Outdoor Furniture Hand-Built* - Softcover

Jackson, Katie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1604695838 ISBN 13: 9781604695830

Publisher: Timber Press, 2016

Synopsis

With a few basic tools and a weekend, anyone can build a beautiful project out of wood for their outdoor space! Hand-Built Outdoor Furniture covers the basics of woodworking-how to measure, where and how to shop, and how to screw, sand, and paint. The twenty step-by-step projects are organized by level of difficulty and fully illustrated with hundreds of clear and easy-to-follow photographs. The finished pieces include simple items include a trellis, a flower box, and a plant stand and more complicated projects include a chaise lounge, a sectional with built-in storage, and a slat bench. The required materials an can be found at local hardware and lumber stores, and the tools required are basic-no table saws or routers necessary! Katie Jackson's projects are simple, clean, and timeless and work well within a wide variety of styles. Hand-Built Outdoor Furniture is the perfect primer for people new to woodworking, DlY'ers, and homeowners looking for a-simple and affordable to decorate their space.

About this title

About the Author

Katie Jacksonis a designer and builder of simple furniture using renewable and reclaimed materials. After graduating from Bennington College, she trained as a cabinetmaker at New England School or Architectural Woodworking. She attended a Woodworking Teacher’s Educational Program at Girls At Work, Inc., specializing in empowering at-risk girls with wood shop skills. Jackson headed the woodworking program at Camp Onaway for Girls for four summers, then teamed up with Lilah Crews-Pless to launch a design-build collaboration out of TechShop San Francisco and TechShop Menlow Park. She now builds at New England Society of Innovation and Technology (NESIT) Hackerspace. Learn more at katiejacksonwoodworks.com.

Ellen Blackmar is a professional photographer specializing in architectural, wedding, and protrait photography. She alsp creates personal work using large-format film and nine-teenth-centry-style cameras. She completed her undergradutate degree at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has also atteneded programs a Thode Islande Shool of Deisng and The Center for Alternative Photopgraphy in New York. More of her work can be viewed at ellenrosephotgraphy.com.

From the Back Cover

Build a stylish backyard oasis!

Whether you just have a couple hours or an entire weekend, woodwork artist Katie Jackson will show you how to create gorgeous, contemporary furniture for your outdoor space. Start off small with shaker pegboard shelves and stair-step planter boxes and work your way up to creating a complete chaise sectional and rolling coffee table. With minimal investment, standard tools, and readily-available materials from your local lumberyard, you can outfit your yard with 20 one-of-a-kind projects that  are better than anything you could buy.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface
With a few basic tools and a weekend, you can build a beautiful piece of furniture out of wood for your outdoor space. In my experience, woodworking is mostly about problem solving. How can I make this more structurally stable? How should I correct this mistake? Everyone solves problems differently, and over the course of my woodworking career building furniture alongside other builders and teaching young woodworkers, I’ve enjoyed seeing a multitude of ways to cut a board or calculate a measurement.

In my woodworking classes, I provide an example of a project I’ve built, such as the flower box on page—a student favorite—and ask the students to figure out their own process to build it. The projects I provide have no specific measurements and no written instructions, but once they study the pieces, the students can easily see how they are constructed and re-create the projects to their own desired measurements and personal flourishes. My students often use interesting and innovative ways to get to the same end point. I learn a lot from them, and I often notice a trend: once given a basic understanding of how to use woodworking tools and machines, many of the younger students are thrilled to be given the chance to solve problems through their own creativity, while many of the older students, especially adults, request help every step of the way and keep asking what to do next.

Nonetheless, the intrepid younger students and the cautious older students, when given the same instruction on tool use and the same amount of time, all seem to produce the same caliber of high-quality woodworking. Perhaps this is because as we get older, we become more critical of ourselves. We may expect ourselves to be skilled in subjects we’ve never studied. We may be worried someone will see our work and criticize it, or that our work is not as good as someone else’s. That kind of worry can prevent us from ever starting or continuing to learn a new skill.

I encourage you to just begin. Getting away from glowing screens and doing something with your hands is a satisfying use of spare time. Even if your project ends up looking different from what you expected, you’ll have exercised your brain and body to create something all your own. We are all our own worst critic, but remember, your friends and family won’t see the dent in the board from dropping it on the floor; they’ll see a beautiful new piece of furniture that you made with your own hands. Take pride in your work, continue to be willing to learn new skills, and share your newfound skills with others. You’re continuing an ancient human tradition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Timber Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1604695838
• ISBN 13: 9781604695830
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240