White - The Handbuilt Home

Copyright 2012 by Ana White

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Potter Craft, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.pottercraft.com
www.crownpublishing.com

POTTER CRAFT and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Some of the material in this work was previously published on www.ana-white.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012936933

eISBN: 978-0-307-58733-6

Photographs by Ana White, unless otherwise noted: : (top) Lydia Manders

Front cover photographs (from top): Kristen Duke, Rebecca Ridner, Amanda Clark, Crystal Rose, and Ashley Mills

v3.1

For my readers, thank you for everything. And for Jacob, Grace, and my family, thank you for believing in me.

Just a decade ago, I would look at furniture and wish I could build it, but at the time I lacked the ability and skills, and I couldnt find any information to help me learn how to make the type of furniture I wanted.

Now, Im a do-it-yourself furniture maker, mother, homemaker, and lover of pretty hardware, pink paint, and white drawer slides. Now, I look at furniture, and say, I can build that, and then I go straight to my garage and make it.

From beds to coffee tables, chairs to wood toys, even kitchens and playhousesyou name it, Ive built it. Ive created hundreds of pieces of furniture, designed thousands of furniture plans, and enjoyed knowing that people all over have made many projects using my ideas.

But initially, though I was obsessed with furniture, though I had learned to hunt down discarded items to refinish, I had never built a piece from scratch.

When I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband and I were living in our garage, saving to build a home. Knowing a baby was on the way, I drew up a house plan on graph paper, and we started building. We could not afford contractors, so board by board, we built our own home by hand. My husband would say, Ill hold the board, and you nail, and I would close my eyes, hold my breath, and squeeze the nail-gun trigger.

And guess what? I discovered that when done properly, using power tools was not a matter of strength or courage, but rather a matter of a little know-how and experience. Soon I was using saws, drills, and routers, and eventually my husband even gave me the greatest present ever: my very own tape measure.

Unfortunately, my daughter learned to crawl on the garage floor because there is only so much one family with a newborn baby, building paycheck to paycheck, can get done in a short Alaska summer. But ultimately, we built our home and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.

And something else was built: my confidence and knowledge as a builder.

When we moved into our new home we had no money for furniture. For a year, we slept on a mattress on the floor, keeping our clothing in baskets piled in the corner. I refused to buy low-quality particleboard furniture to get us by, but I could not afford the high-quality contemporary pieces I appreciated and loved.

And then one day, I decided that if we could build a house, I should try my hand at furniture.

(We sleep on this very same bed, so many years later, and it still is as sturdy, strong, and beautiful as ever.

In the years that followed, I became obsessed with building furniture. I made bookcases, cabinets, and even sofas. Yet I stayed true to the principles of my original farmhouse bedkeeping plans simple, using standard off-the-shelf materials, and working with the most basic tools, but making up for these limitations with a well-thought-out design. Even today, hundreds of projects later, I still build with the same easy-to-buy materials.

Building furniture has brought me great joy and happiness. It has both given me confidence and humbled me. Our entire family has spent countless hours in the garage, working on project after project, yet I never tire of taking simple boards and basic materials and turning them into an attractive, usable piece of furniture. I still get tingles and cant sleep at night when I am in the middle of a project, and I often find myself amazed over what can be accomplished with a few pieces of wood.

But the greatest joy of all for me is sharing my passion with others. Each time I help someone build a picnic table or a bench, or even just a simple picture frame, its as if I rediscover the pleasure of learning how to build all over again.

This book is for non-woodworkers, people like me years ago, who want to make their own attractive, modern furniture but just havent yet found the confidence or the skills to do so. You dont need to be physically tough or superstrong to learn to use a power tool, and it is okay if you dont know that a 24 doesnt actually measure 2" 4" ; all you need is determination to make a better home for yourself or your family. Ive been there. I know its not easy to squeeze a nail-gun trigger for the first time, or even to load a drill bit when you dont know how. But I can tell you thisif I can do it, so can you. And Ive written this book specifically to help you.

This book will cover everything you need to know to begin building your own furniture, from the basic tools you will require and how to use them to selecting boards to actually building and finishing your projectsa beginner can become a builder with confidence. There are starter projects that I suggest you tackle first to gain some experience.

For those of you with more building experience, this book includes thirty-four of my best plansa few are some of the all-time favorites from my blog, but most are totally newthat you can jump right to and start building. Ive included several advanced projects to keep you challenged, but I know even the starter projects can be useful when decorating your home or making a gift.

Regardless of your skill, your budget, how much time you have, or even what tools you own, you can build amazing furniture and save thousands of dollars off retail.

Today is your day to say, I can build that.

ICON KEY

Each project includes icons that will tell you the skill level, cost, and time necessary for completion.