No comments about First Home: Soft Furnishings: The Beginner's Guide to Creating a Beautiful Home (First Home).

No comments about Only Beds (Only).

No comments about Authentic Georgian Furniture Designs: Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762 (Dover Books on Furniture).

4 comments about Arts & Crafts Furniture: Projects You Can Build for the Home (Woodworker's Library (Fresno, Calif.).).

1. This is a nice presentation of fifteen projects in the Arts & Crafts style. Designed from pictures in old catalogs, the problems in construction are solved by Blair Howard as he guides you through each project. The first chapters deal with the designers, their furniture, construction techniques, finish techniques, and materials. The remaining chapters are devoted to the actual pieces. Accomplished woodworkers might find the detailed instructions excessive, but beginners will appreciate the explanations. An excellent beginner's book for Arts & Crafts reproduction at home, with a few designs not seen elsewhere.



2. I enjoyed Blair Howard's writing style and as a beginning woodworker, appreaciated his completeness and that he went over the techniques he used for every single project, rather than leaving it up to the reader to decide which techniques to use. The book focuses a lot on mortise+tenon joinery, which I appreciate, and does go over the various ways of creating mortises and tenons with machines, though it does not do any more than mention how one would go about making mortises and tenons with hand tools. The projects are rather unique and I am interested in making virtually every one. I appreciated the variety of designers, instead of only presenting Stickley pieces.



3. This book has some good ideas and nice pictures but the plans are not as detailed as I thought they would be. If you are just looking to add to your book collection this would be an interesting filler.



4. As other reviewers have noted, a good book of A&C furniture plans. For example, it has a plan for a Stickley bench, that I haven't found elsewhere. But, some of the finer details needed more explanation. For example, on the Stickley bench, there is a drawing of what the through tendon should look like, but it needed a close-up picture instead.
   
   There is just a mention in the book of using house hold ammonia to fume in color, I'm going to try that on some scrap and see how it works out.
   
   A minor nit - the author's wood choices are just plain bad. If you are going to make items like this, go spend a few more bucks and buy quarter sawn white oak. Better yet, make the entire piece from wood of one tree.
   
   A good book, good plans with almost enough details. Worth your time to take a look.

No comments about Alvar Aalto.

5 comments about Great-Looking 2x4 Furniture.

1. Unfortunately, this is not a book of plans for building solid, simple 2x4 furniture. A more accurate title would be: "21 Home Woodcraft Projects for Women". The first half is an overview of woodworking tools, and the second half describes 21 projects. Only two of the projects use actual "2x4" lumber, many are not "furniture", and "great-looking" depends on your taste.



2. This is a fine book for people (women and men!) on a budget who want nice furniture and are willing to put some sweat equity into their decorating. I am a beginner at woodworking and I learned a lot about the basics. Plus, I have some good looking furniture that was inexpensive and fun to make.



3. I was disappointed with many of the designs in this book. I think the pasted on fabric was tacky and extra-homemade looking. The colors she chose for the painted pieces are hard to look beyond. There is a great buffet and an interesting kitchen cabinet piece in here, though. I would recommend her previous book entitled "2 x 4 Furniture - Simple, Inexpensive & Great-Looking Projects You Can Make" over this selection.



4. As a beginning woodworker, I thought this book might be a good place to start, and I was right. It begins with a discussion of tools you'll need, with a picture of and writeup about each. It gives options about differing tools you could use and explains their pros and cons. Next it discusses wood, explaining how wood is sized and graded, and discussing how to select and purchase wood, nails, glues, screws, and nails.

   The projects are simple and I feel they are well documented, with lots of drawings depicting key techniques of construction. They do a good job of using simple shapes and pre-made parts to simplify construction.

   In all, I recommend this book to beginning woodworkers or anyone looking to make relatively simple furniture.




5. I really was looking for a book on furniture made of 2x4s...a bunkbed frame in particular. This book didn't have it and didn't have much else made from 2x4s after a quick look.

5 comments about The Encyclopedia of Furniture.

1. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FURNITURE is more like a dictionary of design terms with pictures of specific furniture pieces. It gives a brief history of the furniture periods, but it will not aide you in learning about the characteristics of the pieces in each style. It is a good choice if you are looking for a quick reference guide with pictures and definitions.



2. This is an encyclopedia of furniture. The information on each subject is limited. It makes a good quick reference, but didn't help me too much..



3. The condition of the book was very good.
   The book itself was not very useful, it had a lot of information and enless you knew exactly what you were looking for it was hard to find



4. This is a great visual encyclopedia for learning what parts of furniture and styles from different periods look like. When reading about a reproduction Greek klismos chair with sabre legs or a Louis XV commode with Sevres plaque and riband trim, there is nothing like a visual reference to understand what those words actually mean. Not a light read, but this is an important addition to the bookshelf of anyone really serious about being educated in elements of interior design.



5. If some one like antique furnitures, you got to have this book. it is very completely and tells you most the styles in the history.

3 comments about Furniture By Design: Lessons in Craftmanship from a Master Woodworker.

1. Mr. Blackburn shows you that you too can build your own furniture. This is a must have as far as I am concerned!



2. I have long searched for books on furniture design and style. There are few that exist in this area. This one is good but I'd like to see something more...



3. I consider myself an internediate woodworker and did not find this book very helpful because most of the material is already known to intermediate woodworkers.
   
   Several comments. First, there are only eight pages of color photos and they are in the center of the book. The cardinal rule of technical writing is to put the picture with the text. Flipping back and forth is for the birds.
   
   Second, the author doesn't consider the disadvantages to his design. The design of anything is a tradeoff between many requirements; the corrollary is that there is no perfect design that satisfies all off the requirements.
   
   For instance, consider the "dining table". The apron around the fully assembled table is a dark brown. But when the semi-circle tables on each end are removed, the apron that is revealed is maple. Having two highly contrasting color on the table apron is a big issue which is completely ignored by the author. Also, none of the photos reveal this issue--you really need to read the text carefully to understand what he's doing.
   
   Third, the Gothic Armchair is one of the least helpful examples I've ever seen. To start, the chair is built at right angles (there's a reason chair backs angle back--comfort). Then, a reproduction of a chair that was built in the 15th century? Absolutely none of my customers have asked for anything remotely similar to this. Then, there is no analysis of the design. It is simply a how-to article.
   
   Fourth, the majority of the book focuses on how to build the furniture as opposed to why the design works. The technical details are fine but I know how to true and square a piece of lumber.
   
   Fifth, the author selects furniture from many disparate styles--gothic, comtemporary american and Pepsyian. It did not leave me with an understanding of the style.

1 comments about Country Woodworker: How to Make Rustic Furniture, Utensils, and Decorations.

1. This book has an excellent assortment of photographs of antique country furniture. The pictures are very colorful and clear. They are great resource for those interested in recreating antiques. The projects were not that detail oriented. I would recommend this book for the ideas it presents through pictures.

2 comments about Chandeliers.

1. 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.



2. 
   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.