Building Arts & Crafts Furniture: 25 Authentic Projects That Celebrate Simple Elegance & Timeless Design [Paperback]

Paul Kemner (Author), Peggy Zdila (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1997

You can still fill your home with the useful and beautiful pieces of the Arts & Crafts movement. Work your way through these 25 well-crafted projects, making authentic reproductions of classic pieces. With clean lines and timeless styles, this furniture goes well with everything.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (June 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806994185
• ISBN-13: 978-0806994185
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,129,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing Book!, April 27, 1999

By 

Donald C. Thompson (Miami, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Building Arts & Crafts Furniture: 25 Authentic Projects That Celebrate Simple Elegance & Timeless Design (Paperback)

If you want several nice pictures of some reproductions of Craftsman-style furniture furniture for $20, buy this book. DON'T expect to find good information useful for building your own reproductions! When first reading this book, I started noticing that such things as the sizes and locations of mortises and tenons were missing. then I read on the inside of the back cover that I could contact the author for "detailed plans." In other words, this is really a $20 catalog for purchasing useful plans!

Then I decided that I might be able to get useful informatation in spite of the ommisions, and I carefuly analyzed the plans for a double-door bookcase. I found that pieces were missing from the parts list, and that pieces were mis-measured! The plans are a disaster, and don't seem to correspond to either the photo or the parts list. For instance: The parts list lists quantities and measurements for one-piece shelves that are longer than the entire width of the bookcase, while the plans show two-piece shelves with a divider (which is how the authentic Stickley piece was made). The divider is not described in the text or the parts list. The back of the top is not described nor measured.

And on, and on, and on. If you really intend to build something, this book will only make you angry.

LAST THOUGHT:

Mr. Kenmer must know something about woodworking to have constructed these very attractive pieces. Somewhere between his shop and the printing press disaster struck.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful but flawed, February 20, 2001

By 

Warren M. Clemans (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Arts & Crafts Furniture: 25 Authentic Projects That Celebrate Simple Elegance & Timeless Design (Paperback)

I am currently working on the bookcase that the previous reviewer had so much trouble with. I couldn't agree more--the "top back" piece is missing entirely from the cut list and the description, with no indication on how it was joined. The drawing is inconsistent with the cut list. Nothing wrong with this, so long as you treat the book as a guide and inspiration rather than a detailed step-by-step manual. Problem is, it pretends to be the latter rather than the former. You wind up having to double-check the author's work and thinking out the design before making any cuts.

I've built several other pieces from the book with no trouble--it may be that the defects in this book are limited to the bookcase. It's too bad--the bookcase is the best looking project in the book.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 25 Plans? Not really!, May 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Building Arts & Crafts Furniture: 25 Authentic Projects That Celebrate Simple Elegance & Timeless Design (Paperback)

There are not really 25 plans - more like 10 plans done with 2 or 3 variants. A good book but limited.