19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
NOT furniture in the sense of something you'd be proud to have made..., October 28, 2006
This review is from: Building Real Furniture for Everyday Life (Popular Woodworking) (Paperback)
The cover of this book is a bit misleading. The detailed plans call for really unsatisfactory approaches. These include plywood with bare edges on many projects, pegboard screwed on the front of a box for a clothes hamper, and end-screwed supports on a bookcase.
There is nothing WRONG with furniture like this - if you want weak, visually unappealing furniture that will give you splinters in a year or two. But you don't need this book to help you build such pieces. This is all furniture anyone who can hold a saw or start a drill can easily figure out with a sketchpad. For the cost of materials you can get a better solution at IKEA.
The book's one redeeming feature: the pictures inside are true to the projects - rough cuts, bare edges and ungainly proportions all show clearly in the illustrations. You will get what you see, and you won't struggle much to achieve it.
There are far better books available with good starter projects that will teach you the RIGHT way to make joints, finish edges, and use attractive proportions: Danny Proulx' books are almost all good, with both plans and plentiful illustrations - such as "Build your Own Home Office Furnuiture", and "Fast and Easy Techniques for building modern cabinetry"
both use inexpensive materials and good techniques to build pieces of which you can be proud.
For good PLANS (but less instruction) you might want ot try : Quick and easy weekend woodworking Projects, and Build Your Own Contemporary Furniture (both also published by Popular woodworking mag and available on Amazon).
Your project might not come out looking quite as nice as the picture, but you have a fighting chance of building something above dorm-room rejects.
If its worth doing, its worth doing right.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Save your money!, October 26, 2006
This review is from: Building Real Furniture for Everyday Life (Popular Woodworking) (Paperback)
This book went into the garbage can 10 minutes after perusal. The projects are very simple but fit into no decor of any home I have ever been in. The coffee table in particular, looks like something found in the 1950's, without the "retro" appeal. In fact IMHO even the pictures of the projects found in this book would have very limited appeal to anyone.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not in my house!, January 26, 2007
This review is from: Building Real Furniture for Everyday Life (Popular Woodworking) (Paperback)
This is rediculous. There is no way someone would put these projects inside of a home! C'mon.... exposed plywood?!? Not in my house!
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