Customer Reviews

Classic Arts & Crafts Furniture You Can Build

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The designs that Schultz uses have an asian flair to them, adding curves to Arts & Crafts style furniture. Cutting these curves is certainly more work than traditional straight Stickley furniture, but it also adds a nice touch.

Schultz includes a section at the beginning of the book covering technique, which is especially helpful on the curved legs. This section also includes information on making mortise and tenon joinery with a router.

There are many plans in this book, and they are accompanied by color photos of the finished product; which I really like. I would prefer better detailed drawings, and more of them, but the text is quite descriptive. It just takes me a little more to figure it out that way.

This is one of my favorite Arts & Crafts furniture books and I refer to it when drawing my own plans for a piece in our home.

Note: I just got this book, and haven't built anything from it. I never actually build from plans, but use books for general ideas and technique.

My main problem with the book is that the author seems to build a good, basic piece of furniture, but get's lazy in the home stretch and ruins the final product with cheap hardware. The most glaring example of this is in the china cabinet (see page 70) and serving table (see page 67). No joke, in the photo on page 67 you see the extended drawer showing those cheap, white-painted, tacked-on drawer slides. On the china cabinet, the doors are single panes of glass with wood sticks glued on the exterior side of the glass (not even any wood on the interior side of the glass!). With the door open, you see the glued on sticks, and the glass is held in with white plastic fasteners. The glass shelves in the cabinet use those cheap metal shelf supports that hook into slotted metal support strips. Those supports are for cheap wall shelving, not a home furniture project of many, many hours!

Now, I don't care if someone does this in their furniture, but I wouldn't buy stuff built like that in a store, and I certainly don't want that in a book on building Arts and Crafts furniture. I'm hardly the type to get hung up on doing everything authentic to a particular style, that's not my point. What I don't like is that the short-cuts are taken in a how-to book on "Class Arts and Crafts". So, I don't learn the technique to making real drawer slides, I don't learn the technique for doing nice paned doors, etc. Another example is that he uses plywood for the panels in the dresser. That may be an option, but, again, I don't get tips and instruction on building to accomodate for the natural expansion and contraction of wood.

I found the book next to useless. If I had been able to flip through the book before buying it, I would never have bought it. I bought another book on Arts and Crafts: "Authentic Arts and Crafts Furniture Projects" that seems much better. That one includes several projects in the Greene & Greene style, which are not often seen.

I've got tens of woodworking books and this is one of the best. The designs are great and the structure and information contained within first-rate. I consider arts and crafts furnature to be the best and many of the pieces in this book are absolutely beautiful. The China cabinet and the lamp are stunning.

Really cheesy designs and lousy construction. Good side bar on making flared legs. Otherwise, I got nothing from this book. I also bought "The Furniture of Gustav Stickley" which is much better.

This books has lots of good ideas for lots of pieces. I won't follow his designs as is but it give all the overall measurements for each piece and a cutting guide for the lumber. This is not a book for everyone but I don't regret getting it.

I tried making the Somnae on page 91. The cut list is full of errors and inconsistancies, the drawing omits important dimensions and it's not even drawn to scale. The proportions are all wrong. The dimensions included with the drawing don't match those on the cut list, and the drawing doesn't match the photograph. There are even pieces missing from the cut list like the floor to the cabinet. What a mess. The author, Andy Shultz, should be ashamed of this book. If I see his name on another book, I will not buy it. I should also mention that I have built many projects from books, some with errors, but nothing as bad as this book. It's garbage. Also, it doesn't show classic craftsman techniques, but relies on buscuits...A complete waste of paper and time.

This book is a helpful resource for those who are at least intermediate woodworkers. Nice, simple, basic furniture and good instructions-- but it assumes a certain knowledge base that a true beginner does not possess. excellent photos as well.