Fresh, clean lines, simple, strong construction, and a design you can modify to fit any room. The credo of many great 20th century architects was “Form Follows Function.” And for this bookcase, it certainly does. The strong shelves are supported in a straightforward fashion by equally strong uprights. No decoration, no superfluous details, not even a back to…

This woven bench is a simple project to build, and is elegant enough to fit in any decor. The Shakers were incredibly inventive, not just of the furniture they designed, but of their techniques with which it was assembled. As a craftsman, I’ve been interested in working my own inventiveness, but utilizing that which they’ve…

Inspired by the agricultural tools of rural England, this massive oak table is awash in hand-worked details. As a young fellow growing up in the countryside of Wales, I clambered over many a farm wagon, climbed into many a loft in barns that were jointed and pegged, and tripped over many a hay rake on…

The late Thomas Moser popularized Shaker design. This side table is my ode to him and his contributions to the woodworking community. Project #2508 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 4 Hours • Cost: $20 Inspiration in your woodworking journey can come from many different places. One of my inspirations has always been furniture designer…

An expert woodworker talks about what really gets him excited. One of my first trips to see firsthand the furniture of Charles and Henry Greene, two early 20th century architects from Pasadena, California, was innocent enough: I took a sightseer’s tour of the house they built in 1908 for David Gamble. I came away a…

David Fleming, a former English teacher turned chairmaker, teaches the craft of building chairs on the edge of the Canadian wilderness. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the November 2004 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. After eight hours of a complete physical and mental workout, the seat of my Welsh stick chair is finally…

Building by eye to recreate a classic. Almost 15 years ago when I was writing Pleasant Hill Shaker Furniture I fell in love with several pieces of furniture originating in that 19th century Shaker community, each of which represented what I saw as a near perfect expression of the Pleasant Hill aesthetic. Among those, in…

A table saw and a simple jig make a time-consuming task quick and easy. Woodworkers use all sorts of techniques to scoop out their chair seats. Many commonly resort to hacking out the waste with traditional tools such as an adze, travisher and scorp. Others design and assemble elaborate jigs to precisely guide and control…

Expand your casework repertoire with a curvaceous front. The Popular Woodworking staff was saddened to hear of the passing of Glen Huey, a longtime editor and contributor for the magazine. Over the years, Glenn was credited with a staggering 101 bylines across three different magazine titles, and made countless additional contributions elsewhere. Read more about…

Bur Oak and Craftsman design make this desk a classic look with a modern use. Project #2507 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 6 Days • Cost: $1000 It’s often times that woodworking projects come out of necessity. Take this desk for example. As I built my new shop (that doubles as Popular Woodworking’s shop),…

The Adventure of the Pilgrim’s Chair. Sometime in the haze of the 1970s, Armand LaMontagne, a wood sculptor from Rhode Island, sought revenge against the museum world. He had been rebuffed by curators when he questioned the authenticity of some antique furniture, so he set out to vividly demonstrate their gullibility. Armand painstakingly built a…

Traditional construction techniques make this Limbert Style #357 bookcase a real gem. Project #2312 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 4 Days • Cost: $500 Original Limbert case pieces are really something to behold. Black and white catalog pictures rarely do them justice, but if you get the chance to see one in person, you…

Building a throne for the common man. I’m sitting here listening to Fiona Richie’s “Thistle & Shamrock” radio show, thinking of an old friend, John Brown, from Ireland, and the ties between the Welsh and Irish cultures. I’ve been building Welsh stick chairs for ages, influenced by the ancient chairs in St. Faggon’s Castle and…

There’s not enough room in my garage shop for a tablesaw with a 52-in.-capacity rip fence. But no worries—I don’t need one! To make wide cuts, I simply install a shop-made extension that bridges my saw to the wall—and doubles its 30-in. rip capacity! I made my extension by framing a piece of 3/4-in. mdf…

This weekend project lets you show off one dazzling board. True story. I first built a headboard like this years ago using only a miter saw, router, sander and a drill. My shop was just a driveway. The project really is that simple. For materials, all you’ll need is a huge board (this one is…

This Charles Limbert table was sold as a fern stand, but it’s a great addition to any home. Project #2503 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 Days • Cost: $250 At first glance, Arts & Crafts style furniture often looks simple to build. Afterall, there are no turned legs or intricate moldings to contend…

This traditional, lightweight stool is an excellent first step toward chairmaking. One highlight of a visit to historic Old Salem in North Carolina is the beautiful Moravian furniture and woodwork in the village’s buildings. My favorite piece in the town is a small stool that shows up in many of the buildings. It’s a tough…

This versatile approach is easily adapted to other styles and uses. Project #1916 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 2 Days • Cost: $300 It’s deeply satisfying to sit in a chair that you’ve created in your own shop—and watch others do the same. Building chairs is also a great way to learn new skills…

With one board, you can put together this side table that packs in a bunch of great woodworking techniques. Project #2418 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 Days • Cost: $250 I enjoy a good scrap wood project as much as the next woodworker but you can only make so many cutting boards. Surprisingly,…

There’s no single surface in my shop that’s the ideal height for every job. With my adjustable-height sawhorses, I can quickly set up an outfeed table, drawing table, or assembly table at different heightsas the need arises. My sawhorses are the folding, galvanized-metal kind, but any type will do. Cut 2×4’s to fit on the…

This live-edge coffee table is just the beginning of what you can build with a $20 doweling jig. Project #2302 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 4 Days • Cost: $400 This walnut coffee table is featured in my latest book, “Build More Stuff with Wood,” (see all the places you can purchase it here)…

A few tools can go a long way. When you get started in woodworking there are many paths to follow, forks in the road, dead-ends and shortcuts. It’s a journey that our forebears would make with the help of a living, breathing guide: a master, a grandfather, a shop teacher. Sadly, the guides are fewer…

With its quartersawn oak, and Arts & Crafts finish, this desk is sure to serve generations to come. Project #2417 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 5 Days • Cost: $450 The best thing about being a woodworker is the ability to make custom furniture for a particular spot in the home. Need a desk…

Brush up on your precision miters, and build this mid-century-inspired record player stand. Project #2416 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 Days • Cost: $250 I’ve always appreciated vinyl for its aesthetic qualities as much as the analog experience of putting a record on. Yet for some reason, my collection has always lived inside…

All it takes is a router and a bandsaw. You’ll only need two machines to make these Arts & Crafts style knobs: a bandsaw and a router table. Although the saw cuts can be done on a tablesaw; the bandsaw keeps the operation safe and simple. The router table work requires two bits: a 5/8-in….

A woven seat adds a punch of color to this surprisingly easy project.

The Windsor form survives trial by fire. The blaze started sometime after midnight. A weak spot in the chimney broke and glowing embers spilled out onto dry timbers. By the time the fire crew arrived and strung hoses from a nearby stream, it was all they could do to keep the adjoining barns and outbuildings…

This table design is reminiscent of suspension style bridges, and is easy to build in a weekend. Project #2413 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 2 Day • Cost: $150 I built the first of these “torsion tables” for my book “Making Elegant Custom Tables,” and it wasn’t until years later that I realized that…

All the flavors of walnut shine in this versatile storage and serving piece. Project #2313 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 60 hours • Cost: $1,000 My sister asked me to make a dining table and sideboard for her house. She was ready to move on from garage sale finds and inherited pieces that filled…

Waterlox is a mainstay for furniture makers. Follow these steps to get a deep glow, a buttery-smooth surface and unmatched protection.

Although delicate, this graceful table should provide years of service in your home. Many years ago while teaching a chairmaking class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, I thanked Mario Rodriguez (who was teaching a hand-tool class at the school that same week) for writing a magazine article I had seen some years before…

Dramatic details showcase leaded glass and English style. Foreward: Nancy Hiller (1959-2022) Nancy Hiller was a trailblazing writer and furniture maker who lived fully in two worlds. That of a small-town furniture maker known for taking on difficult projects. And that of a forceful yet careful writer who inspired a generation of woodworkers to pick…

Arts & Crafts style and knockdown design team up for a winning combination. Imagine this attractive little table residing next to a comfortable chair, holding important items such as a cup of coffee and a book. Its shaped sides and wedged tenons create lots of visual appeal, it has a useful shelf and the construction…

As special as the treasures it will hold. An old, nearly disintegrated steamer trunk in my grandfather’s basement held forgotten treasure—letters, photos, and a hand-written recipe for figgy pudding from my grandmother’s early life on a Kansas farm during the depression. Not pirate’s gold, of course, but treasure to me, nonetheless. So, when a gentleman…

Seven solid joints comprise this sturdy custom storage unit. Bonus: View the SketchUp Model. There’s a backstory to this chimney-cupboard project. I had planned a week off to renovate the 6-1⁄2‘ x 8’ bathroom in my 110-year-old house (I was sure it wouldn’t take long – after all, I only had to gut it to…

Classic design elements combine to create a new design. Seven years ago I made my first piece of Greene & Greene-style furniture, a coffee table of my own design. It contained several elements the Greenes commonly used: cloudlifts and ebony pegs. As with many pieces inspired by their designs, it is somehow lacking. While their…

In some contemporary households, 17th-century style storage prevails. I once sold a chair to a woman who later told me how much she loved it. “I never let anyone sit in it!” she exclaimed, apparently to show me how special it was to her. I told her that was about the worst thing she could…

If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing excessively. There are many bookcases in my house, but they’re a motley collection – poor cousins to the rest of the furniture. The really nice bookcases I’ve made have gone to live with clients, while I have kept the prototypes and the also-rans. They are nicer than…

Coopered legs and tusk tenons build the structure of this beautiful hall table. Project #2310 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 3 Days • Cost: $150 During the start of the Covid pandemic and as things were shutting down, my wife, Jean, gave me a list of things to do, one of which was a…

A comfortable seat can make a big difference in your work. For a SketchUp model of the Windsor Shop Stool as illustrated in the article, click here. I designed this stool for a special purpose – making chairs. The stool places a chairmaker above the chair seat. This position is more comfortable when assembling the…

This 19th-century piece was designed to safeguard a then-precious commodity. Not so long ago, obtaining sugar wasn’t easy. It’s difficult to believe that the commodity we have in almost everything today was scarce and highly valued in the early part of the 19th century. During those days well-to-do patrons required somewhere to store this sweet…

Minor adjustments typically beat a hatchet job. I knew a guy who didn’t shave or cut his hair for 12 months at a time. On day 365 he looked like the wild man from Borneo. On day 366 (or day 1 of the next cycle), he would show up at work shaven and shiny like…

Bold oak and classic craftsman style make this arm chair a joy to build. When finished, it’s sure to become your favorite seat in the house. Project #2402 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 Days • Cost: $250 Want to build the matching ottoman? Check out the plans here: Eastwood Ottoman Popularized by the…

This trusted servant—an ideal project for using some of the nicer pieces in your scrap bin—will present a stylish and functional addition to your home. Project #2320 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 2 Days • Cost: $65 A long-time admirer of Tage Frid’s work, I have an attraction to Danish furniture style and design. So,…

Build classic from the Arts & Crafts era. I jumped at the chance to examine an original Stickley Brothers dining table, because I love figuring out how to build antique furniture pieces that I admire. The original version of this table, model 2670, as shown in the 1914 Stickley Brothers Quaint Furniture catalog, was offered…

Build accurate replicas of a classic design Having built the Mission oak dining table that appeared in American Woodworker (Dec/Jan 2009, issue 139), my next project was to build chairs to go with it. A friend had a vintage set that I admired, and she graciously loaned me a couple chairs (one with arms, one…

Get Great Results without Rubbing Out Maybe I’m crazy, but I like to brush polyurethane. I’ve built more than 50 dining room tables, and I’ve brush-finished every one, using a simple system that consistently provides great results. I’m not a purist. I use tools that you can get at any paint store and I don’t…

This mahogany Arts & Crafts desk chair exemplifies furniture as art. Most woodworkers are familiar with Arts & Crafts designers William Morris, Gustav Stickley and Charles and Henry Greene. But Charles Rohlfs’ inspiring work is a bit less well-known. Rohlfs, trained as a designer and draftsman, spent his early years designing iron stoves and dabbling…

An anachronism in its time, this table now fits perfectly in our homes. Frank Lloyd Wright would probably be dismayed to see a coffee table built in his Prairie furniture style. In fact he and his fellow early 20th-century designers all would have been disturbed by the concept of a coffee table. Eating or drinking…

This classic Stickley ottoman oozes Craftsman style, but don’t let its simple form fool you—it packs in some great woodworking.  Project #2221 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 4 Days • Cost: $150 Named for a neighborhood in Syracuse, New York, this Gustav Stickley footstool design was an instant favorite. Originally sold with a massive Eastwood…

Art Nouveau meets Arts & Crafts in this oval-topped piece. Although he died in poverty, the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s furniture now sells for tens of thousands of dollars at auction. Part of the appeal of his work comes from the sheer variety of his designs, which range in style from Art Nouveau to…

Thoughtful finishing and new leaves prepare this classic for the next 100 years. This old table looks like a prime candidate for refinishing. Scrub off the old finish, sand out all the dings and scratches, spray on a catalyzed lacquer finish and it would look brand new. But in my opinion, doing this would rob…

Build this timeless chair with modern methods. When I was 17 years old, my family had an old craftsman style armchair that we’d inherited years earlier. It was an antique chair with solid bones but badly in need of refinishing. It had all the right details, from the through tenons in the armrests to the…

Turned drops and legs, arches, and serpentine stretchers typify this ornate 17th-century style. When someone uses the term “period furniture,” we think most often of the Queen Anne, Chippendale and Federal genres. Certainly these have been the most influential styles in Western furniture-making history. But there have been other periods worthy of our attention, among…

Simply change the ‘drawer’ and finish to change the look of this easy piece. The first step in building this contemporary side table is to go shopping for the basket that serves as a drawer – then adjust the plans as necessary to fit your choice. The one shown here is an 11″-deep, 7″-tall, 17″-long…

Harvest green wood saplings, bend ’em, nail ’em and sit yourself down. You can make a pretty good case for bending and attaching green wood sticks as the second oldest wood-furniture making method (after sitting on a log). Today, this type of furniture is labeled “rustic,” so exposed nails, screws, and other hardware are acceptable…

This traditional joint allows the wings of a table to raise up and have a seamless look. A rule joint uses matching profiles to fit a table top together with a folding leaf. The resulting shapes fit together perfectly and allow the table panel to offer support to the leaf along the edge, something a…

Uncomplicated construction and an easy, attractive finish make this table tops.

As you recall, a few months ago, I wrote about a beautiful chair made of solid mahogany that we bought and found out that it was sadly damaged during shipping. The vendor sent us a replacement, but I decided to fix the broken piece anyway so we could use it. At the time, I thought…

We improve a contemporary design to make it sturdier, a bit curvier and easier to build. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the August 2005 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. It was about 1 a.m., and I was at the grocery on a bleary-eyed run to buy orange juice for the family’s breakfast. The…

A simple case is elevated by a unique leg design and elegant suspension. Project #2203 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 2 Days • Cost: $150 This was a real project of growth for me. I’ve written before about my woodworking journey being defined by life functionality over my desire to create interesting things. Even my first…

Knowing the techniques will help you, even if you aren’t doing the sewing yourself. For a woodworker, upholstery can be intimidating. It’s hard to know what you want, until you can clearly explain the finer points. Even if you have no intention of doing the actual upholstery work yourself, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with…

This modified design builds off a classic Morris chair. Inspiration for the next project can come from many sources, but for me, all it took was a trip to an antique furniture dealer. Legacy Modern is a boutique dealer in Portland, OR specializing in arts and crafts furniture, and they happened to have an original…

Dust-Free Display and No Hinges to Mount! Glass doors make a bookcase, but doors that swing on hinges are a pain to install. Ditto for doors that lift open and slide back—on a Barrister’s bookcase, for example. Regular sliding doors are much easier to install. In addition, they’re ideal for a bookcase designed to fit…

A Game of Thrones inspired coffee table meets a tragic (and ironic) end.

From the Popular Woodworking premium video archives, Christopher Schwarz shows you how to build a simple pine bookcase using only hand tools. Watch: Preparing Rough Stock Download: Boarded Bookshelf PDF

The last two repair remedies this chair needed before its inauguration into productive service life were reinstalling it with the old leg brackets and creating and installing a set of new corner blocks. The old quarter-circle leg brackets were originally connected with the same kind of inferior screws that I talked about before. So I…

A furniture maker visits the Pleasant Hill, Ky., community and unearths a fair number of surprises (nails!) about Shaker joinery. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Popular Woodworking. If you’re planning to stay at the restored Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky., I have some advice: At dawn, after…

One of the more disappointing joining methods that miserably failed due to the traumatic fall (or jolt) before the chair had been placed in its shipping box was the leg-to-rail and rails to cross rails connections. These joints were only glued and stapled together (A, below), which is a poor solution. Ideally, these joints should…

My course of action with any repair, restoration or conservation is: Do No Harm. That is, I try to deal with the essential structural, finish, hardware, etc. issues without forcing changes on the piece’s elements who are otherwise still integral and functioning. In the case of this chair, I set my course of action like…

Use this simple, strong method for constructing kitchen cabinets and other built-ins. Editor’s note: Nancy Hiller passed away on August 29th, 2022 after a long battle with cancer. In honor of her memory, we will be sharing some of our favorite contributions from her over the years. This article was originally published in the October…

A few weeks ago, my spouse purchased two Faux bamboo Chippendale mahogany chairs for our dining table. The chairs were a reproduction of a Victorian furniture style and meant to match the interior look he and the decorator intended. Advertised as made of solid Mahogany but surprisingly finished in “Stained walnut,” I wasn’t sure what…

Shop-made hardware and precision joinery are the foundation for this Danish-inspired folding seat. Weave the seat: Paper Cord Weaving Download: LoungeChairPlans PDF Danish furniture is making a comeback these days. It’s been a favorite of mine from the moment I discovered the style. It had all the hallmarks I wanted in furniture: simple, beautiful design…

Impossible? No. Impossibly easy. If architect and furniture designer Alvar Aalto (Finland, 1898-1976) is considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern design, then Eileen Gray (Ireland, 1878-1976), who shared his profession and time on Earth, must be a founding mother. For my ribbon table, I borrowed design elements from his sensuous bentwood…

Through teaching, this master craftsman’s work lives on. Learn more about the work and influence of Tage Frid.

Practice Traditional Building Joinery on a Smaller Scale Project #2104 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 2 Weeks • Cost: $300 During my 14 years living in Europe, I marveled repeatedly at how these beautiful timber framed structures had withstood the test of time—I remember one awe-inspiring timber framed house near Wiesbaden, Germany, with a placard on…

Instead of making disposable inserts for my drill press table, I found that it’s faster and cheaper to make disposable fence/table assemblies. I can use the entire surface of my disposable tables, so I get more life from them. First, make a 3/4” x 16” x 20” base for your drill press table and bolt…

Shaker furniture is known for it’s clean, simple lines and quality construction. There’s been no shortage of Shaker woodworking projects in the pages of Popular Woodworking over the years, and We’ve gathered five of our favorite ones for woodworkers of all levels. To see the full project instructions, simply click on the slideshow image. Any…

One afternoon – start to finish – is all it takes, even for a new woodworker. This may be the easiest (and coolest) table you’ll ever build. If mid-20th century modern furniture design were as popular as the Arts & Crafts style is today, then thousands of these tables would be turning up for sale…

While simple to build, the details present a worthy challenge. While teaching a class at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, I was asked to sneak down to the Connecticut Historical Society to take a look around. At the museum, I was shown into a back room full of off-exhibit furniture. Halfway down the first…

This simple credenza is perfect for storing your extra dishes and linens. The seamless case features routed joints reinforced with floating tenons as well as easy lock miter drawers.

It seats up to 8, but no one has to straddle a leg. Editor’s note: this article originally appeared in American Woodworker #154. Every summer, my uncle Bob tends the grill at our family gatherings and is the last one to the picnic table. He always gets stuck with a middle seat. We’d cheer him…

Combine five 2x4s, a handful of screws and a long afternoon to build a handsome and sturdy sitting spot for your deck or garden. By Christopher Schwarz & Kara Gebhart My father always has had a knack for doing more with less. He built the first house on our farm using a Skil saw, a…

This versatile router joint is perfect for production work. When I need to batch out a bunch of drawer boxes, I use a lock miter router bit. Not only does this bit create a joint with a clean, mitered look on the outside, but the profile of the bit gives the drawer a good mechanical…

We redesigned this classic with techniques so simple even a novice can build it! Project #1918 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 3 days Almost everyone likes the look of barrister bookcases. But what makes them so appealing? I think there are a number of characteristics that make the barrister design popular and enduring. First…

Designing sag-proof shelves. Have you ever heard a shelf groan? Well, maybe not, but some shelves look like they would if they could. So much stuff gets piled on them that they end up sagging like a limp noodle. It’s not a pretty sight. A span that holds up weight should look strong and sturdy….

You needn’t rely on ready-made patterns to design good-looking gams. Legs with engaging, flowing three-dimensional curves can add immeasurably to the aesthetic success of such pieces as tables, stands and chests. In this article, using the legs for a small floating-top table as an example, I’ll show a practical method for producing such legs, and…

A master craftsman’s method for making perfectly spaced drawers. I made this dresser for a client whose father designed and built similar furniture back in the 1950s. Its grid system is very modern looking, but getting all the spacing just right requires an old-fashioned, methodical approach to ensure that the case is square each step…

Find a piece with great design, such as this Stickley No. 79 bookcase, then make adjustments to the construction to better match your skill set.

Efficient storage is important in my garage shop, so after use, my assembly tables tip, fold, clamp and roll. Each table has one apron-mounted caster ($10 at a home center). I used two sheets of 3/4-in. plywood to make the tabletops and aprons and ordered the folding legs from Rockler. My tables are very stable…

In my furniture repair shop, I repair a lot of chairs.  I’ve seen many DIY mistakes over the years that didn’t need to happen.  Repairing a chair with loose joints is a relatively easy project to tackle with a bit of knowledge.  I’m sharing my top 5 chair repair mistakes to avoid, so you can…

This intriguing utilitarian design is at home most anywhere. As a curious designer I often find myself frequenting estate sales, online auctions and even local antique stores in search of oddities and relics of the past. This exercise affords me the opportunity to be exploratory in my quest for inspiration and has become a practice…

This walnut table features simple router inlay and can be easily built during a long weekend.

A simple table saw technique levels four legs in no time flat. Rock-n-roll. That’s what four-legged pieces have a habit of doing – even with perfect joinery and a careful and unhurried assembly. Even with all the care and attention you paid to building it correctly, it doesn’t sit flat on your floor but moves…

Two tones of color and sharp, square edges give this piece modern flair. Inspired by a design in the February 2008 issue of the German magazine Selbst, this “I Can Do That” project commenced (as always) with a pilgrimage to the home center, where I picked up four 6′ 1x12s and one 6′ 1×6 of…

Our staff offers simple, strong and fast ways to make this important furniture component. In woodworking magazines, books and plans there’s almost always an omission that’s big enough to drive a truck through: How to build the drawers for the project. Usually the woodworking author (always well-intended, I can assure you) writes instructions such as:…

How to build a strong bookcase without a back. When I’m designing furniture, I often turn to the Arts and Crafts era for inspiration. I love this style. It’s simple, but elegant. When a client commissioned me to build a small bookcase, I knew exactly what to start  with: a photograph of a piece built…

Two classic joints build a beautiful utility piece PROJECT #2103 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 1 week • Cost: $200 As we’ve settled into our fully working from home routine, one thing has become clear: sitting all day, without the prompts to head to a different office for a meeting, run out to lunch…

When it comes to the history of woodworking, period furniture styles, and woodworking techniques, most woodworkers think about William and Mary, Queen Anne, Federal, Chippendale, and so on. It is arguable, however, that furniture as we know it would not be the same without Chinese furniture, and that studying Chinese furniture leads to lessons about…

Learn the tricks to making sturdy furniture that folds flat. For those with mechanical minds, building furniture that folds into small spaces is great fun. Not only does the piece have to look good and serve its ultimate function as a bookcase, chair, or bed, it also has to collapse into the tiniest form possible….

As much as this piece is a homage to Shaker design, it is also quietly a love letter to both hand tools and shared shops. Project #2113 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 10 • Days Cost: $500 Online extras: Glue-Up Tips for The Shaker Sewing Table • Cutlist and Layout PDF I work in…

This simple seat is ideal for a hallway or porch. This project is inspired by a period choir bench in my mom’s dining room – but I modernized the Gothic revival design of the original with sweeping curves on the arms (instead of shelter arms), and left out the moulding and cutouts. Panel Glueup This…

Project #1923 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 1 Week • Cost: $250 I’m not a fan of period furniture from England. The English emphasis on the horizontal conflicts with the American emphasis on the aspiring vertical that I find so appealing in period furniture built in this country. But, of course, there are exceptions,…

Creative thinking and dirt-simple jigs make the joinery a straightforward task. Full-Size Plan:  Download I tend to think of Chippendale chairs as highly ornate. But there are startlingly simple examples of the style as well. After encountering some of the simpler versions of these chairs, I became fascinated. I love the interplay of curves and angles,…

The planters and bench are separate parts—arrange them as you wish. Smell the flowers. Touch the leaves. It’s easy to enjoy plants when they’re placed at a convenient height—and easier still when you can sit right next to them. Sitting on a planter bench brings nature close to hand.    While you can make this…

Steve Shanesy builds an improved Adirondack chair with Norm Abram in The New Yankee Workshop. Build the chair and learn how Abram works. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the August 2005 issue of Popular Woodworking  I’ve become keenly aware throughout the years that patience allows time for opportunities to come along that might…

Simple joinery allows (time to add) cool design details. I like traditional joinery, and I enjoy working with hand tools. But I also like completing a project without having it drag on because the joinery is labor intensive. This table has all the earmarks of a traditional heirloom: beautiful hardwood, classic proportions and solid construction….

Storage and utility in just the right size. It’s often said that a shop layout is never truly complete. While that may be true, I have discovered a valuable asset in my shop that can move and adapt to changing layouts. I’ve been testing a mobile shop cart over the last several years to make…

Bob Flexner walks you through all the steps in repairing an antique factory-made chair that is glued with animal hide glue.

Angles and an artful inlay set this Arts & Crafts-inspired design apart. I’ve been fascinated by interesting little tabouret tables lately, and it seems the more complicated the design, the more I’m intrigued. Tapered sides, angled joinery, and curved shapes all tend to invite the eye for a closer look. This small side table is…

Architect, master craftsman and client design the ultimate gaming table. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann was one of the finest designers of the Art Deco period. In the 1920s, he designed and produced many memorable pieces of furniture as well as other items for…

Methods that allow wood to move with the seasons. About a decade ago, I made a drop-leaf table for a book of projects. When it came time to mount the top, I just drilled pilot holes and drove cut nails through the top into the aprons. Are you horrified? Actually, the approach worked great. In…

Clear finish updates the look of this classic design. This modified Shaker design, downsized from a set of creamery shelves, is adapted from a Shaker Workshops catalog. To ensure our 3⁄4“-stock would  not bow under the weight of even the heaviest items, we decided to make these shelf pieces a bit shorter than those you’ll…

Recreated from a photograph and measurements, this design feels both modern and timeless. One of the things I have come to admire as a furniture designer-maker is the timelessness of works created long before us. I am continually impressed by the works’ latent ability to establish a perpetual necessity within the lives its users. It’s…

Years ago I discovered Federal furniture and knew that with beautiful veneer, superb inlay and simple carving, this would be my furniture period of choice. Federal furniture has much to offer woodworkers. In addition to the traditional joinery, there is veneering, inlay (stringing, banding as well as pictorial), reeding, curved work and some carving. Initially…

Turn a log into a sculptural statement piece. PROJECT #2101 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 4 days • Cost: $200 Have you ever come upon the opportunity to get some logs either due to a downed tree on your property or somewhere else within your community? A very familiar story is someone has to…

Lightweight, folding and portable, this chair is so simple to make you’ll want a pair – or more.  I’ve always disliked the Adirondack chair and have never understood its popularity. I find it uncomfortable because the human frame does not bend at right angles and also, because it neither folds nor stacks, it’s an awkward…

This mobile, folding table base provides a huge work area, holds a ton and folds up to only 7 in. thick.

This classic design is at home in settings both rustic and modern. PROJECT #2007 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 4 days • Cost: $500 My home is a 150-year-old farmhouse situated in the middle of Cincinnati, Ohio. When it came time to tackle the renovation of the dining room, we decided on a dining…

This wall hung magazine rack is easy to make with a few simple tools and readily available material.

Ladders form the base of this knockdown desk —     simple steps to a higher education in woodworking. Editor’s Note: Hunter Lang was a high school senior when he completed this article for Popular Woodworking in 2009. I’m in the midst of preparing for college, so I need a desk that is functional but…

With simple lines and straightforward joinery, this project yields ample shelf space (and drawers to boot). This large case-on-case shelving unit is adapted from similar pieces I’ve seen in private libraries and in stately homes. I also dug up a few pictures from the Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction sites, where the form is referred to…

Portable, sturdy and easy to build, these were used for a variety of tasks. Many of the fantastic furniture forms of the Middle Ages have disappeared and have been replaced by pieces that are more complex but not necessarily better. One of my favorites is the early trestle table. It’s three pieces – a top…

Simple joinery serves this sophisticated geometric design. Mid-century modern design is enjoying a surge in popularity, and rightly so: Its clean lines and functional design make it practical and attractive, two traits evident in this bookcase by an unknown designer. Its stark, geometric design shows modern roots while giving it a strong graphic presence. And…

Curves, angles and comfort – this piece will have you sitting pretty. I’ve always found making something simple yet refined to be more work than it seems. I suspect that the slat-back chair doesn’t exactly look simple to build if you’re not a chairmaker. But it is relatively simple in the world of chairs, and…

Transform a plain top into a stylish surface Here’s one technique every budding furnituremaker should know: how to make a framed top. A mitered frame adds a polished, professional look to a project, in the same way that a picture frame sets off a work of art. It also offers many practical benefits: A frame…

Add artful accents to a play table. Project #1914 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 1 Day • Cost: $150 Last Christmas my wife and I introduced our young boys to LEGO. This was a good reminder that there is something really special about spending time with your kids with toys that you grew up…

Designer Enzo Mari gave the world this design (and many others). But are they worth building? When my grandparents married before World War II, they bought a dining room set that cost several months of my grandfather’s salary as a paper salesman. At that table, Popo and Grandma raised my father and uncle. And our…

Add GFRC to your furniture-making arsenal. I’ve always loved aircraft-inspired design. There’s just something about an everyday item inspired by a plane that evokes a sense of wanderlust in me, and I wanted to make a piece of furniture that had that aircraft feel. This concrete and walnut “wing” table is the result. Before I…

Use the power of the sliding dovetail. PROJECT #2002 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 5 days • Cost: $500 The Shakers were a Protestant sect of English Quakers that immigrated to the U.S. in 1774. They founded largely self-sufficient communities from Maine to Kentucky and lived by the three guiding principles of honesty, utility,…

A tapered (not turned) post sets this stand apart from contemporaries. I have a thing for candle stands. These small tables are quick to make, don’t require a lot of material to build, and are useful furniture to own. They make for excellent bedside tables, end tables and work well as a standalone piece, too….

Attractive lines, a comfortable seat and some lathe work provide the foundation for for this Shinto-inspired bar stools.

Build a modern workspace with just a single sheet of plywood. Project #2012 • Skill Level: Beginner • Time: 1 day • Cost: $150 Creating your own space seems to be a rite of passage for most first-time homebuyers. Albeit, its often easy to become disillusioned, overzealous and even unrealistic about the amount of work…

Restrained elegance in an American classic. Someday in your woodworking career, you’ll want to reach for the sky. Maybe you’ll have an urge to make an ambitious piece of your own design, or perhaps you’ll prefer to walk in the shoes of cabinetmakers who have gone before and build an American classic. If you love…

Build a rock-solid cabinet from one sheet of plywood. Your state-of-the-art TV deserves something better than a flimsy flat-pack shelving unit from the big box store. This handsome display stand features sturdy construction, storage for CDs and plenty of room for cable, gaming and sound-system components. It’s even designed to hide the cord clutter that’s…

Chairmaking requires its own unique tools and skillset. It may be daunting, but building a Windsor chair opens up a whole new world within woodworking. Here’s how to do it.

This rare and timeless silhouette is updated for contemporary use. When our youngest went off to kindergarten, my wife took on freelance copy-editing and needed a work station. An executive-size desk would not fit in out compact Chicago apartment, but this classic drop front, originally designed by Arts & Crafts master Charles Limbert, only needed…

Add a new dimension to your work with a few basic skills and an inexpensive machine. Woodworkers are joining the welding renaissance that’s happening among makers. Understanding the fundamentals of welding is key when you begin welding. Here’s how to incorporate beautiful welded frames into your furniture using simple designs and just a few tools….

Why liquid hide glue should be your first choice as an adhesive. Since the beginnings of civilization up until World War II, most pieces of furniture were assembled using animal-based glues. That fact changed almost overnight in the 20th century, however, with the introduction of polyvinyl acetate (PVA), what we call yellow or white glue….

This slender table maximizes minimal space. My family recently left our sprawling farmhouse for a compact ranch. We left our farmhouse-sized stuff too, and now we need new furniture. This little console table, under 4′ wide and just more than 1′ deep, fits nicely below a wall-mounted TV to maximize floor space, and the removable…

On my best work, I want the bottom of my project to look as good as the top. That’s when I make an old-fashioned set of wooden tabletop fasteners, or “buttons,” rather than use the modern stamped-steel type. A button allows a solid-wood top to expand and contract through the seasons. When the top’s grain…

Conquer some fun joinery challenges with this geometric Baillie Scott build. As soon as I saw Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott’s 1901 occasional table on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I knew I had to make one. Baillie Scott (1865-1945) was an architect at the forefront of the Arts & Crafts…

Build a standing desk tailored to your body. I designed this compact stand-up desk to meet a prescription from my doctor to be less sedentary. “Sitting is the new smoking,” I was admonished. It was also to give me a challenge: to create a project start to finish almost entirely within the realm of pre-industrial…

Create sultry sophistication with Art Deco details. Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1879-1933) is considered by craftspeople, collectors and designers to be the premier Art Deco furniture maker; he was called “Art Deco’s greatest artist” by The New York Times in 2009. All the fuss is for good reason. This French designer’s work is characterized by the skillful…

This stool builds your skills with eight different joints and bent laminations. Competition is the whetstone of talent; this was in full effect when I built this Wharton Esherick-inspired stool for an online shop stool build-off hosted by Flair Woodworks. It was the perfect opportunity to try out a design that had been floating around…

Design without compromise: An exercise in high-end handwork. Sometimes a cup of tea is more than a cup of tea. Its surface may be still, its color translucent and its container unadorned. But in a single sip of hot water, you can taste the time of year the leaves were harvested, the sun that touched…

Once you understand ‘resultant’ angles, sawbenches (and chairs) are easy. Most first-time chairmakers are intimidated by the compound joinery used to fasten all the legs, stretchers, spindles and arms. The truth is, it can be quite complicated if you try to figure out everything using trigonometry. But if you take some lessons from other chairmakers…

This handsome piece is simple to build and easily adapted to fit your stock. A friend asked me to design and build a table using a special piece of walnut. I was given approximate measurements, but everything else was up to me. I love the freedom these types of projects offer. While the table would…

This early form – an aumbry – spawned many different types of furniture. It is easy to forget that many of our favorite pieces of furniture are recent innovations. Forms such as coffee tables, bookcases and desks are – archaeologically speaking – new objects brought on by incredible modern wealth. When you cast your eye…

Mortise-and-tenon joinery and side-hung drawers make for a simple but impressive build. Early in my career I met an avid antiques collector whose focus was objects from the William & Mary period. Like many people, my first reaction was, “That stuff with those big, ugly ball feet?” Under his guidance I began studying various periods…

A simple approach to a sublime design. I’ve been enamored of Greene & Greene furniture since my early days of woodworking, well before I possessed the skills to produce such a piece. Since that time, this style has become a regular part of my woodworking vocabulary, and I enjoy making reproductions and interpretations of classic…

Though not as lightweight as an eReader, this portable library is far more stylish. Bookcases that fold up like a clamshell were common among British travelers of the 19th century. Soldiers, students, clerks and the clergy were all fond of this easy way to take a library with them anywhere in the world. This version…

Top this sleek design with patterned veneer – it’s much easier than it looks. All over the country, mid-century designs, with their sleek surfaces and clean lines, are turning up in high-style interiors. Here’s a simple table that’s perfect for any modern interior setting. It employs loose-tenon joinery and a veneering technique I introduced years…

Stylish legs and a dapper door dress up a simple case piece – and help to deceive the eye. This design is inspired by a taper, but I needed to establish the right proportions to flesh the idea out. In much of my design work, I hover around the safe ground of a 3:5 or…

The black stallion’s name was Step. Marvin, the only man I ever saw ride him, called him simply “the horse,” his raspy Southern voice pausing for emphasis. I was 5 years old the first time I laid eyes on Step. He was the scariest and most wonderful thing I’d ever seen. A force of nature,…

Make Boxes to fit your books – and your space The typical bookcase is a good example of poor design. We make them that way because that’s the way we’ve always made them; almost every plan you see is 12″ deep, yet few books require that much space. Most bookcases are heavy and a pain…

This antebellum free black man was the most successful cabinetmaker in North Carolina. My introduction to Thomas Day came in 1998 on a shopping trip to High Point, N.C., for a bed. I stumbled across a reproduction of an antique piece that had soaring mahogany posts supporting a tester that authoritatively defined the space that…

A modern approach to joinery yields perfect miters. Project #2009 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 3 days • Cost: $250 I have a definite affinity for Mid-Century furniture. There’s just something about those refined forms with clean lines and angles that really get me. When it came time to build a cabinet for my…

This classic furniture piece offers lots of storage in a small footprint – and it’s a simple hand-tool build I need some additional storage space in my 7′ x 13′ shop, however, space in my shop is at a premium. At the moment, every inch of floor and wall space is occupied, except for a…

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson commissioned Benjamin Randolph, a Philadelphia cabinetmaker, to build a compact lap desk to serve as a portable office. This small mahogany box, now prominently displayed at Monticello, Jefferson’s hilltop home near Charlottesville, Virginia, has become one of the most famous wooden artifacts in American history. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence…

This reproduction of an industrial workhorse will give you years of use in your living room. At the turn-of-the-century, no factory existed without several industrial carts (also known as trucks) at its disposal. From hauling lumber to carrying crankshafts to serving city ice, these workhorses served many functions. Today, many of these antique carts have…

The first time I encountered this table in the White Water Shaker collection, it was locked in a storeroom with more than a dozen other pieces. To my eye, there was something unusual about it. Was it the size? It’s 25″ high – a bit shorter than typical. Was it the single drawer surrounded by…

  Construction lumber dressed up for display. For sturdy, attractive and affordable material to build these shelves, bypass the fancy stuff at the front of your local home center and head for the back where they keep the lumber intended for use as rafters and floor joists. In my neighborhood the available wood is Southern…

This table is a picnic to build with dimensional lumber, screws and bolts. I’m usually not intimidated by undertaking projects. We need some artwork for the new apartment? I can paint some vivid, abstract oil paintings. Hair is not the way I wanted it? I’ll trim it. Not the right color? I’ll dye it. Shirt…

Small tables are useful just about anywhere in the home. They can be easy to build, but a good design is important. To make the design more interesting, tapered legs (often part of Shaker, country and Federal furniture) are part of this design. The taper begins below the aprons and continues on a slope until…

  A little geometry and a simple prototype ensure a pleasant ride. I recently set out to design and build a new rocking chair. I’ve designed and built a handful of rockers, but my past efforts didn’t rock as well as I would have liked. I have confidence in my ability to make a comfortable…

  A clever design yields portable functionality. My father-in-law gave me a table just like this one on our last trip to Portugal. He picked it up in Serra de Monchique, a small mountain village in the Algarve in the southern part of the country. He has a good eye for design, and knew I…

My Uncle Bob was a butcher—not the woodworking kind people joke about, but the real thing. In his off hours, he used to switch blades and put his meat-cutting bandsaw to work as a woodworking tool. You won’t find any of his stuff in the Museum of Modern Art, but you will find one of…

Easy to make, easy to assemble and built to last. Back in the Paleozoic era, when I was a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was playing with a Brio wooden train set. I spread the tracks all over the living room floor, much to the consternation of a very tolerant mom. Now that I’m…

Though not traditional, router patterns make quick work of the inlay. In southeastern Pennsylvania, just northwest of Philadelphia, is Chester County. It was one of the original three counties formed by William Penn in 1682, under a charter signed by King Charles II. In 1729, a large portion of the western county was split off…

This simple modular shelf offers plenty of options for reconfiguration. Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the December 2012 issue of Popular Woodworking. One symptom of my pervasive early 20s restlessness is that I regularly overhaul my apartment, completely rearranging the furniture and décor once a month or so. It’s not so much that…

Steam-bending or bent laminations can be used to make this eye-catching design. The design of this table is part of a series that I revisit from time to time. The original concept for the series was based on a pinwheel (a common example of which is a child’s pinwheel on a stick that blows in…

Three variations on a carved foot offer high style. Access to information provides the modern woodworker with greater variety, and it challenges their skills more than their 18th-century counterparts. When we consider how fashion-conscious both producers and consumers were in the 1700s, it’s truly amazing to think how quickly the word spread of stylistic changes…

Expose your joinery skills with this Arts & Crafts classic. In the early 1900s, furniture maker Gustav Stickley began producing a unique style of furniture that he called “Craftsman.” At the time, the world was coming into the modern industrial age, and Stickley, among others, began to question the value of mass-produced furniture and its…

Campaign-style furniture is as sturdy and simple as Shaker. It is as masculine as Arts & Crafts. And it is free of adornment, like Bauhaus pieces. Yet many woodworkers are unaware of this furniture style, which was popular for more than 150 years in Great Britain, its colonies and North America. Perhaps the problem is…

This North Carolina beauty exemplifies the style of the early South. I don’t consider myself a furniture snob, but until recently, I’d not studied furniture from the South beyond pieces featured in “Southern Furniture 1680-1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection” by Ronald L. Hurst and Johnathan Prown (Colonial Williamsburg). After spending a few days combing through…

This small coffee table is a great introduction to building furniture. It doesn’t require much material and it’s an opportunity to develop your skills. This project is sturdy, attractive and easy to build. All of the parts come from standard widths of lumber. I used poplar from my local home center, and I made the…

Learning to work with veneers and curves enables you to design and build almost anything. This bow-front entry table serves as a good introduction to both – without costing a small fortune or requiring you to attempt an overly intimidating project. Veneer introduces to you to a world of beautiful grain patterns and species that…

Many countries have their own woodworking traditions, which are often a combination of mythology and ideology. The Japanese  are no exception, and those traditions are part of the foundation of my work. There is a temple that ancient Japanese carpenters built. Its columns, hewn from trees, are positioned as when each was a standing tree….

All these years, my assistant, Laure Olender, has not only been working with me doing woodwork, she also takes photographs (including those in this article), edits my articles and assists me at lectures and demonstrations. I thought she was ready to do her own large project from beginning to end. I brought up several traditional…

Gerrit Rietveld’s simple design for a lounge chair is a great platform for exploring ergonomics. PROJECT #2005 • Skill Level:Beginner • Time: 4 hours • Cost: $50 Gerrit Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designer and architect that worked in the first half of the 20th century. Part of the De Stijl art movement, Rietveld’s furniture…

Many interesting pieces of furniture are deceptively simple. Deceptive, because although they appear simple, they are actually very difficult to make. Although this is occasionally true in my own work, that’s not the case with the Arch Table, a piece that looks more complicated to make than it actually is. I’m not saying it’s easy;…

As the old saying goes, sometimes you have to learn to walk before you can run. That’s certainly been true in my career as a cabinetmaker: I’ve tried to learn the basics on small projects, where I could afford to make mistakes, before tackling the really ambitious work that I’ve had my heart set on…

Remember Lincoln Logs? When I was a kid, my friends and I spent hours building cabins and forts with them. Lincoln Logs locked together, one on top of another, just like the real deal. They were my first introduction to wood joinery. While playing with them, I must have learned something that stuck with me…

Unique because of its appearance and easy to build because it’s constructed using basic woodworking techniques, this two-part cabinet provides copious storage and signals the work—and the shop—of a true craftsman. The two cabinets share the same features and joinery, so building them simultaneously offers economy when milling the parts. But either cabinet would make…

Coffee tables didn’t exist as a furniture form until the 1920s  (when they were known as cocktail tables). So while there is no true Shaker coffee table, I needed a table to put in front of my couch that would work well with the other Shaker-influenced furniture in my living room. And to my mind,…

Video: Watch Bob’s table saw techniques for cutting the drawer finger joints. I designed this buffet cabinet a couple years ago for a weekend seminar on Arts & Crafts joinery. After the class I added a 3-D model to the Popular Woodworking Magazine online SketchUp collection. It was an easy way to provide detailed plans…

Recreate this classic design and push your skills to the next level. Project #2004 • Skill Level: Advanced • Time: 3 days • Cost: $400 Of all the surviving Charles Limbert designs, there are three that stand out above the rest in my mind. One is the #355 Cottage Bookcase, and the second is the…

Back in the 1950s, traditional cabinetmakers in Scandinavian workshops produced sleek, powerful furniture using modern materials and modest machines. This project pays homage to those exciting days of Mid-century modern furniture. I designed the Metropolitan Console to function as an end table or a nightstand. Its low profile, streamlined design and light color fits well…

Thomas Jefferson’s book boxes became the foundation of the Library of Congress. I like to think of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library as America’s first “bookmobile.” When the British burned down the nation’s capitol in 1814, the inferno took with it many of the books owned by the government of our young nation. Lucky for us,…

There’s something special about a small table with a round top—it invites intimacy. When I sit at one, I stop and savor warm memories of lingering with my wife in a quiet café or bistro years ago. The task of making a round top can break that spell, however: it ain’t easy. Well, it could…

Pattern routing makes quick and easy work of these urn-shaped sides. Click here for the SketchUp model of this project. While vacuuming a few weeks back, I was thinking about what to build for this issue’s “I Can Do That” project when it hit me … actually, when I hit it with my vacuum. I’ve…

Sit up straight. Or lean back and relax. This Gustav Stickley Morris chair is an icon of American furniture design with exposed joinery and solid quartersawn white oak. Reproduce an Arts & Crafts classic and reward yourself with the ultimate easy chair. In Gustav Stickley’s book Craftsman Homes, there is a picture of this chair…

While visiting with chairmaker Bob Erickson (pictured above with his son Tor), it seems appropriate to ask, “What chair are you sitting in right now?” He explains it’s an unfinished Van Muyden chair part of a dining room set he’s building for a client in New York City. Bob’s Van Muyden Chair—three-legged, crafted of quilted…

Have you ever heard of a “faldstool?” You’ve probably seen one in a movie that’s set in Medieval or Renaissance times—it’s the distinctive portable chair that a nobleman or Bishop sits on, the one with curved legs and arms that looks like it would fold together. The oldest faldstools really did fold up, which makes…

I’m a boot guy. I wear work boots pretty much every day I spend in my shop—and as a hard-working professional cabinetmaker, that can often be six days a week. I’ve got three pairs of well-worn Carhartts to cycle through, plus a pair of hiking boots. They’ve been cluttering up my hallway for years, but…

If you can cut a lap joint, you can make this bench. PROJECT #2001 • Skill Level:Beginner • Time: 2 Days • Cost: $100 When I started woodworking, it was driven by necessity; I needed something that didn’t exist, so I made it. My woodworking was also driven by a desire to spend my time…

Extra-large finger joints add a distinctive touch to any project. Every woodworker is going to ask, “How did you do that?” Most finger joints are pretty small in scale and easy to cut on a tablesaw or router table. But what if you want really, really big finger joints? Can you imagine making accurate cuts…

Curved-front drawers add a touch of grace and liveliness to a cabinet. But if you’re not set up to re-saw wide stock into thin, uniform laminations, you’re sunk, right? Wrong. You can use thin plywood instead of re-sawn hardwood, so the biggest obstacle is out of the way before you start! Build the Drawer, On…

Spine and rib construction is key to this design. Project #1924 • Skill Level: Intermediate • Time: 4 Days • Cost: $200 Thanks to advanced design tools, an entirely new category of modern architectural details, furniture design and art has emerged. Named after the specialty software tools used to create it, it’s called parametric design….

We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations. A local company was hired to finish some restaurant tables and called me to ask what finish they should use. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the answer actually depends on how they…

Turn a closet into a hiding place with a basic bookcase, trimmed to match the room. The alluring nature of secret rooms has captivated my imagination for as long as I can remember. Growing up, my mind would race with possibilities, as I’d watch someone unlock a bookcase by tilting a book or some other…

So you’ve built your paddle-arm chair, and all that’s left is making the cushion to sit on. I may be persnickety when it comes to armchair upholstery, but I really prefer a certain type of cushion for a large armchair or Morris chair. I like the leather or fabric to “waterfall” down the front, and…

A curved seat and back make this chair extra-comfortable. With a set of outdoor chairs like this on your patio or deck, you and your guests can enjoy the open air in comfort and style. This chair is comfortable (the seat contours were patterned after a Mercedes Benz seat!), and so simple to build you…

Yoav Liberman and his student Lisa put the finishing touches on a unique live edge desk.

Is there life after running your own professional furniture shop? Absolutely, says Russell Gale in Part 2 of my series on different kinds of furniture makers.

Slab, or live-edge furniture is all the rage, and I like it! If you think wood is one of the most amazing things ever created, then how can you not like a piece of furniture that retains so much of the look of natural wood? The grain on full display and the undulations and imperfections…

A trip to a professional upholstery shop yields valuable lessons in prototyping furniture and more.

See the completed burl slab coffee table, plus learn how Yoav and his student Helder ensured this highly irregular table stays level.

How do you differentiate between varieties of furnituremakers? Here’s the preliminary take on how I do.

Yoav Liberman and his student Helder design and construct a coffee table out of a particularly intriguing burl slab.

Bob Flexner (assisted by his grandson) repair an upholstered chair the quick and dirty way.

Learn how to make through dovetails step by step and improve your overall hand tool skills.

We’ve come a long way from cabins in the woods and 18th Century dwellings. Part of that transition is the mental shift of thinking of furniture as part of our wealth and property…

I haven’t given much thought to the culture of paying dues until a few recent occasions, when I’ve been struck by how this dimension of woodworking culture—at least, the culture of professional furniture and cabinetmaking, outside the art furniture world—has changed.

Things have changed enormously for woodworkers over the last 40 years. Here are a few examples, with less visible ones coming next week.

Get an inside look at the legendary contemporary and mid-century designs featured in the Boyd Collection at Chicago’s Wright auction house.

Last July I returned to Peters Valley School of Crafts to teach a six day-long class in live edge furniture making. Live edge, aka Natural Edge, is one of my most beloved wood mediums.

Meet the artists from the December 2017 issue How five masterful makers integrate CNC and CAD technology into their woodworking In the December 2017 issue of Popular Woodworking magazine, the article, Digital Artistry gives the readers a peek at what five professional woodworkers are doing with digital tools in their shops. Each has an extensive…

Meet the artists from the December 2017 issue How five masterful makers integrate CNC and CAD technology into their woodworking. In the December 2017 issue of Popular Woodworking magazine, the article, Digital Artistry gives the readers a peek at what five professional woodworkers are doing with digital tools in their shops. Each has an extensive…

One of the unique pieces built during my weekend workshop at Snow Farm was a live edge coffee table. Lisa’s “Cape Cod coffee table” began as a 1” cross cut of a cherry tree that showed an attractive burl, intriguing insects cavities and some natural cracks. Our plan was first to fill the imperfection with…

Curvy furniture is great to look at and usually offers a tactile aesthetic that makes it appealing. Holding it all together is the joinery – and whether it’s dovetails, tenons or lap joinery, creating that joinery on a curve adds a new level of complication. Whether made by hand or by machine, most of our training on…

Award-winning inspiration from the 2017 competition. Read the article in its entirety. Article: To see all of this year’s entries, go to the entry page here. From the November 2017 issue, #235 Grand Prize The grand prize goes to Al Spicer for his demilune (half-moon) marquetry table, featuring on its top a flowering morning glory vine…

Ben was one of the six students who took my live-edge Columbus day weekend class at Snow Farm. A newcomer into woodworking, motivated and eager to learn, he asked me to help him design and build a side table for his Boston apartment. Feeling that woodworking is going to be more than just a weekend…

I came across David Thomas Brown’s coffee table build on Reddit last week and thought it was a great build. If you spot a build that has great photography and solid technique, send me an email! – David Lyell I remember the glory days of unlimited garage/driveway space and access to my dad’s tools that…

When Josselyn and I moved out here to Covington, I refused to do two things. For one, I wasn’t going to bring some of the beater furniture that had been following us around since college. And two, I didn’t want to buy any cheap furniture when we got here, with the plan of replacing it. This led to…

In the next few months, I’ve got a lot of furniture to make; Josselyn (my partner) and I just moved to Cincinnati from Maine. Last week, I built a new coffee table for our place. This week I’m building a new kitchen table, in between setting into my new job and figuring out where to buy…

When I lived in Maine, I had a wide array of projects and furniture that I wanted to build for our house. When it became clear, however, that we were going to move down here to Covington, Ky., I put the designs and wood aside, not wanting to build a bunch of furniture only to…

The early 1900s Arts & Crafts movement is frequently recognized as a reaction to the industrial revolution with a strong emphasis on hand-crafted furniture, pottery, metalwork and art. All well and good, but it can also be noted that the more successful companies creating these pieces also recognized the economies of scale and the benefits…

Stretch and enhance your creative skills by learning how to design your own furniture. Professional furniture maker Aaron Fedarko shares his expert design instruction to help you achieve success.

If you’re looking purely at durability, then an oil-based polyurethane is still superior, but only marginally.

I recently found myself with that most fortunate of situations – a whole day in the shop. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: get some furniture projects finished. I had three waiting for the right moment to apply the final touches. The first of them was a simple nailed board chest. I found…

Successful wood bending with heat and water is more art than science. Long ago, some caveman made a curious discovery: Wood becomes pliable when it is both hot and wet, allowing it to be bent to a desired shape that it retains when dry. Ever since, woodworkers have been bending the stuff. Bending, like carving…

You can’t use this wood as it is. You’ve got to do some selective cutting first and then dry out the wood before making furniture with it.

Editor’s note: The measured drawings for the Risom coffee table in this article by Michael Crow are similar to the shop drawings included in Crow’s new book, “Mid-Century Modern Furniture.” The book presents shop drawings and techniques for creating 29 projects designed by some of the era’s foremost designers, including Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, George Nelson…

Dale Barnard has been building furniture professionally for decades. And during a recent video shoot, it was very comforting to see that I wasn’t the only one breaking the rules on sanding. Building a Greene & Greene furniture piece means changing transition levels in the wood frequently. And that leads to either rasping, filing or…

This article is excerpted and abridged from the Winter 2010 issue of Woodwork Magazine. Lost in thought, I stood in the grocery store checkout line, with the design for a table desk on my mind. To be frank, I was frustrated with my design efforts in general, because they were bounded by rules that were…

The following is excerpted from a new book, Furniture Fundamentals: Tables, in which you’ll find collected many of the best table projects published in Popular Woodworking. You’ll find the full step-by-step instructions for this Glen D. Huey piece in the book, but the measured drawings below are an excellent place to begin. I’ve built a…

Is Greene & Greene actually a part of the Arts & Crafts Movement? Lately, there has been discussion that would bring this into question. It is undeniable that their work was highly refined and stands apart from the other makers of the era. So, is it possible they were simply lumped together with their contemporaries…

I can’t swear to there being a “cycle” for every Arts & Crafts woodworker. I can only speak to my own experience and add that I have had many nods of agreement when sharing my philosophy. I began building Arts & Crafts pieces, because the sturdy simplicity spoke to me, and the beauty of the…

Soup Up Your Router Table By Dave Munkittrick Your router table will really sing with these great accessories. Like all good tools, our accessories will increase safety and improve results. Even though we designed them specifically for the Best Buy Router Table on page 39, they’re easily adapted to use on almost any router-table system….

Two-Part Bookcase Here’s a big bookcase that you can build in a small shop. By Tom Caspar Building a tall bookcase can stretch the limits of a small shop.We all know that big boards can be a bear to handle and glue up, so I’ve taken an old Scandinavian design and sliced it up into…

Laminated Pedestal Table Curved legs make this table strong, practical and attractive. By Fred Matlack After knocking my knee on the leg of our kitchen table and spilling the gravy for the umpteenth time, I realized it was time I made a pedestal table for our kitchen. We wanted a table in white oak—one that…

Butterfly Inlay Make a perfect fit with a shop-made template. By Tom Caspar Don’t you just love it when something that looks extremely difficult turns out to be oh-so easy? Making butterfly inlay with a plunge router is a good example. The technique is very easy to learn. All it takes is a set of…

Mobile Outfeed Tables Upgrade your tablesaw and save precious shop space with a pair of outfeed tables. By George Vondriska A tablesaw is a lot safer and easier to use when it’s equipped with an outfeed table. Whether you’re ripping long boards or crosscutting big sheets of plywood, you really need more support than just…

Pedestal Picnic Table One day in the shop and you’re ready to party! By Jean Bartholome If you’re looking for a picnic table that’s simple to build but looks great on your deck or patio, here’s the design for you. Its pedestal support ensures that no one can complain about “having the leg.” The round…

Steam Bent Music Stand “Learning to bend wood with steam takes practice, just like playing an instrument.” By Seth Keller Bending wood with steam always intrigued me, but I never tried it. The process seemed mysterious, complicated and maybe even dangerous. But one day a beat-up old music stand motivated me to give steam bending a…

The Unsinkable Molly Brown's Parlor Table This little charmer folds flat, then sets up in seconds. By Tim Johnson This table is an accurate reproduction of one purchased by Molly Brown and her husband in the late 1880s, when they were starting their family in the rough mining town of Leadville, Colorado. It easily disassembles…

Composing a Tabletop Two ways to create a beautiful top. By Ian Kirby The top is the first thing people will see when they admire a table you’ve made. The selection and arrangement of the boards is a testament to your skills and sensitivity to the beauty of wood. If you take the time to…

Trophy Coffee Table Stunning Beauty Right from the Tree By Dave Munkittrick Big planks of wood with natural bark edges make my heart race. Most woodworkers share a desire to build something from a single, thick plank of wood. After 20 years of building custom cabinets and furniture, I finally got my chance. The first…

Treasured Board Table One precious board is all you need. By Tom Caspar Every woodworker discovers an extraordinary piece of wood once in a while. What do you do with it? One board is not enough for a big project. It’s a crime to cut it up into small pieces for a little project. So…

Tablesaw Tenoning Jig A precision joint-making tool for less than $30. By Frank Gregg A tablesaw tenoning jig is an essential tool for most woodworkers. But commercial units cost $100 and up, and shop-made jigs that I’ve tried, all riding on the fence somehow, were unstable and hard to adjust. So I devised this jig,…

Beautiful Boulle Work A masterpiece of inlaid intricacy begins with a sandwich of brass, sheet, wood veneer and waxed paper. By Silas Kopf “Plus c’a change, plus c’est la même chose.” This centuries-old French expression translates something like this: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” It’s a bit of wisdom that…

Turning Table Legs By Alan Lacer Turning four table legs that match may sound impossible, but it’s not. With these tried and true tips, and a little practice, you can successfully turn even the largest legs. And these same techniques apply when you’re copying a broken chair spindle or producing a set of balusters. Here’s…

Classic Country Hutch American style and classic hardwood create a timeless treasure By Tim Johnson Tall and stately, this cupboard promises to be the focal point of any dining area. A functional wonder, it combines elegant display with spacious storage. For you as a builder, though, this cupboard is loaded with something quite different: advanced…

All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make the better. – Ralph Waldo Emerson You know what the Telephone Game is, right?  One person starts by whispering a phrase into the next person’s ear and that person whispers what they heard to the next person and this continues down the line.  By the time the…

Among the most rewarding parts of working for this (and I would assume any) woodworking magazine is to build then write about a project, send an article out into the world, then have pictures come back to you of pieces others have built based on what you’ve published. And while we design and build pieces…

In 2005 I had the good fortune to spend a couple days with Norm Abram at his New Yankee Workshop building one of the program’s most popular projects – an Adirondack chair. Norm and I each built a chair from a plan he developed that was based on a chair his father built years before….

Congratulations (and belated good wishes) to Ralph S. Wilkes, who in April celebrated his 100th birthday. Mr. Wilkes wrote for Popular Woodworking (and other woodworking magazines) in the mid-1990s, after retiring from Keuka College in Keuka Park, N.Y., where for 35 years he was a business manager and treasurer. He now lives in Canandaigua, N.Y.,…

Selecting "Best of Show" awards at the San Diego "Design in Wood" exhibition on behalf of Woodwork and American Woodwork was a challenge. As I described in my last blog, the process for choosing the winner in the Furniture category was made somewhat easier because at least all the contenders were furniture…and there were only…

The second episode of “The Highland Woodworker” web TV show is out and if you haven’t seen this new show yet, it’s definitely worth a look. Produced in conjunction with Highland Hardware in Atlanta, the show provides great woodworking advice and visits with some of the best woodworkers out there. (The first episode included a…

If you were to rank woodworking projects by degree of difficulty, chairs would be at the top of the list. They aren’t like boxes or tables with nice square corners and predictable sizes of component parts – everything on a chair is odd. If you were then to rank chairs by degree of difficulty, those…

Old styles of furniture can still speak to us loud and clear today. The Queen Anne style, popular in America from 1725 to 1760, is an elegant language of flowing lines and reverse curves. This footstool is a small-scale example of a very elaborate style. If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at cabriole…

Show Case View your treasures from every angle. By Luke Hartle Any collection you want to display, from fish fossils to Baccarat crystal will look great inside this cabinet. It allows unobstructed viewing from the front because the doors are on the sides. The doors themselves are frameless glass to maximize the side views. Inside,…

St. Croix Valley Chairs Enjoy your setting while comfortably sitting. By Tim Johnson Stylish and comfortable, these chairs are also built to last. Made of rot-resistant white oak, with robust joinery secured with weatherproof glue, they’re guaranteed to become some of your garden’s most cherished perennials.  We’ve engineered the building process so you’ll be able…

Frame & Panel Hope Chest Mortise and Tenon Joinery the Easy Way by Tom Caspar I used to struggle with mortise and tenon joinery. I tried every new system that came along, but they all seemed way too complicated. One day a friend of a friend walked into my shop, said “Throw away those fancy…

Mission Blanket Chest If you love Mission-style furniture, here’s the perfect complement to your bedroom. By Tom Caspar Store blankets, bedding and memories inside this huge chest. Three frames and a plywood back make up its basic structure, and all the other parts are added on, one by one, so building it is about as…

Teak Coffee Table A retro table with sleek lines and soft edges By Bruce Kieffer With the resurgence of the mid-century Modern style in furniture, I thought I’d have some fun with this classic little coffee table. I used teak because it was the wood of choice for the Danish Modern style in the 1960s…

Farm Table You don't need a dream shop to build this dream project By Tim Johnson Aside from feeding the flock (this table seats a flock of eight), a big surface where you can spread things out is invaluable, for computing, writing, hobbies or for kids' activities. A large table is the perfect gathering place…

Sliding Dovetail Bench Super-strong router joints give it elegant simplicity. By Tim Johnson This elegant bench has humble origins: Its forebears have been sat upon, stepped on and dragged about for centuries. Utilitarian ancestry is readily apparent in our bench. It features simple construction and strong interlocking joints.  The pieces fit together like a puzzle,…

Barbara's Table A small amount of fabulous wood can go a long way. By Tom Caspar Surprise! My wife loved this table because I designed it just for her. It’s beautiful, versatile and with time-saving biscuits and dowels, it only took me a few weekends to build. It’s a great project. You may also like……

I’m gearing up to build a run of Roorkhee Chairs for some customers and (fingers crossed) this magazine. But before I can even order the wood I had to do something I thought I’d never do again: Buy a piece of commercial furniture. The Roorkhee Chair is a seminal piece of British campaign furniture and…

Restore an Antique Oak Table Thoughtful finishing and new leaves prepare this classic for the next 100 years. By Kevin Southwick Purchase the complete version of this woodworking technique story from AWBookstore.com. This old table looks like a prime candidate for refinishing. Strip off the old finish, sand out all the dings and scratches, spray…

Display Cabinet Open sides and built-in lights showcase your treasures. By Randy Johnson Some cabinets are all about displaying the beauty of wood. This cabinet, with its glass doors, shelves and sides and built-in lighting, is all about displaying what’s inside. Whether it’s your collection of antique tools or fine porcelain, whatever you put inside…