Furniture Design Ideas

M ost woodworkers make up the wide panels for a carcase by gluing boards together edge-to-edge. Building a carcase this way is not a matter of cut­ting costs at the expense of strength. Panels of edge-glued boards are every bit as strong as a single piece of lumber. In fact, a proper glue joint provides […]

W hether it is a box that will house a couple of drawers and a shelf or a china cabinet destined to grace your dining room, the carcase you build will feature many of the basic elements illus­trated below. First, it will have four sides, or panels, which are usually the same width and thickness. […]

The basic box—or carcase—fea­tured in this chapter has long been the starting point of many types of furniture. The earliest examples were simple coffers, nailed or pegged together, that served dou­ble-duty as chests or benches. Today, there are seemingly limitless varia­tions on that same basic design. The smallest examples of carcase con­struction feature delicate pieces […]

T he first step in any cabinetmaking project is to select and prepare your stock. As shown below, not all the wood at a lumberyard is free of defects, so it is important to choose boards carefully. Whether you are building an armoire or a toy box, most stock is readied in roughly the same […]

B eing self-taught, I rely on a very informal approach to design. My furniture tends to evolve as I proceed through the construction process. For example, seeking an alternative to the common tapered leg, and inspired by 1920s cabinetmakers Jules Leleu and Emile Ruhlmann, I developed a multifaceted fluted leg. To do this, I designed […]

T he inspiration for this cabinet came from a small billet of Swiss pear given to me seven years ago. I felt that it had taken me at least that long to acquire the skills to work with this beautiful, but somewhat difficult wood. The pear was a dark golden pink and had a soft […]

I remember when I first came under the spell of Shaker furniture. Wandering the halls of the Shaker Museum in Old Chatham, New York, I was transported to another time, awestruck at the feeling evoked by those simple pieces. The Shakers were a religious, utopian society that flourished in New England and the Midwest in […]