Making Furniture: Projects & Plans

Making Furniture: Projects & Plans — A Practical Workshop Guide

For woodworkers who want to build furniture rather than simply read about it, Mark Ripley’s Making Furniture: Projects & Plans offers a grounded, detailed approach. The projects were made in Ripley’s own workshop over a ten-year period and originally appeared in Furniture & Cabinetmaking magazine. The result is a collection that feels tested in real conditions, not imagined for a glossy catalogue.

Rooted in the English Arts and Crafts tradition, the designs move from fairly traditional forms to more contemporary pieces, including speculative work and one-offs. Ripley writes with amateur and recreational makers in mind, especially those working in small workshops with limited machinery.

Design First, Then Build 🪵

Part 1, Developing a Design, is where the book earns its keep. It explains how to interpret the projects, choose timber, and harmonize the essential elements of a piece. There is practical advice on adapting a project to suit your own needs and on batch-producing chairs, a smart approach for anyone facing a set of matching seats.

Instead of treating the plans as immutable blueprints, Ripley encourages makers to understand the logic behind each design. That makes the book useful long after you have finished a particular project.

24 Projects Across the Home 📐

Part 2 contains 24 varied projects, each supported by photographs, useful diagrams, and a specially commissioned, fully detailed plan. The projects are organized into clear groups:

• Chairs: classic dining chair, laminated dining chair, breakfast chair, Arts & Crafts chair
• Tables: Hayrake table, coffee table, large occasional table, contemporary slab table, console table, Arts & Crafts refectory table
• Sideboards & cupboards: corner cabinet, chestnut cabinet, burr oak cabinet, contemporary sideboard, four-door cupboard
• Bookcases & dressers: chestnut dresser, character oak dresser, breakfront bookcase
• Additional pieces: chest of drawers, inlaid chest, small cabinet, round pedestal table, kneehole desk

A closing section of speculative pieces and one-offs shows the more distinctive, meditative voice of Ripley’s recent exhibition work.

Plans, Photographs, and Practical Detail

The book does not leave you guessing at the bench. A note on measurements and plans explains how to use imperial and metric conversions, allow for timber movement, and handle details such as drawer frames, mortice-and-tenon joints, doors, and sheet components. The photographs and illustrations document construction and finished pieces, while the plans provide the dimensions and structure needed to work through each project.

A foreword by Philip Koomen places Ripley’s furniture in the English vernacular tradition, celebrating understated designs and finely worked wood.

Who Will Use This Book? 🪑

This is a strong fit for amateur and recreational woodworkers, furniture-making students, and makers who want to develop a more thoughtful approach to design. It is especially useful for readers with modest workshop space and a basic kit of hand tools and portable power tools. Ripley’s advice to keep projects within the time available and to engage with the making process, rather than fixating only on the end result, gives the book a patient, encouraging character.

Build Something That Lasts

Whether you are drawn to a simple coffee table, a classic dining chair, or a more ambitious breakfront bookcase, Making Furniture: Projects & Plans offers a reliable route from drawing to finished piece. Add it to your digital workshop library and start planning your next build with confidence.