illustrated History came out a year before Henry Petroski's The Book on the Bookshelf, but didn't generate nearly the amount of attention. That's a shame, because for those of us who are mildly curious as to how the storage of books has evolved, but who do not have a dozen uninterrupted hours of reading in which to satisfy that curiosity, this is a better book. Want to know how the Egyptians stored cuneiform tablets? Here's 100 words on the subject - just enough, not too much - and best of all, a charming drawing to go with it. Brooks has rendered and explained everything from Samuel Pepys custom glass-front cabinets that allowed him to store his books by height, to the library of Congress's self-ventilating shelves. This little book is a pleasure, and at only 80 pages or so won't cause your own bookshelves to collapse under its weight.

This is a thoroughly delightful little gem of a book--witty, erudite and to the point. Let's face it--bookshelves are a fairly obscure and dry topic; Brooks' wonderful illustrations and text bring out the highlights (and a few low points) of three thousand years of the book storage conundrum. The letterpress paperback version is a bargain.

A nice novelity but, hardly worth the price tag. Birch Brook Press brings the only redeeming element to this book. I value it for the workmanship in the binding and print quality, nothing more.

Marshall Brooks' unique and intriguing A BRIEF ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE BOOKSHELF follows the development of bookshelves worldwide, speculating on its fascinating correlation with the development of literacy and publishing. Shelves from the first millenium B.C. Mesopotamian to today's subterranean stacks in the New York Public Library are covered. His treatment of this esoteric sounding subject is actually loaded with interest and fancy. Pen and ink artwork by the author manages to stay historically accurate even as its style introduces a sweet note of whimsy. Detail in the illustrations takes the burden off text, leaving it a nugget of quick, fascinating and often quirky facts. This illustration/text balance is great for promoting reflection on the reader's part. Peppered with quotes from Jack Kerouac, Charles W. Eliot and Brooks' own father, A BRIEF HISTORY also includes enticing references to the likes of James Baldwin and Holly Golightly, as well as obscure anecdotes about figures including Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Pepys, Napoleon, and the French composer, Alkan. Brooks provides a diverse bibliography for those readers lured into further exploration. A BRIEF ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE BOOKSHELF is a significant book with a lightness of spirit.

The book is easy to read and gives you an overall idea about cabinets construction, good advices & tips, however if you are new in the business starting your own shop you will need additional infomation to move forward to build your own cabinets.

The title of this book is spot on. The book is a detailed procedure for making cabinets in a small (1-3 people) shop. The authors give detailed advice on the procedure they have used for many years to make a profit and still have time to spend with the family.

But that is also the limitation of this book. For example, the authors glue face frames to the cabinet and they give great advice on this. However, there are other popular methods, such as biscuits and pocket screw holes. Both of these methods warrant only a superficial discussion. And both of the methods are popular and have pluses and minuses. But alas, the authors only really cover dowels and gluing.

Recently, I was asked to design an entire kitchen of cabinets. I used this book a lot to answer some very specific, detailed questions regarding carcass construction. The example drawings are pretty darn good.

The authors' discussion of door building is a bit brief. They state that it is really important to keep doors flat. Duh. Any suggestions for making sure they are flat? Jigs? What about procedures for gluing up 15 doors at a time? Any idea regarding storage racks? They suggest having a third party do all of the work. Sorry, but my clients want me involved every step of the way including selecting appropriate grain and making sure there is continuity.

Nor should it be your first. The authors have more than 20 years of experience in cabinet shops. They have good advice and smart tips. This short book (96 pages) strikes me as being a great employee training manual. If you are new, this is a good place to begin learning how to build cabinets. The authors explore issues like face frame cabinets versus Euro or frameless case constrution. But there is not enough detailed instruction for a novice to design or build cabinets based just on the information in the chapters.

If you are experienced, this book will remind you of the many things you are suppose to know. For instance, make sure your cabinets will fit through doorways and up stairs. The authors remind you to account for the floor material so a dishwasher will still fit under the cabinet when the 3/4 inch flooring is installed. There is a brief discussion about schematics and how to measure jobsites.

The authors discuss business practices, contracts, estimating, shop drawings and equipment choices. This is a lot of ground to cover in a few pages so they can not go into much detail about any aspect. The reader can find books that have more detailed instruction on cabinetmaking and other books that cover how to run a woodworking business. If the authors of this book are a bit overly ambitious, I respect their solid advice and practices based on hard experience in the field. They have a refreshingly positive attitude that makes the book a pleasure to read.

As a professional furniture maker building his first kitchen, I found Fristad's book the most useful of the three I read - the other two being the best sellers. This book is about production; how to make money; how not to make mistakes; how to streamline the process; how to get the sequence right. It covers both frame and frameless cabinets. No pictures, but lots of good drawing that are really all that are needed. While you need to know the information contained in the other books, this book fills in all the gaps that the others leave out. I recommend this book both to pros and people building a kitchen only for themselves.