Where do you get your ideas

[Chris Daigh]

I have finally screwed up enough projects that I have now been building furniture from pictures or changing a detailed plan to suit my need. I have a hard time finding exactly what I want. My design ability is greatly limited, I'm an accountant. So I am always looking for ideas, I don't like many of the plans in magazines. To find ideas I do google image searches for what I am looking for and look at lots of sites of custom furniture builders. So where do get your ideas or inspiration. Here is some of mine
WWW.Berkeleymills.com
WWW.Prairiespirit.com
WWW.Eldoradowoodworks.com
WWW.Americanfurnishings.com
Books In the Craftsman Style, In the Modern Style and Design Book Seven.

[Keith Christopher]

I usually get inspired by something I see. it might be a small shape, I would think that it would look good if I placed it on -pick part of furniture- <INSERT_SPOT_ON_FURNITURE>and then I begin to develop the whole piece. Sometimes it's a single piece of furniture that inspires. I really don't try too hard. it pops and I run with it. sketching as I go. The pencil and paper are sometimes my best friend.

[scott spencer]

Keith pretty much worded my response for me. Thanks Keith!

[Roger Bell]

I get many of my ideas from my wife. She takes me to a high end furniture store and points. For example, she threatened to buy a $430 Stickley factory hall tree (basically a 3x3 post on a half lap base with four added coat hooks) unless I built something as good or better. Which I did. And got off easy. That time.

[Bill Arnold]

As Keith said, I also get inspired by something I see. It might not be a piece of furniture, either. One can be inspired by a shape or by a thought out of thin air. Example: when discussing possible shapes for a quilt rack I'm building, my wife just kinda moved her hands through the air in a sweeping motion which planted a concept in my head. I played with the concept over the next few days and started building the project.

[Jim Becker]

I find Bill's description to be very accurate for myself, too. Design ideas are everywhere...you just need to become sensitized to looking for them. Observation is a powerful thing!

But I also get a lot of ideas from folks I consider "masters". These include well-known people like Thomas Moser and George Nakashima as well as the thousands of folks who post in forums like this. (SMC's Design Forum has quickly become a wonderful place to flesh out ideas through group participation, too!)

That all said, I probably have more pictures in my idea file torn from the Pottery Barn catalogs than from any other source! And I know I'm not alone...

[Mark Singer]

People seem to gravitate to designs they like. The same sources seem to yeild the same results . If you are inspired by something you see that is great...it is nice to take it further and make it work for you and the enviornment that it will embrace. We put so many hours into making something....it could be unique . Then all those hours go into someting special...in time you learn your subtle likes and dislikes and your own sensibilities of design begin to emerge. I often wonder if you lined up all the Sam Maloof rockers built by different crafstman if Maloof, himself, could pick out his own work? I am sure he can...I know I cannot..I have seen some very good ones. That effort and skill could have been applied to something a little more unique. If you look at design Critiques #4 , you will see cabinetry and design that is unlike most of the work we tend to see....you need to seek out this work to get new inspiration. The circle of great work we seem to see is, Shaker, Krenov, Maloof, Nakashima, Stickley , FL Wright and a few others. These are great sources....there are , however many more. In the design Critiques , I am trying to explore new untraveled paths and compare them to the ones we know....If you saw the movie "Sideways" then you know you can't always drink Merlot....

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I usually get inspired by something I see. it might be a small shape, I would think that it would look good if I placed it on -pick part of furniture- <INSERT_SPOT_ON_FURNITURE>and then I begin to develop the whole piece. Sometimes it's a single piece of furniture that inspires. I really don't try too hard. it pops and I run with it. sketching as I go. The pencil and paper are sometimes my best friend.

Keith, you said it. You can't try too hard to be inspired or you won't be. I am just starting out in this, so I have a list of things about 20 long that I would like to build. When I see a good example of one that I like, I save it to my computer. Then when I am ready to build out comes the pencil and paper and I take all of the things I like about the ideas I saved and try to use them.

[Ted Shrader]

Chris -

Many of my ideas come from furniture stores and catalogs. Starting with a basic shape, details get added from other pieces. I can think of only one piece that I built straight from the plans (except in school). Designs are often aided by computer renderings. It is much easier to experiment with electrons than wood. That said, the construction is basically from a sketch. Don't necessarily draw up detailed plans with precise measurements. Just the overall dimensions.

Regards,
Ted

[Dave Anderson NH]

Who needs ideas? I have a wife instead. Sue has enough projects to keep me busy for a coupla lifetimes. She just goes and grabs either: New England Furniture at Winterthur Queen Anne and Chippendale, or our copy of Isreal Sack's The New Fine Points of Furniture- Early American. She leafs thru the books until she finds what she wants, points, and then says, "That one." She doesn't say, "in that style" or "kind of like that", but a pure and unequivocal expression of what she wants.