Then the book moves on with chapters dealing with various classes of furniture, desks, tables, beds, cabinets are all discussed with clear exploded diagrams.

Although the book does not contain detailed, measured drawings, it shows the conceptual details of how to make functional furniture. Additionally there are references to detailed plans that you can access via the internet or purchase to make typical examples of each piece.

Especially helpful are the "standards" sections at the start of each chapter. The "nominal" dimensions for tables, beds, kitchen cabinets are all given along with illustrations.

If you're serious about woodworking and furniture making, this book belongs on your bookshelf.

47 of 48 found the following review helpful:


Excellent Reference  Feb 17, 2004 By Doug Van Horn "Doug Van Horn"
I like to check out books from the library before I buy them. I checked this one out, now I'm buying it.

As a novice woodworker, I anticipate this will be an excellent reference as I move forward with designing and building cabinets, tables, and chairs.

It's not a how-to book, it's a reference. So when I'm wondering how I'm going to design a small cabinet with four drawers and a television cabinet for the bedroom, this book will give me options and ideas from casework to drawers to what goes on the bottom and what goes on the top.

I think it's a great reference.

40 of 41 found the following review helpful:


Introductory design for the novice cabinetmaker  Feb 17, 2000
As a novice woodworker, but a professional trades instructor, I found this book to be a wonderful source of information about traditional and contemporary styles and techniques in furniture and cabinetmaking. It introduces the fundamentals of furniture anatomy, styles and wood movement. You are then moved along to joinery and furniture subassemblies with detailed and very readable illustrations. The strength of the book is, indeed, in the illustrations. The project section illustrates, by example, the styles and techniques introduced earlier but allows Woodworkers the freedom to add dimensions of their own. It is a very useful guide for those who are looking for ideas and allows great freedom to customize the design without getting too far off track.

25 of 26 found the following review helpful:


Tons of illustrations of techniques and furniture!  Dec 18, 1998 By Jean-Francois Theoret
This book is a wealth of ideas and illustrations. Every page has an illustration (non measured drawing) giving details of types of joinery, moldings, etc. that can be used in furniture making. The book is also a staring point to get ideas how furniture can be built. It illustrates how hundreds of types of furniture (beds, cabinets of all sorts,...) can be built according to different styles. This is no cookbook for furniture (such as "Country Pine Furniture" from the same author), but it is ideal for people who have acquired a little assurance in building furniture and are ready to make their first (or second) steps in designing their own.

40 of 45 found the following review helpful:


Good idea book, but very short on designs and joinery method  Dec 08, 1998
Illustrated Cabinetmaking would make a decent idea book, but falls short if you're looking for a "how to" book. It is filled with many different types of furniture designs, including alternates. The chapters on furniture style and anatomy are adequate, however, the ones on joinery are lacking. Although quite adequate in describing and showing limited illustrations of the joints, there is virtually no instruction on how to construct them. The same problem occurs in the furniture section. The description is short and offers very little construction information. Consider the spice box on pages 272-273. The door of the illustration on page 272 appears to be lipped, but has a half mortise lock. What does it lock into?

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