Will Holman

Guerilla Furniture Design

This book is visually instructive with great diagrams and photos with textual backup of procedures and specific measurements. I particularly appreciate the reference charts providing common measurements for people, furniture and lumber. A few of the unique aspects I encountered were the visual explanation of physical forces that affect furniture and instructions on how to dispose (in a green manner) of the item you’ve built when it’s not longer needed.

A good selection of projects using common and generally inexpensive materials such as cardboard, pallets, milk crates, pill bottles, metal signs, inner tubes, and traffic cones for those of us who desire good design but don’t have much cash to spend.

I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.… (más)

This is a mildly interesting book full of good technical information on how to make really ugly furniture from salvaged paper, cardboard, wood, and plastic. I don't like the designs at all but I can imagine that some of them might appeal to a certain urban grunge demographic. However, buying the tools and renting the space to make the furniture will cost more than buying nicer stuff from IKEA.

Mr. Holman's designs are technically competent but sometimes a bit obsessive. The "Un-Trashcan" for example, is a chunky wood stool that has little arms on it to hold empty plastic carry bags so that they can catch waste scraps. Mr. Holman assumes you have the floor space to put this critter. Europeans do the same thing with hooks that hang on the inside the cabinet door under the kitchen sink.

Mr. Holman is wrong when he says that mineral oil will not change the color of wood. The food grade mineral oil I sometimes use as a furniture finish results in a dark "wet" look that is good in some uses but may obscure grain.

I received an advance review copy of "Guerilla Furniture Design: How to Build Lean, Modern Furniture with Salvaged Materials" by Will Holman (Storey Publishing) through NetGalley.com.… (más)