Making Rustic Furniture: How to craft chairs, tables, bedroom furniture, garden furniture, birdhouses and more in the rustic style

This illustrated book on rustic woodworking offers superb guidance to building furniture, decorations and structures in the rustic style.

Each chapter covers a particular rustic project, with clear descriptions capably instructing absolute beginners and experienced woodworkers alike on how to build rustic furniture. In addition, detailed guidance on the tools and kinds of wood to use in the craft is imparted. Followed closely, these instructions will ensure furniture of a thoroughly decent quality that will last for years.

Authored by career woodworker and furniture maker Raymond James Nugent, this book’s instructions and pages are imbued with experience accrued over years of fashioning fine furnishings from gathered logs and branches.

The book begins with the very basics; light rustic work is what you should practice at the outset; like the jointing and fastening of wooden parts essential for rustic woodwork. Simpler constructions, such as flower stands and vases, follow.

The core chapters concern interior and garden furnishings. The most popular forms of seating, as well as tables suited for indoor or outdoor use, all receive attention. What’s more, every single design discussed has at least one detailed illustration showing the exact schematics.

By the end of this guidebook, you will not only have mastered a number of rustic methods, but will also be inspired to create your own elaborations and designs. You can for example opt for different woods and append your own flourishes and additions as you see fit. This primer hopes to set you on a long path to achieving your own, signature style of wooden furniture making.

With more people than ever tired of mass manufactured furnishings, the rustic style is at the cusp of revival.

The last great eruption of rustic style was during The Great Depression, it may be appropriate that The Great Recession of the present day should herald new and sustained interest.

Nugent notes a backlash against the endlessly similar furniture templates which so commonly grace the modern home, which only a return to the personally crafted past can remedy. Many homeowners regardless of age or background desire to stamp identity on a home or garden with their own self made furnishings. What better a place to start stamping a real, material identity on a place than crafting a simple flower stand, a chair, or a garden table created from the finest samples of hazel, yew or birch wood?

Many a person, particularly during the summer, relishes the opportunity to sit outside and assemble their very own timber creations. You needn’t be a rugged outdoorsman, a master carpenter or seasoned woodworker to embark on such a hobby; the most important ingredient in your success is enthusiasm.

The money spent to start needn’t be a concern; expensive treatments or tools are few when we compare rustic against conventional means of furniture making. That’s why Making Rustic Furniture is a book worth purchasing.

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