Furniture Books

After inheriting some old furniture that had belonged to my late grandmother, I invested in 2 books about repairing/restoring furniture...this one and the one written by Brian Hingley. Both are good books, but this one was written by Albert Jackson and David Day, who live in England. Some of the terms are different than what we are used to in America. For example, the authors explain how to make your own cleaning solution using linseed oil and 'white spirit'. I'm not sure if their reference to white spirit means regular mineral spirits or something else like acetone or naptha. In another section, they cover the repair of cracks, dings, holes and other surface imperfections using 'stopper'. Most folks will easily recognize this as what we call wood putty or filler.

This isn't to slam the British, just to point out that some of the terminology and names used in this book may throw some people off. Even some of the terms used for various parts of a piece of furniture are different. Not to worry, since there's lots of four-color illustrations to guide you, although I prefer the color photos used in Hingley's book.

One final note: Most of this work seems centered around the repair and restoration of chairs and tables, although many of the tips and methods can be applied to many types of furniture. If chairs and tables are your particular forte or speciality, this might be the book to go with.

Hope this info helps.

Furniture Repair & Refinishing (Creative Homeowner Ultimate Guide to...)

This book is a great place to start for anyone either wishing to resurrect fantastic old pieces or just make the most of the ones they already have. It's packed full of diagrams and should have something for both amateurs and the experienced alike. It basically tells you how to deal with furniture restoration and maintenance from simple polishes to complete overhauls. A great resource to have around.

Written by a well-known British design historian at the Royal College of Art, this 270-page clothbound overview of design and designers, arranged by style and movement as well as time period, features 500 full-color illustrations, a helpful glossary, and worldwide directories of manufacturers, museums, and other design sources. (Copyright © by Roy R. Behrens, from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 15 No 2, Winter 1999-2000.)

Excellent brief over view with short bio and photos of the major designers of our century. The only drawback is that the author has a clear bias towards furniture, so that most of the photos show furniture even when the designers have created products.

If you are a student of decorative arts or you simply love the sparkle of crystal droplets and soft candlelight in a dimly lit room, "Chandeliers" is for you. It is lavishly illustrated and informative. Hilliard offers a thorough history of the chandelier, from the most rustic wood or bronze medieval pieces to the highly refined crystal showpieces of the 18th and 19th centuries to fanciful Venetian glass creations and contemporary works. Chandeliers are shown in period settings as well as in modern homes and in unexpected settings. An excellent resource list of antique dealers and retailers is also provided complete with website addresses.

Elizabeth Hilliard is at her best when dealing with the creative possibilities that chandeliers bring to interior design. She does well in describing the recent renaissance in decorating that follows from a new freedom to break the rules of traditional design periods. As she writes, "Today decorating is about choice. Gone are the style police, bent on telling us that something or other will or won't do. Instead, we can choose for ourselves, opting for the extremes of severe minimalism or flamboyant opulence, or indeed anything in between".

I particularly liked the images that depict the unexpected eclecticism that this freedom affords. For instance, Hilliard describes the use of an ornate Versailles style chandelier in a modern kitchen as follows: "A glamorous Schonbek chandelier hung low over a simple kitchen table provides a study in contrasts: remove it, and the room loses far more than merely a source of light".

Unfortunately, most of the text is devoted to a rather dry and somewhat incomplete history of chandeliers. An exception is the chapter dealing with Murano and the rise of the Venetian tradition, which conveys the romance and intrigue that accompanied the development of crystal chandeliers in that part of the world.

One final note; while the pictures are indeed gorgeous, the orientation of a significant number of them onto the diagonal is distracting. This design decision might have been appropriate for a subject lacking in visual interest - clearly not the case with the beautiful chandeliers featured in this book.

Jeff is a master in doing practical and beautifull things. I built some of the stuff shown in the book for my baby girl and it worked out great! I'm a weekend woodworker and I enjoy this book very much! I love to build stuff for my kid, so this book will be by my side for quite a long time. There are instructions for a cradle, a bed, some chairs, tables, a creepy rocking dinasour, a big box for the toys (really handy!) and so on.

Has good detail on instructions but only included a few projects...I thought there would be 10-20 different projects.

A must have for anyone who studies, collects or bulds Chinese furniture. The introduction covers the history and evolution of tables, chairs, wardrobes, cupboards, chests and beds. The remainder of the book shows black and white photos of traditional style furniture, with descriptions and dimensions of each piece.

This is the 1962 Dover-reprint of the work first published by Harper & Br. (1948). Essentially a catalogue of Chinese furniture photographed in Peking in 1937-1938. Starting off with an introduction of some 60 pages, George N.Kates presents 112 pieces of furniture, each by a black&white photograph and a short description. If nothing else this book shows that the Chinese certainly made beautiful and interesting furniture.

Do you like furniture? I hate it. But woe be to the home office that doesn't have some. That's why this picture book is eons ahead of other books that rhapsodize about the home office but don't show it.

With its hundreds of photographs and comprehensive text, cases of real people and their transitions to home offices, this tome goes beyond surface considerations. It includes checklists for planning your own home office, and even entire sections on equipment such as computers, lighting, copiers, and on-line services. OK, there's a wishbook quality to it, but home offices frequently start out as dreams before they come crashing down to earth.

I have worked from my own home office for over 5 years and I'm always looking for clever ideas for making my space my productive and pleasant. I was disappointed with this book. It is a showcase for the author's home office, which involved construction and landscaping. I am of more modest means, and I was looking for very PRACTICAL ideas. The tone of the book is more of "look at what a wonderful job I have done" and while the author's office is nice, it is not the kind of project I have in my near future. If you are just thinking about your first home office and you would like someone to explain the basics, this would be a good starter book. But even the technology and equipment information is out of date -- those things change so fast! As long as you don't expect too much, this has some good information.

all the projects are quite easy to make exept maybe one
grate book to buy.worths the money

If you have a bit of sewing under your belt and are familiar with basic sewing vocabulary, this book is easy to follow. The photos are excellent and make helpful guides.

Instructions are provided for making:
Reversible Seat Covers
Kitchen and Dining Chairs
Parsons Chairs
Ottomans
Fitted Slipcovers for Upholstered Furniture
Cushions and Pillows
Wing Chairs
Futon and Daybed Covers
Director's Chairs
Garden Chair
Outdoor Chaise

Each chapter has a section on what you'll need (supplies), what you'll need to know, fitting the pattern, cutting directions, and sewing instructions.

If you're at all comfortable with a sewing machine, you'll have your tired furniture covered and looking like new in no time.

Very nice publication, well presented and concise. Information is limited as to the "how to" in my opinion but gives a very goog idea, and direction as to where to start when designing for manufacturing. Introduces a broad range of approaches regarding techniques and material. Well illustrated in an understantable and steady format. Good research and illustration (introduction) of manufacturing techniques and processes. Must have for furniture making teaching tool.

For those looking to be inspired and to get some insight into the design process from the product idea through to production, then read this book.

THIS HAS A LOT OF GOOD INFORMATION FOR CAHIR REPAIR. A GOOD BUY.

This book was a bit of a disappointment for me. The articles are generally quite good, but a lot of the book is devoted to things other than chair woodworking. There are only seven chairs covered and three of those are built with round components, meaning, that out of 150 pages there are only four chairs where woodworking joinery is really explored. There are articles that are useful on caning seats, carving seats, making a slip seat, making stools and settees that are all good in their own right, but the questions of good chair design are largely left unanswered. If you are looking for a book on chair design then this comes up short. How high should a seat be? What is the typical relationship between the arms and the seat of a captain's chair? The book doesn't tackle these kinds of questions. On the other hand there are two articles that are almost worth the price alone; one called "Chair Making Simplified" and another called "Compound Angle Joinery".

If you are looking for inspriation, this is a wonderful book. There are many full page photos, all in color, of some of the finest miniatures ever produced. The chapters start with the house itself, then examines each major room found in most houses. This is a must-have coffee table book for all miniaturists.

This book is filled with gorgeous photos of exquisite dollhouse rooms. However, I would hardly call it a sourcebook, since it doesn't mention the sources for any of the items or materials. Had it contained directions for making the projects, and/or information on where to buy them, I would have loved it. Instead, I'll use the photos for inspiration -- but certainly not as a sourcebook, since no sources are mentioned.