Recently a friend and I had a bit of a conversation about the toshi-nuki shelves that I recently built. He was concerned about racking, since the design of the shelves doesn’t include any kind of cross bracing. I think it’s a valid concern, and it’s something I considered when designing the shelves, but ultimately I decided I would forgo any kind of panel, bracing, or other reinforcement to keep the design light and open. My vision for the shelf was for a more open airy shelf system, that would serve more as a display shelf, perhaps a few books, but could also hold plants, artwork, pictures, etc. I would be more concerned about racking and the strength of the shelves if they were going to be loaded up only with heavy books or records, and I may consider some sort of simple solution to make that option available if a customer has that need.
In any case, the discussion got me thinking about all the different considerations that go into designing something. Aesthetics, construction methods, durability, material, time and price; all of these considerations are sort of intertwined and come into play when designing a piece of furniture. Everyone has their own unique taste and inclinations, and I think within these categories we all have a tendency to put more emphasis on certain areas over others.
Among the community of folks I know who are pursuing more traditional woodworking, the focus of their work often seems to be more so on construction method and joinery, with ideas of longevity and durability being driving forces behind those considerations. Aesthetics is important but perhaps equally or less so than the construction.
On the opposite side of the spectrum there are those who work in the design world where the priority seems to be design and aesthetics above anything else. Sometimes the results seem to be furniture that is made not so much to be used but looked at. I do see value in getting wild and crazy with designs to explore ideas, but at the end of the day I personally want to make something that is truly useable, comfortable, and designed and built to last.
I know I’ve personally gone through a variety of phases through my own work, largely influenced by what my world was like at the time. And through all those phases my focus has seriously shifted. In a lot of ways I feel like I’ve been swinging on a pendulum from one extreme to the other eventually finding myself where I’m at now… hopefully a more balanced mindset.
So what follows are my thoughts on the different considerations that go into designing/building furniture. This is far from a complete discussion, and it’s also seriously subjective and opinionated so take it with a grain of salt. But I think all of these factors are important both to customers and to furniture makers to think about and understand.
Aesthetics
A well designed piece of furniture should look good, and if possible should help make its surroundings look good. The question of what is good and what’s not is incredibly subjective, but it does seem that certain designs/styles seem to have more of a lasting impact than others. I’m far from an expert on the history of design or current trends, but my thought is that a design that lasts is going to be one that is rather simple; not too flashy or showy. The problem with trends is that they are just that, flashy and showy, trying to get the most attention now. I think this is one of the reasons that Shaker and minimalist Skandanavian furniture has had such a lasting influence.
As woodworkers, I think it’s easy to get sucked into the world of craft, seeking out new challenges and techniques, and sometimes that becomes the focus of the thing you are making. To the point that a quality design sometimes takes a back seat to the ideals of the builder. But the opposite can also be true, that in interest of a “cool” design, quality construction can sometimes be ignored. Finding the right balance is the tricky part, and really I think you can only learn through experience.
Durability
Furniture should be made to last. It should be built to survive its intended use for as long as possible. But really, how long is the big question. I’ve heard it said on a few occasions that a piece of furniture should be made to last as long as the tree was old where the wood came from. I think that’s a pretty reasonable concept, particularly from a sustainability point of view, and particularly when it comes to some of the more exotic or rare pieces of wood that come from trees that take ages and ages to grow.
The reality is that we need a culture shift away from throwaway goods in favor of things built to last. That means durability not just in construction but also the design itself. As I mentioned above about design trends, if the visual appeal of a design has a short lifespan, then pretty soon people start looking for a replacement. I honestly don’t know how to design for the future, but it’s something I’ve started to think more and more about.
Construction methods
The issue with building something to last has a huge impact on the next considerations; construction methods, materials and price. A chair can be built from cheap wood and simply screwed together for dirt cheap. But it’s clearly not going to last very long. On the other hand, a chair made with solid wood and strong joinery could last generations of use, but will require more skill and time to make, and will come with a higher price tag too. How you fabricate a piece of furniture will directly impact its durability, looks, and cost. And the decisions behind the construction method are often related to the materials.
I have a leaning towards using Japanese joinery in my work. I also prefer to use solid wood versus veneer/plywood. A big reason behind both of those choices comes from a desire to use hand tools both for cutting joinery and finish planing. Those decisions ultimately end up having a huge impact on the aesthetics of the piece.
One big question when considering joinery is whether to expose or hide the joinery. This is a tricky problem for those of us who are in love with craft, and want to make it clear to the customer and the world that we made a hand crafted piece of furniture using traditional joinery.
I faced this problem recently when making some stools. My original design, and the first couple of stools that I made involved using through tenons to join the curved stretchers and the legs. On one hand I thought that a through tenon would be stronger because of the increased glue surface. But at the same time I also wanted to show off that joint to make a statement that the stool used traditional joinery, and not something like dominoes or some other hidden connection. But after seeing the finished result I felt that those tenons sticking out just didn’t feel right. They were there for my own sake, but didn’t seem to serve the design very much. So I made the next stool without through tenons, and I think the overall result is much cleaner.
I think there is also a tendency among many woodworkers to overbuild. And part of that I think comes from wanting to make work that will be long lasting and durable. There really isn’t a lot of concrete information out there regarding the strength of different types of joinery, so most of us forge ahead by guessing and imitating the work of other woodworkers. But there’s an easy tendency to over engineer designs for the sake of playing it safe. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, and I’ve done it a lot in my own work. But sometimes that overengineering can start to negatively impact the aesthetics of the piece, and requires a bit of toning down.
Materials
When it comes to furniture, what materials to use is a pretty simple decision for me, and that is solid wood. Great furniture can be made from plywood and veneer, but it’s not my preferred material. I’ve cut my fair share of ply doing construction and kitchen cabinets, and while I do enjoy the speed at which you can fabricate a whole kitchen when using plywood, handling the material is kind of a pain in the ass. Plywood is heavy, unwieldy to handle, and unless you have an altendorf, it’s not very easy to cut in any quantity. Also in general plywood kind of precludes the use of handtools.
Solid wood on the other hand can be worked and shaped into all sorts of forms that plywood can’t. And using solid wood opens the door to much more freedom when it comes to selecting and orienting woodgrain, carving and shaping different forms, and solid wood joinery options.
But solid wood also moves throughout the seasons and changes in humidity. So that requires additional effort to manage and to join different pieces in a way that takes wood movement into account. For example frame and panel doors, that necessitate allowing the wood to float in the frame often with some sort of expansion gap on the edges, whereas a plywood panel can simply be glued in place for all of eternity.
Time/Price
This is kind of a big one. Unless you are a hobbyist, time and cost are always going to be factors when designing and building furniture. There are those lucky few out there who seem to have customers who are willing to pay whatever it takes, but I’d venture to guess that for most of us furniture makers, we are trying to work within a certain price range/budget. That means making tough decisions about all of the factors discussed so far. It means having to draw a line on how detailed or clean things can be, and when to stop working on a piece. Calling something good enough kind of sounds lazy, but when you’re working within a certain budget, sometimes that’s what it comes down to. It’s often the case that you know you can do better, but for the sake of time and money you’ve got to move on.
Ikea has kind of ruined people’s perceptions about what a piece of furniture costs. Most customers don’t know how much more work it is for a small shop to make furniture compared to a giant like Ikea. Really what Ikea does, and what I and other furniture makers do is completely different. We are apples and oranges, but to many consumers they don’t see or recognize the difference, and when that happens the cost difference between ikea and and handmade piece of furniture looms large. If a customer’s priority is price then I will gladly lead them to Ikea. But for those who want something made by an individual, with all the potential uniqueness that ensues, then I’d love to chat.
As I said before this is far from a complete discussion, and I’m definitely still making sense of how to design furniture while taking all these concepts into mind. These are really my own thoughts, some more well thought out than others, that have been percolating in my brain for a while now, and I’m sure my opinions will continue to change. If any readers have any thoughts to add I’d love to hear them, it’d be great to hear how others approach these issues as designers and makers.
Thanks for reading.
Your comment that a well designed piece of furniture should make its surroundings look good is an interesting thought I have never heard expressed quite that way. I think you may be on to something. I’ve thought about it the other way: a good design in one environment might look totally out of place in another. The Greene brothers, for an extreme example, designed furniture for specific houses they built, sometimes even for specific rooms. I recently completed a small table that my wife wanted to place in front of one wall in one room and it had to be specific dimensions and not clash with the other pieces in the room. Those restrictions helped a lot in coming up with a design. We love the way it looks there. But although it is free standing, there is no other place in the house where it would look right. I also admire mid-century modern and colonial furniture but either would look ridiculous in our current house. But I’ve never thought about it as, “what kind of piece would make this room look better?” Thanks for that. And maybe that can be a way to explain to customers what value you offer.
One thing I might add when I think about durability: can this piece of furniture be disassembled for repair? Stuff happens to furniture. If 50 years from now a puppy chewed up a leg, (happened to us with a 50 year old secretary desk) could that be fixed without destroying the piece? I’m always thinking about that when it comes to joinery and materials and whether/which glues to use.
Hey Gary, I wrote that sentence and hesitated about whether to leave it in or not because it’s still a bit of a foggy thought for myself as well. I think what I was trying to express was the idea of how a space changes when a nice piece of furniture is brought in. You’ve got a really good point about different settings/styles/etc that currently exist, and it makes sense that not just any piece of furniture will fit in any space. But when a piece is a good fit for a given space it can really transform the feeling and atmosphere. And I agree that the ability to design a piece with a specific space in mind is something that a custom furniture maker can offer that off the shelf furniture stores can’t.
I totally agree with you about repairability as well. I often think of Chris Hall when it comes to repairability. He was a truly unique individual in regards to his choosing to mainly build without glues in favor of joinery that could be disassembled allowing a piece of furniture to be repaired. I definitely see the value in that, and I would like to work harder to move in that direction. On the flip side though, the extra effort that goes into making a piece only with joinery is definitely going to have an effect on both the looks and final cost of the piece. Not to mention that if the original maker is not available, someone competent enough to carry out the repair is needed. Repairable glues like hide glue are another option though. Before I got into furniture making, I was working on building and repairing guitars. Whenever possible, we used hot hide glue for it’s strength and repairability. Sometimes actually making the repair can be a serious chore, but at least it can be done, vs titebond style glues which are not as easy to repair.
There’s definitely a lot more that can be hashed out from this discussion. Finish is another factor that I think deserves consideration for repairability, durability, etc. There are plenty of good options out there like shellac and many oil finishes. I’m dreading what will become of all the epoxy river tables though years down the line….
Hi Jon,
This may be a bit of a stretch and one that is based more on the big picture than specific details relevant to furniture design, but one “consideration” that is important to me lately in my process is “Lifestyle”. What I mean by this is, how is my work intertwined with my personal life. I want my life to revolve around a process that I am proud of and that I enjoy for the most part and I try to find ways to accommodate this. Rather than constantly looking for custom solutions to one-off jobs, I want to place my energy into a process that I can grow with. I spent too much time and money investing in the type of projects made out of sheetgoods and in the end I didn’t feel proud of the work that I did. I think at times in one’s life you do what you have to and you put aside what you’re truly passionate about.
One thing I have been thinking a lot about lately is setting myself up to do work that relies on local woods and I also want to focus on producing less waste. Based on the cradle to cradle idea, solid wood is the only way to go for this. I have a contact in my extended family that works as an arborist and has stockpiled logs and has them air drying on his property. If I could invest in wood that comes directly from someone locally I think I would feel much better supporting them than going to the lumber yard for wood that comes from a place I have no connection with.
I also think I stand a better chance doing something that somebody may enjoy if I enjoy making it. I imagine when you used your handplane to shape the shelf posts it was an enjoyable process, that’s what I’m aiming for, texture that reflects and encourages human touch.
I don’t generally thrive off repetitive work, but I believe it’s the only way I’m going to get good at what I do and become more efficient. I want all of my Japanese hand tools to develop a patina, I guess I dream of one day making furniture that will too.
Thanks so much for all that you do, your words, photos and videos are a source of inspiration.
Thanks for the great comment Brendan. I totally agree that a person’s preferred lifestyle is another hugely important factor. Choosing to design and build things using a process that allows a person to pursue their ultimate goals is hugely important. I think a lot of woodworkers/furniture makers/artists struggle with this problem.
The great thing about developing skills, like carpentry or woodworking skills, is that you can apply those skills to a huge range of work. The hard part is deciding what to do with those skills. I spent a lot of years telling people I could build anything, furniture, kitchen cabinets, carpentry, etc. But a lot of times what came my way ended up being work that ultimately I didn’t really feel passionate about for a variety of reasons. I’ve talked to a lot of woodworkers and carpenters about this kind of problem. I think in the beginning a lot of us are struggling to get by such that we take on any work we can get. But given enough time, patience and perseverance you can start getting more restrictive about the type of work you take on, bringing yourself closer to your ultimate goal. At least that’s my current thought and understanding. I’m certainly not at that point by any means.
I’m envious of your access to locally cut wood. Being able to have more of a connection and more insight into where the materials for a certain project comes from is really fulfilling both for you and your clients I imagine. I’ve often dreamed of having the ability to get a small woodmizer and cut up my own material…. someday
Thanks again for the thoughtful comment.
Hi Jon, tanks for this beautiful article.
I agree in every aspect and it’s my aim to work in that way, a long, narrow and crooky path, but the only one i feel it can fulfill my work.
For me other important elements are the integrity and ethical aspects, environmental issues and sustainability. I’m lucky and I can use wood from knocked down trees from my neighbours. Nowadays these logs are considered waste to dispose, but i’m proud to save them and use as resource. So I provide some work for the last sawmill that resists in my area, I can dry my own local lumber and I’m almost free from big suppliers. I know the wood i stored and where it came from. Also recalaimed wood is a good issue; I avoid every wastfulness. In that way a lot of carbon stay in long lasting furnitures instead of going in the atmosphere after burning.
As you said, a furniture made to last, against the consumistic approach, is also a moral imperative nowadays.