Design Inspiration Books

[Ben Beckham]

Lately I've been building my workbench and scouring flea markets and estate sales to build my hand tool collection and that's all well and good but I'm not making any furniture. Haha. I'm looking for your recommendations on favorite design inspirational books, sites, etc. I've traditionally stuck with Shaker lines and my own embellishments, but I'm not at all opposed to branching out. I'm just feeling like I'm all packed with nowhere to go.

Help?

[glenn bradley]

Mission and Greene & Greene styles are branches off the Arts and Crafts tree that may appeal to someone who likes Shaker.

[Greg Hawthorne]

Why not give yourself a challenge - http://www.johnmakepeacefurniture.com/index.html

[Neal Clayton]

go to amazon, there are a lot of old millwork catalogs from various eras that are still being reprinted, with pictures of how the typical home would look at any given time.

[Ken Masco]

I agree any thing written about Greene and Greene will be inspiring. I have been smitten

[Douglas Clark]

+1 for reading anything that has Greene & Greene, Arts & Crafts and/or Mission stylings in it.

Also, one of my favorite sources of inspiration for discovering a variety of styles and sheer creativity is an special issue magazine that Fine Woodworking put out back in Nov/Dec '09 titled Furniture: 102 Contemporary Designs. It was nothing but furniture and small accompanying narratives on the pieces and their builders. It was loaded with amazing pieces and I still pull it out and look at it frequently because I'm always amazed at the skill, creativity and ideas that so many people out there have. And even though it said "contemporary" in the title, the pieces really ran the spectrum, from classically inspired pieces to very modern/post-modern pieces. I say that because many are inclined to mistake the meaning of "contemporary" with "modern"; in this case, by contemporary the publisher obviously meant stuff that had been built recently by currently practicing craftsman, not that the stuff reflects any specific modern/post-modern design genre. I'm pretty sure you can still order back issues of it online.

[Matt Evans]

I would say looking through the local libraries or bookstores antiques section might inspire you. I often do that, then reverse engineer the piece to suit.