Building furniture for a child is a special pleasure for a
woodworker. And because kids need safe and durable furniture sized
to their needs, furniture for them presents special challenges, too.
Children's Furniture Projects provides a mix of projects
that has something for woodworkers of all skill levels. The ten
projects - ranging from a fanciful rocking dinosaur to sturdy
children's beds -- are designed to help make the children's room as
well furnished as any other room in the house. Many of these
projects have knockdown construction, which makes the pieces easy to
store once they are outgrown. Detailed step-by-step instructions and
photos explain how to construct durable furniture that will last a
whole childhood, including:
- An elegant rocking cradle
- A chair that doubles as a toy
- A solid heirloom crib
- A Tyrannosaurus rocker
- An ample and practical toy chest
About the Author:
Jeff Miller is an award-winning furniture designer and has been a
professional woodworker for over 14 years. He is the author of
Beds and Chairmaking & Design, and he is a frequent
contributor to Fine Woodworking magazine. He lives in
Chicago, Illinois.
Introduction:
My first experience with making furniture for a child came when
my niece (the first child in her generation of my family) turned two
and I wanted to make something special for her birthday. There was
an awful lot I didn't know about children then, and the results of
my efforts didn't turn out exactly as I intended. Fortunately,
things weren't a total disaster. My niece quickly grew big enough to
use the piece I made for her.
I decided I needed to learn a little more. Over the years, not
only have I done more research on making furniture for children but
I have also had many other occasions to learn from my mistakes. I've
learned even more from the children around me, and especially from
my own. It has always been both fun and rewarding.
The main thing I have discovered is that making furniture for
children is not quite the same as making furniture for adults. Kids
use stuff differently, and they have different needs, desires, and
tastes. That's not to say that most of the things we pay attention
to when making adult furniture don't apply. On the contrary. We
still have to work toward good design, appropriate structure and
construction, and proper finishing. But most of the requirements are
a bit different from what we look for in our grown-up work.
Good design for children involves a number of factors. First and
foremost is safety. Furniture, especially for infants and younger
children, must be as safe as we can make it. Many of the safety
issues are not entirely obvious, especially if you don't have much
experience with children already. Fortunately, there are plenty of
guidelines to help us with this, and they are discussed in
Children's Furniture Basics (p. 4). Safety is also a factor when
choosing methods of construction and finishing. This furniture needs
to stand up to all of the stresses and indignities a child will dish
out, and it must be safe even if chewed on.
Once all of this is out of the way, we come to making things that
are special for children. There are many ways to approach this, and
many of these approaches can be combined. One possibility is to make
a child-size version of a piece of grown-up furniture. A child feels
special having his or her own version of something that adults
commonly use. The miniature Four-Poster Bed (p. 48) is a great
example of this.
Another possibility is to make something that is uniquely for
kids. After speaking with a group of kindergarteners about chairs, I
discovered that they liked the idea of a chair that was also
something else -- something more than just a chair. This is not a
grown-up concept. And that makes pieces like the Marble Chair (p.
106) very special, something kids have a hard time resisting.
Children's furniture can also be designed with an element of
whimsy: the Child's Rocker (p. 90) and the Toy Chest (p. 138) fit in
with this. There are geometric shapes, patterns, and colors to play
with. And there are pieces that tie in with strong childhood
interests, like the Rocking Dinosaur (p. 124). And finally, there
are pieces that just plain function well for children, such as the
Versatile Children's Table (p. 78).
The designs in this book are for real furniture for real kids.
Some of it is playful; some of it is like Mom's and Dad's; but all
of it is useful, fun, durable, and something children and parents --
and especially the person who made it -- will be proud of. Each of
the projects can be used as a simple set of plans for a high-quality
project, a starting point for variations, or even the foundation for
a project of your own design. Many of these designs evolved from
things I made for my own children and thus have been field-tested
extensively by them, by my nieces and nephews, and by the children
of many customers who have purchased children's furniture from me
over the course of my career as a furniture designer and craftsman.
I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Children's Furniture Basics
Cradle
Crib
Child's Four-Poster Bed
Panel Bed
A Versatile Children's Table
Child's Rocker
Marble Chair
A Rocking Dinosaur
Toy Chest
Sources
Soft-cover, 8-1/2 x 10-7/8 in., 160 pages,
with color photos and drawings
Published 2002
ISBN: 978-1-56158-504-5
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