Here are some of the best examples of built-in furniture and
cabinetry for nearly every room in the house. Jim Tolpin treats you
to a room-by-room survey of unique design solutions and strategies
that you can use to add functional and delightful built-ins to your
home.
Built-in furnishings offer many advantages over freestanding
furniture: They are generally less expensive to build than
stand-alone furniture of the same type and size. They give you great
latitude in designing the look and function of your interior spaces
-- you are not limited to designing around existing furniture
pieces. And because of the manner in which built-in furnishings are
constructed, you can maximize the use of the most unusual spaces
while creating an effective and aesthetically pleasing design
solution.
Introduction:
"It is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing and
its furnishings another...the very chairs, tables and cabinets --
where practical -- are of the building, never fixtures -upon it."
-- Frank Lloyd Wright, American Architecture
I'd wager that you could find built-in furniture in nearly any
type of American home: from the parlor-wall storage cupboards of the
earliest New England saltboxes to the family room/audiovisual
entertainment centers of the neo-modern villas lining California's
Skyline Boulevard. Why are built-ins so ubiquitous in our homes?
For the early colonists, storage and comfort were important
needs. Built-in cupboards provided the most storage space for the
lowest cost and maximized the use of the interior space of the
thick, timber-framed walls. Other built-in furnishings were created
to satisfy the need for comfort: Benches worked into an alcove by
the fireplace created a warm, cozy space within these notoriously
chilly homes.
For later American designers and builders -- notably Frank Lloyd
Wright and Greene and Greene -- architectural unity, was the goal.
Built-in furnishings allowed these designers unprecedented control
over the ultimate look and function of the home. Rather than having
to work around existing free-standing furniture, they would, with
built-in furnishings, design interior spaces that achieved a unique,
yet comfortable, effect: an interior landscape in which highly
functional furnishings blended harmoniously into their surroundings.
Because the creation of built-in furnishings often demands unique
design, construction, and installation techniques, this book begins
with chapters devoted to these issues. Armed with some fundamental
principles, you then embark on a room by room inspection of
contemporary built-ins chosen for their visual appeal, unique design
solutions, or extraordinary detailing. It is a close look that
includes detailed explanations and illustrations of the special
design, construction, and installation strategies used by their
builders. By the end of this book, I'm sure you will agree with me
that built-in furnishings are far more than "furniture without
legs."
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 Architectural Furniture
2 Designing Built-ins
3 Principles of Built-in Construction
4 Foyers and Living Rooms
5 Dining Rooms
6 Kitchens
7 Rooms for Reading and Entertainment
8 Home Offices
9 Family Rooms
10 Utility Room
11 Bedrooms
Contributors
Index
Soft-cover, 9-1/4 x 11-1/4 in., 224 pages,
with color photos and drawings
Published 2001
ISBN: 978-1-56158-395-9
Order online: Add your item to your shopping cart and
submit your order online*.
Order
offline: Add your item to your shopping cart and print an
offline order form*. Mail or fax your order to us 
